Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Teenagers, as we’ve been told by TV, are rebellious to the core. In just 2020 alone, teen dramas have followed adolescents engaging in horrific acts of sexual assault, painful admissions of addiction-fueled depression, and balls-to-the-walls treasure hunting. However, the most rebellious teen show of the year isn’t what you’d expect. Netflix’s The Baby-Sitters Club brought Ann M. Martin’s beloved tween entrepreneurs to 2020, updating their classic stories with progressive themes that would have ruffled the feathers of many an ’80s reader. However, the most subversive thing about The Baby-Sitters Club isn’t its inclusivity or aggressively liberal politics. It’s the assertion that the kids today are alright.
The Baby-Sitters Club originated as a series of middle-grade chapter books written primarily to tap into a publishing trend. Scholastic’s higher ups realized that 1980s girls were overwhelmingly drawn to stories about baby-sitting, so writer and editor Ann M. Martin was tasked with writing a four-book series cleverly titled The Baby-Sitters Club. What could have been a shallow cash grab instead became a universally beloved phenomenon. Martin introduced readers to four wildly different friends — imperious tomboy Kristy Thomas, sweet and shy Mary Anne Spier, creative and cool Claudia Kishi, and sophisticated NYC transplant Stacey McGill — who embark on the adventure of starting their own club/small business. The books were lovely, empowering, and most of all, full of heart and soul. Naturally, they went on to become a publishing powerhouse that’s obsessed over to this day.
Netflix’s 2020 version of The Baby-Sitters Club was created by GLOW alum (and all-around awesome writer) Rachel Shukert and it is overbrimming with the unapologetically girlish energy that made the books such a hit. Sophie Grace is a perfectly aggressive Kristy, Malia Baker a fabulously courageous Mary Anne. Momona Tamada is exactly as effortlessly quirky cool as the Claudia of the books, Shay Rudolph as confident as the Stacey on the page, and Xochitl Gomez is the 2020 version of Dawn Schaffer’s dreamy California girl. The show nails the spirit of the books, but it does so much more.
In translating Martin’s Baby-Sitters Club books for the screen, Shukert and her writing staff update the stakes for the digital age. Stacey’s diabetes is viscerally scarier than it is on the page and an embarrassing viral video of her having a diabetic episode is what haunts the girl more than just being ill. Mary Anne gets to save the day by sticking up for a young trans girl who gets misgendered by her doctor. By season’s end, all five girls are uniting to aggressively call for camp reforms and hold their camp counselor responsible. More than that, they stage a revolutionary coup!
The Baby-Sitters Club uses the show’s sunny, family-friendly disposition to Trojan Horse bigger ideas into its storytelling, thus exposing viewers to complex debates with ease. The fact alone that the show sticks up for transgender rights is mind-blowing. That it doubles down on a vision of a world of diversity, where folks of every gender, race, and creed can get along, is gorgeous. The Baby-Sitters Club doesn’t overstate these progressive lessons, though, like in an after-school special. It’s a joyously entertaining comedy for the whole family. These progressive messages aren’t just being expressed, but normalized.
But the most radical thing The Baby-Sitters Club does is depict tweens and teens as kind, ambitious, and, most of all, responsible. The subtext of so many gritty teen dramas is that it’s impossible for kids to make good choices for themselves. The Baby-Sitters Club boldly asserts that young people have both the morality and the intelligence to tackle complicated situations and ultimately do the right thing. The girls on The Baby-Sitters Club speak frankly about their emotions, admit when they are wrong, and make amends. More than that, they are unapologetic about going after the things they want in life, whether that’s a cute lifeguard, more grownup bedroom, or a suburban baby-sitting empire.
The Baby-Sitters Club is a sparkling gem of a TV show. It’s got enough wit for adults to enjoy and the kind of sweet, beating heart young viewers need to see more of. Its super-duper progressive politics aside, The Baby-Sitters Club is a show that doesn’t presume teens and tweens are lost causes. Instead, it celebrates young hearts and minds like no other show on TV. The Baby-Sitters Club doesn’t pretend the world is perfect. No, dark, awful, tragic things still happen in the show’s world. Rather, The Baby-Sitters Club suggests that when bad things happen, young people have the power to rise to the occasion.
The Baby-Sitters Club is a show built to inspire teens, tweens, and kids to reject the darkness in our world outright. What could be more rebellious in a cynical year than that?
