From research to authentic representation

One of the reasons Skam is so popular is because it has a very authentic depiction of the lives of Generation Z-ers. It is important to see things you can actually recognize and relate to and that is why we wanted to truly discover what is on the minds of 15- to 17-year olds these days. All in all, we conducted 6 months of research, with 50 in-depth interviews with teenagers. The topics of these interviews included friendship, family, communication, language, style, school, music, media, love, sex, relationships, spare time, going out, food, money, religion, and how they look at the future. This gave us a trustworthy insight into Generation Z culture in general.

The importance of diversity

The series needed to realistically represent today’s world. That is why we made sure we had a good mixture of respondents. On top of that, we prepared specific questions for different minorities. For example, we asked gay teenagers who should take the first step in a relationship, or we asked teenagers with a headscarf how they feel about wearing one. The conclusions from our research helped Sputnik Media stay away from stereotypical representation and exaggerated situations. For instance – and spoiler alert – you will not see a teen pregnancy, but you will see a girl who visits her doctor after she had unprotected sex. A situation that will not only be more relatable for a lot of teenagers but also teaches them something.