When I was asked to participate in a presentation party for a friend’s birthday recently, it didn’t take me long to land on this subject, as I had been mulling over this topic for quite some time. As someone who prefers story-based games and has been playing them for many years, I’ve noticed that teen girls are often portrayed as leading miserable lives. Games like Life is Strange, The Last of Us, and What Remains of Edith Finch depict storylines where teen girls are single-handedly altering the course of time, being the beacon of hope in an apocalypse, and being the sole survivor of their entire family. Any decisions they make ultimately lead to bittersweet conclusions.
Life is Strange (2015) is about an 18-year-old girl named Max Caulfield, a socially awkward photography student who randomly acquires time-altering abilities, which lead to her becoming the moral compass of her entire town, Arcadia Bay. Because Life is Strange includes player choice, a lot of her decisions are dependent on what you, as a player, decide for her. Regardless of what you pick, all actions have consequences. For example, saving a friend from death is a delicate situation, when you, as the player, have to make sure Max says the right thing to protect them. Every selection is emotionally punishing. Max repeatedly witnesses trauma, bullying, violence, and death, and is burdened with the knowledge that while she could do more, the action of constantly breaking and fixing every moment piles up into greater and worse disasters. Her story ends with a no-win situation, one that forces her to carry the weight of consequences far beyond what any teen should be forced to handle. The game makes it clear that peace is fleeting at best.
The Last of Us (2013-2020) is centered around a young girl named Ellie, who we meet as a 14-year-old born and raised in a post-apocalyptic zombie society where she is the only person who is immune to the infection. The majority of her arc is focused on how she’s humanity’s only chance for survival. Merciless and bleak, her storyline is shaped by the deaths of friends and loved ones. In Part II especially, Ellie, now in her twenties, spirals into a cycle of revenge that costs her relationships, her home, and even her sense of identity. She loses more by surviving than by dying. The narrative pushes a message that her suffering is somehow necessary, giving her no space for non-violent healing.
While What Remains of Edith Finch (2017) has nothing to do with apocalypse or the havoc of time manipulation, it does have to do with the emotional toll of being the sole survivor of her family. Edith Finch is a 17-year-old girl who returns to her family home when her mother dies after being away for many years. As she navigates the labyrinthine home, where almost every door has been boarded up, she learns that each family member died under strange, dramatic, or tragic circumstances. In this scenario, Edith is not just a survivor; she is the sole archivist of their trauma. The game forces her into the role of storyteller. Instead of getting to process her family history by more conventional means, Edith begins to narrate and catalog the worst moments of each relative’s life. Her “story” is framed as an inevitable tragedy emphasizing duty, responsibility, and fatalism rather than agency, freedom, or healing.
So, what exactly is the reason for all this suffering?
It’s important to note that all three games were primarily written and designed by men who haven’t been teenagers for a very long time, and certainly have never been teenage girls. The argument for misogyny can 100% be made for why young women cannot exist in fictional worlds without some sort of anguish. Another reason can be attributed to how each protagonist is meant to catalyze a greater discussion surrounding what it means to yield power responsibly, how love and pain can lead people to commit both beautiful and horrible acts, and how everyone deals with grief in various ways. The bottom line is that even in fiction, teen girls can never just be teen girls. They all must be Joan of Arc-level martyrs and heroes and represent something bigger than themselves.
Until more women enter the game-design field, I don’t believe there will ever be a story or a game that realistically depicts what a young girl goes through without making them the emotional shock absorber for the world around them. The suffering of teen girls in and out of fiction is often viewed as necessary or even noble. I think we live in a time where the absence or removal of joy is seen as more entertaining than depicting a world free of pain and suffering. It’s a seemingly unavoidable theme for these girls to carry the world, the plot, and the trauma… and do their homework on the side.