How Stranger Things has impacted Gen Z (and the generations around it)

Why Stranger Things Feels So Relatable

Like many people around the world, I quickly got hooked on the Netflix TV show Stranger Things when I joined the hype around season 5’s release in December 2025. I’m a completionist when it comes to TV shows, so I started with season 1, and a month later, I had finished all 5 seasons.

What fascinated me most was the generational landscape and the relatability, even amid the show’s surrealism. I found myself identifying with multiple characters across the series, particularly those played by Gen Z actors.

A Story Connecting Multiple Generations

Stranger Things is a show set in the 80s but released throughout the late 2010s and early to mid-2020s. The show features multiple distinct cohorts in the modern day: Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z, with Generation Alpha also a major focus in the last season. The show blends sci-fi, horror, comedy, romance, and drama, creating complex character moments and interactions.

While characters across all age groups get a lot of quality content, the show’s centerpiece generation is Gen Z. Most scenes, even those involving older and younger characters, trace back to that group. These characters also get the most depth in their inner battles and plot-defining challenges.

The show presents an interesting dichotomy: the oldest generation portrays the age group of their parents in the 80s, and the Gen Z cohort portrays their parents’ age group in the 80s.

Although the show takes place 40 years before its release, the characters still feel modern, even in the landscape of the neon 80s arcade and mall. It feels both uncanny and magical, pulling an age group that grew up on smart devices into a world of constant interaction.

Growing Up Alongside the Characters

Something special about the characters’ development is that we, as Gen Z, grew up with them. Although the timeline is a bit wonky, with their ages not necessarily reflecting how much time has passed in the real world between seasons, we came of age alongside them.

For many in Gen Z, they felt like our friends through our screens. We saw the good, the bad, the in-between, and the relatable parts of growing up on full display when we needed it most.

Mental Health and Resilience

As I mentioned earlier, the depth and challenges of the adolescent/emerging adult characters were apparent throughout the show. This led to moments where mental health challenges and resilience were present.

Max: Grief, Trauma, and the Power of Support

The most prevalent example is Max, who experiences layered challenges. She witnesses the loss of her brother at the hands of one of the villains, right in front of her.

She experiences many emotions that come with complex grief and trauma, including guilt, fear, and depression, as she breaks away from her typical lifestyle and sarcastic personality. The situation was made all the more complex as her brother was physically and verbally abusive towards her.

She is soon after captured by the same forces that took her brother while visiting his grave and, in later scenes, is forced into scary, scenic comas. In that experience, she uses the energy of remembering; her supports her close friends, her favorite song, and character-defining memories to escape and survive.

Watching her overcome her inner battles and ultimately graduate from school with her friends by her side really sat with me. Seeing a young character openly reflect on mental health, even indirectly, could inspire a Gen Z viewer who is struggling by showing that a strong support system is crucial and that healing is possible.

Dustin: Moving Beyond Rejection

Another scene that really stayed with me was when girls kept rejecting Dustin at his school dance. Rejection is something we can all relate to, and it can feel especially personal during the coming-of-age years.

The emotions felt real and infectious, and his friend’s older sister came to him in his time of need, comforted him, and offered warm words of encouragement.

Seeing him continue to grow and persevere beyond this experience in later seasons, and thanks to the wisdom of his friend’s older sister, was encouraging because it shows hope and growth beyond rejection.

Lucas: Peer Pressure and Finding His Way Back

Something else that stood out was in season 4, when Lucas is influenced by a harmful clique and isolated from his true friends. He later realizes the harm they caused, and his friends welcome him back.

Many Gen Zers can relate to this storyline because they watched it in high school or college. The experience made it especially emotional to see him overcome this and care for his girlfriend Max while she is in a coma.

Will: Trauma, Identity, and Acceptance

Another major identity in the show is Will. The entirety of season 1 revolves around his disappearance and capture, where he is subjected to abusive experiments just before he comes of age. With that came a lot of deep traumas from a young age.

Additionally, he later came out to his friends and family as gay, and you can feel the love and support around him—having to hide such a key part of yourself, whether sexuality or something else, can be really challenging and common at this age.

Trauma can make the process even more challenging, and having a supportive and safe place to talk about that is much more important.

The Generations Around Gen Z

Finally, I want to talk about the other generations involved in the show. They served as older/younger siblings, parents and parental figures, and genuine role models to the adolescent/emerging adult-aged characters.

For example, the middle-aged police chief Hopper takes care of El, who doesn’t have a father. Dustin confides in the older kids, Eddie and Steve, who encourage him to “keep being him.”

Additionally, we see our cohort come to the younger generation, confiding in season 5, where Max continuously looks after the younger Holly, who also gets captured by the evil forces in the show.

Why the Story Matters

This show did something really special. It took characters who faced the challenges that many adolescents and emerging adults face and let us become immersed in them. It also showed that the generations around us are a major part of our story.