Teenager Therapy’s Gael Aitor on Authenticity in Media and Growing Up With Your Audience
On one of the earliest episodes of the podcast Teenager Therapy, co-host Thomas Pham opens the episode by mentioning how that week, he lost the election for president of their high school’s student government after delivering a speech to the entire school. He starts to elaborate on the emotions and insecurities that the loss made him feel. With gentle encouragement from his friends, Thomas eventually explains through tears, “I built up all that courage and confidence to talk in front of the whole school, and it made me feel so unworthy, like I wasn't good enough even though I have the credentials”. In true Teenager Therapy fashion, the seemingly small confession turns into a larger conversation between all five co-hosts about their own relationships with confidence, what things they find themselves most insecure about, and how they deal with that voice that tells them that they’ll never be enough.
The episode, entitled “Insecurities & Not Being Good Enough”, offers a glimpse into the essence of Teenager Therapy and what its hosts do best: create a safe space for themselves and their listeners to talk about the challenges and triumphs of being a teenager. Through these podcast episodes, listeners feel like they’re stepping into a conversation with their closest group of friends, navigating the ups and downs of adolescence. The intimacy of their discussions draw people in, making them feel like they're right there in the room with the co-hosts, who, along with Pham, include Gael Aitor, Kayla Suarez, and, previously, Mark Hugo and Isaac Hurtado.
Teenager Therapy's unique ability to create a relatable and authentic space for its audience despite the absence of visual cues in the podcast medium is a testament to the vulnerability and openness of the hosts. As more teenagers are starting to turn to this form of media as a means of entertainment and education, Teenager Therapy stands out as a rare podcast that speaks directly to teenagers as teenagers themselves, covering topics that are often ignored or stigmatized in mainstream media. Their content is also niche to the context in which our generation is growing up in today— for example, the podcast has had episodes covering the teens’ perspectives and feelings on cancel culture, online activism, school shootings, and the 2020 election.
But as expected, it isn’t always easy for them to balance staying true to their unfiltered and authentic online presence when having often uncomfortable conversations about such personal topics. With over 3 million streams and downloads and over half a million subscribers, their considerable listenership certainly packs the pressure. I spoke with Gael Aitor, who first had the idea to start the podcast back in 2018, to learn more about their process.
“It's always been tricky to balance,” says Aitor. “We've had episodes where we fight with one another and we call each other out, or we come into a podcast not knowing what to expect and we bring up an issue that we hadn't even acknowledged outside the podcast, which can be a little awkward and uncomfortable at times, both for us and the listener.”
For example, in a recent episode entitled “are they still worth fighting for?”, Aitor and Pham, who were involved in a romantic relationship before the start of the podcast, reflect on the tension that is sometimes involved with recording a weekly show that revolves so heavily on intimacy with your ex-boyfriend. The episode starts off with the reveal that this was their second attempt at recording the episode because of the previous conversation taking a turn that made the three uncomfortable continuing on, and turned into a discussion about boundaries and navigating conflict with someone you have such a delicate and complicated history with.
“Most of the time everyone's been okay with posting those episodes even if we don't feel fully comfortable with it, because I think the mission behind it helps us remember this could be important and this could be helpful, which is why we kind of push ourselves to do so,” explains Aitor.
This commitment to their mission of speaking to the teenage experience with a level of unprecedented candor has led to an interesting phenomenon: as the years have gone by since the podcast’s founding, Teenager Therapy’s audience of young listeners has quite literally grown up with its hosts, who are now two years out of high school. This is evident in the very visible shift in the kinds of topics the episodes cover and the ways in which the hosts speak to these topics as they enter new stages of their lives. Episodes that used to be dedicated to the stress of picking junior year AP classes, navigating hallway crushes, and dealing with the stress of balancing varsity sports with other extracurriculars have turned into discussions of the transition to college, navigating hookup culture, and the guilt that can come with leaving home. And the result? Almost five years of weekly episodes documenting the teens’ personal growth, or what the podcast’s hosts aptly describe as “a coming-of-age story portrayed in real time”.
But this wasn’t always the intention for the show. “When I started the podcast, it came out of the thesis of thinking that other teens want to know what others are going through. Teenagers love the tea, they love drama. So let’s talk about our problems, and I think people would want to listen” says Aitor. “Because we were doing it so consistently, it turned into a documentary of sorts. It wasn’t intentional, it was an accident, but because of the nature of the format and the fact that we did it for so long, that’s what it turned into.”
What started with just five teenagers talking about their daily lives in a bedroom has experienced tremendous growth and received notable attention in recent years. They’ve made appearances on the New York Times, Vulture, Wired, and Good Morning America, and have had the opportunity to have a few high profile guests on the show. In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made an appearance on World Mental Health Day for a conversation about prioritizing mental health and removing stigma. In February of this year, they spoke with the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on the importance of giving each other grace and the youth mental health crisis.
Despite the attention they have received, however, Teenager Therapy has always remained true to its roots and mission.
“Whenever we do have press come our way or we have high profile guests, we always take it with a grain of salt,” explains Aitor. “Because the mission is so personal to us, I think we really are very protective of Teenager Therapy and the brand that we've created and the trust we have with our audience. We do our podcast every single week and just see what happens, and that's the way we've always been about it. I think it's very exciting in the moment, but we’re just doing our thing, and I think it definitely feels authentic and true to us.”
As for what’s next for the podcast? Aitor reveals that Teenager Therapy will air its last episode this September for their five year anniversary.
“Something we've been starting to feel recently is that Teenager Therapy isn't a brand that we feel represents us as much as it did three years ago, four years ago. We don't want to keep doing Teenager Therapy because we feel like it may be limiting our audience and our perspectives, and we want to grow into this new era of our life.”
But fortunately, Teenager Therapy, the brand, isn’t done yet.
“We're in the process of ideating what a new brand could look like… we’re potentially looking to turn Teenager Therapy into a media brand or platform where everyday people, influencers, and experts alike go for content that feels authentic and isn't so attached to just us as individual people. We want it to become its own entity that allows us to have more creative freedom to try out different things, like maybe making different YouTube series and podcasts without it being so attached to us and as to what we're going to do for ourselves. We're also thinking about maybe starting a new podcast, exploring something for the now 20-year-olds that have grown up with us and just see where that goes. It's something we're exploring.”
In a world where so much of today’s media presents us with unattainable standards, Teenager Therapy offers a refreshing dose of authenticity for our generation. Its growth and impact on listeners reflect a crucial need for more realistic representations of life, especially surrounding mental health. As we navigate the complexities of living in the digital age, Teenager Therapy provides a relatable and honest perspective on growing up— and a reminder that we’re not alone.
