Genera+ion's Gritty, Honest Outlook On Gen Z Starts With Its Creator

By Alex Gonzalez


Zelda Barnz has creativity in her blood. Growing up in Los Angeles with a parent in the entertainment industry, she was routinely surrounded by a diverse, eclectic cast of characters, and her inquisitive nature meant she had a want to learn about each of these and share their stories. Today the 19-year-old screenwriter is doing just that with Genera+ion, the queer coming-of-age dramedy she crafted while still in high school.


With all of the stylistic edge of Euphoria and the biting relatability of Degrassi, Genera+ion homes in on the darkness and aesthetics of being a teenager today. It follows a loosely connected crew of high schoolers as they navigate everything from sexuality and gender identity, to substance use and social media, to all of the hyped-up horniness you’d expect from genre. The initial episode introduces Chester (Justice Smith), a gay boy with a provocative style sense; Greta (Haley Sanchez), an introverted lesbian; and Nathan, a bisexual boy coming to terms with his sexuality.


While LGBTQ+ characters have often been relegated to stereotypical sidekick roles, or limited to coming-out narratives, Zelda places them at the forefront; and while grappling with their queerness is indeed a critical struggle, it by no means defines them. Each high schooler faces different challenges in their daily lives. Chester lives with his grandmother immediately after his mom dies from cancer. Greta moves in with her aunt soon after her mother is deported. Nathan struggles with breaking away from his twin sister Naomi (Chloe East) and creating an identity of his own.


“We really attempted concentrate on queer representation and making sure that as soon as watching our show, queer kids felt really seen,” Zelda says. “All of our queer characters, their personalities are not just about being queer. They have so much more to them than just their sexualities.”


Once we first meet Nathan, he is curious about Chester. He also struggles to keep his sexuality a secret from Naomi, which proves more tough right after he hooks up with her boyfriend at a party. Zelda was inspired to prepare Nathan due to a lack of male bisexual characters in film and television. “I think bi boys are disregarded and often told, ‘It’s just a phase. This is just a stepping stone on the road to coming out as gay,’ which just isn't true,” Zelda says. “Also bi girls can typically fetishized as a substitute opposed to represented simply as bi girls. I certainly think it's very crucial to have a bi, male character who is just bisexual. And that's there's nothing else complex with his sexuality.”


Zelda, herself, is bisexual. She came out to her parents, Daniel and Ben Barnz at age 15, throughout a three-week stint at summer camp. The camp’s rules forbade Zelda from using her phone, so she wrote a letter. “I ended with ‘I'm bisexual. Love, Zelda.’ And so they wrote back,” Zelda says. “It was not hard for me, having gay parents, to come out, which I also feel so incredibly lucky for.” While Genera+ion is set within a conservative community, Zelda says she never felt like an outsider.


“Growing up in Los Angeles, there really are a lot of kids who have gay parents,” Zelda adds. “That was really interesting meeting kids who were adopted like me, or who'd gay parents like me. I feel so incredibly lucky to grow up in a space where I never felt like I was the only adopted kid in my class or the only kid with gay parents in my class.”


Other characteristic of the series are ripped straight from her life, as in the next episode, as soon as Nathan, Greta, and Chester visit their school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club. As a teenager, Zelda was involved in a crowd at her school called Rainbow Alliance, where she formed friendships with other LGBTQ+ students. Zelda would share stories about Rainbow Alliance meetings with her fathers, who encouraged her to write them down. “These stories were really funny and poignant,” Daniel Barnz says. “Sometimes it was categorize kind of about this person’s struggle, however some days it seemed like, this person showed up at the club meeting, and so they were just looking for a date. And [these stories] made me laugh.”


Zelda originally proposed to write Genera+ion as a novel or a series of short stories based on those Rainbow Alliance meetings, though she dreamed that one day they could be adapted for the screen. However Daniel, who wrote films like Won’t Back Down and Beastly, encouraged Zelda to write it as a TV show from the starting. He taught Zelda how to write scripts, and the two bonded over creating the Genera+ion universe.


“I will admit, there was a little bit of craven, selfish desire [in making a television show] because I thought if she was game to do it with me, what an astounding possibility to do something creative with my daughter,” Daniel says. In his first stab at the teen genre, he serves as executive producer. “And also to show her a little about the work that I do.” Given the generational gap, the father-daughter duo kept each other in check about queer issues depict on screen why as well as how to portray them realistically. Daniel says Zelda occasionally tells him “that’s not right” or “I don’t think that would really happen,” so he offers her a listening ear.


Zelda was 17 at the time she first pitched Genera+ion to HBO, and however she admits the opening meeting was rather daunting, she determined she was simply going to have fun and go in with an easy-going attitude. “I remember walking into this huge conference room with this massive, long table,” Zelda says. “My dad and I stood on one side pitching and all these like HBO executives and Lena Dunham were on the other side watching. And I did not think that it was going to get paid for or made. So I was just like, ‘I'm gonna have fun with it. I'm just going to do the perfect I can.’”


The show was given a full-season categorize, with Dunham serving as an executive producer. Any time casting for the show, Zelda and Daniel wanted to find actors with a youthful fashion. “We really wanted to create ensure that these kids looked young and felt young, and that they didn't look like 30-year-old models playing teenagers,” Zelda says. “That was certainly a very accommodating guideline to have once we were casting, and our cast is just behind incredible.”


Zelda’s stories and consciousness of contemporary issues have manifested into one of this year’s most hotly anticipated shows. With a gritty however humorous tone, Genera+ion brings a no-holds-barred approach to depicting the lives and struggles of teens today. Daniel believes that parents can benefit from watching Genera+ion, noting that it would help facilitate open and truthful conversations between parents and their children.


“Sometimes there can be a dismissiveness about kids, which is so unfair,” Daniel says. “And it's something I've had to think about myself as a parent. And I feel like if parents can embrace that wish to look at their kids honestly and fairly, it could be astonishing. I also think that, one of the reasons this show has been such a joy to work on is because Zelda and I've Been able to communicate and talk honestly.”