Writing Mental Health and Teenage Boys

How can a fiction series authentically portray the mental health experiences of teenage boys?

Using GYMBROS (WT), a new YouTube series by NDR, rbb and funk, as a case study, this DEEP DIVE offers insight into a development process shaped by research, lived realities and close collaboration between the creative team, showrunner Jette Johnson and clinical psychologist Andy Sharifatpour.

The session explores how psychological expertise informed the character arcs from the very beginning, and how user testing with students helped ground the stories in real adolescent experience.

It also asks why accurate representation of young men’s mental health matters, and how series can open up conversations around vulnerability, pressure, friendship and stigma. Through GYMBROS (WT), the team explores what thoughtful, science-informed storytelling can look like in practice.