“Perfect” bodies, plots focused on sports and sexual relations with hardly any references to job insecurity, housing or mental health; LGTBIQ+ and racialized characters still pigeonholed in stereotypical narratives. This is how Spanish audiovisuals portray young people. An image that has little to do with its reality. A report prepared by the Observatory of Diversity in Audiovisual Media (ODA), with the collaboration of the Youth Institute (Injuve), concludes that “fictions build an imaginary that simplifies the diversity of this sector and leaves out some of its main concerns.”
One in three characters in Spanish cinema and series is young – a group that represents around 16.5% of the population. The report The representation of youth in Spanish audiovisualspresented this Monday at the Ministry of Youth and Children, emphasizes that this elevated presence on screen “wastes the opportunity to offer a more complete portrait of this sector.” Thus, issues such as emancipation or mental health appear in a limited (or secondary) way compared to plots focused on sports or sexual relationships. Only 15% of young people live independently and the average age of emancipation exceeds 30 years, while more than half declared having had mental health problems in the last year, according to the data collected in the study.
Social class is one of the most determining axes in the lives of youth, but also one of the least developed in the audiovisual field. The report points out that, despite the job insecurity, low salaries and emancipation difficulties that mark this group – with less than half of people between 25 and 30 years old living independently – these realities barely have a place in the stories. And when they appear, they do so punctually or from stereotyped stories, which contributes to dematerializing the living conditions of young people. An example of this is the character of Sara in the film To the other neighborhoodwhose plot revolves around class shame and declassification, with the concealment of his working-class origin and his gypsy identity before a final reconciliation with his past and his family environment.
This research — where 590 young characters from 102 films and 79 seasons of 78 fiction series from 2024 were analyzed — shows that, despite the real diversity of youth in Spain, productions continue to build a homogeneous and normative imaginary that simplifies this plurality. Youth is a heterogeneous social group, with 18.5% of people of foreign origin, 27.3% with at least one migrant parent and 14.9% who identify as LGTBIQ+, but these realities are hardly complexly transferred to the screens.
In the case of racialization, the presence of young characters reaches 16.4%, although they are usually relegated to secondary roles or associated with stories of foreignness or stereotypes linked to migration. This contributes to placing them narratively outside the “Spanish” framework. This pattern is repeated both in fictions that directly address the migrant experience, such as The jump o The law of the seaand in others of a more commercial or family nature, such as The Benetón family. This latest film focuses on a man who, overnight, becomes the temporary guardian of five children: each from a different country and background. “Minors represent the most stereotyped versions of their places of origin,” according to the report, “becoming a caricature of their identity.”
There are exceptions, of course, but they fail to reverse a general trend that continues to push these identities towards the narrative margins. There are other relevant examples such as the series Eighteenwhich constructs a complex racialized protagonist. The plot addresses structural racism in depth, without this meaning leaving aside all the planes of the character’s life, since it has a romance as its central axis.
Regarding LGTBIQ+ identities, the report points to a growing presence in audiovisuals. In movies it rises to 13.2% and in series it is even more striking, with 20.7%. But still conditioned by very specific narrative frameworks. Although their visibility has increased, on many occasions these stories are still associated with “plots of conflict, coming out or family tension, which limits their normalization on screen.” Furthermore, the representation of non-binary identities continues to be practically residual—with less than 1% of characters—which “restricts the possibility of generating broader and more diverse imaginaries.” Overall, the result “is a partial and fragmented diversity, which does not reflect the real complexity of today’s youth.”
40% of the LGTBIQ+ characters are in just two films, the rest are distributed among 14 fictions. While in the series, 38.7% is grouped into only six. The others are found in 23 series. This shows that there is a polarization of content because a large part of the young LGTBIQ+ representation is condensed into few productions. So there are many other series and movies that do not have any characters belonging to this community.
Something similar happens with corporality, which continues to respond to normative standards, with a predominance of thin bodies adjusted to hegemonic beauty canons. The ODA and Injuve report points out that “the lack of diversity limits the generation of references that reflect the real plurality of young bodies.” This pattern is intensified in productions aimed at a teenage audience such as Elite, Invisible o Not one more. In the case of Eliteone of its creators, in a 2022 interview, justified the absence of non-normative bodies as a way to show “bodies we aspire to.” A choice that, according to the study, “reinforces unrealistic ideals and increases aesthetic pressure on young audiences.”
The study determines that cinema and television should function as an active agent in the construction of collective imaginaries, and not only as a reflection of society. “Although on many occasions it is not even possible to do so,” he points out. To achieve this, perhaps the focus should be placed on “the production conditions to know who is behind the cameras and how structural inequality in the industry influences the stories that are generated. Or take into account the reception by young people, as well as digital spaces,” the text points out for future research.