Exclusive: Director Yara Shahidi and Sofia Ongele talk Disney Plus docuseries Growing Up
Creating airing on Disney+ is its Disney+ Original docuseries “Growing Up,” created and executive produced by Academy Award winner Brie Larson
“Growing Up” is an innovative hybrid docu-series that explores the challenges, triumphs, and complexities of adolescence through ten compelling coming of age stories. The series uses narrative, experimental, and documentary filmmaking to follow one casted individual, ages 18-22, as they tell their story. They represent a wide range of lived experiences, giving audiences emotionally powerful narratives that offer an engaging look at teenage-hood and the diverse social, familial, and internal obstacles young people face on their path to self-discovery and acceptance. Each 30-minute episode features one young person, or “hero,” and their experience growing up. Each episode is anchored by a deeply personal interview that allows our heroes to walk us through their childhood and teenage years. Alongside these interviews, creative cinematic reenactments help bring their major inflection points to life.
Sofia is a 21-year-old developer, student, creator, and activist from Los Angeles County. At 17, she developed her first award-winning app—ReDawn—to support survivors of sexual violence, thereby sparking her passion of using technology to serve marginalized communities. As a fierce advocate of equity, inclusion, and ethics in technology, she has taught over 140 underrepresented peers how to code at Kode With Klossy programs nationwide. She is also a TikTok creator @sewpheeyuh, where she shares her digital creations, life experiences, and well-informed sociopolitical takes with her audience of nearly 300,000 followers. She currently serves as Gen-Z for Change’s Digital Strategist where she creates tools to streamline digital civic engagement, tackling issues from the climate crisis to inclusive education. Her story details our imperative ability to break free of internalized stereotypes and imposter syndrome, charting new paths not only for herself, but for her communities.
Wilson Morales spoke with Director Yara Shahidi and one of the heroes, Sofia Ongele.