Peaches Geldof: Teenage Mind
Sixteen-year old Peaches Geldof is an ordinary teenager who enjoys hanging out with her friends and going shopping. But wait...is she your average teenager? Is there such a thing as "average" when it comes to adolescence? Peaches doesn't quite know yet, but she is eager to find out, and travels around the country to visit all sorts of different groups of teenagers, along with discussing the teenage mind with medical and psychological experts.
With nothing else on television, I decided to flip over to Sky Mix to catch a repeat of the documentary 'Peaches Geldof: Teenage Mind'. I knew nothing about it going in (apart from watching an advert that wrongly made it look like a jaw-dropping, 'Thirteen'-esque expose on teen Britain), and I'm glad I did, because it really is quite fascinating. 'Teenage Mind' taught me things I never knew before about being a teenager, particularly about how the brain develops. Ms. Geldof visits three different "cliques" (if you will) of teens across the nation, and this hour-long documentary can only scratch the surface of the teen experience, but director Barbie McLaurin makes the most of its running time nonetheless. Peaches herself is a very warm screen presence, and really does feel like a real teenager, even if she is the daughter of a rock star (a fact which I don't remember being mentioned in the programme). She is far from the spoilt, pampered princess I had mistakenly thought she might be, and is very open-minded about what she learns and who she meets, especially when she visits a large group of Liverpudlians who have been accused of disturbing their neighbourhood. It's not the best documentary about teens for sure, but it does aim to look at what it reveals from all perspectives, and I applaud Peaches and co. for letting the audience make up their mind as to what they think of the show's content.
~ 8/10 ~