The Portrayal of Teenage Women in Contemporary Spanish TV Series

The aim of this research is to analyze the representation of teenage women in contemporary Spanish television fiction. In order to do so, it identifies from among all the national production those series that address teenagers: Merli (2015-2018), Elite (2018-2021), Skam Espana (2018-2020), and HIT (2020-2021). The study also seeks to determine the percentage of female participation in the team, as well as the identification of the female main characters and their categorization into archetypes, in order to critically discuss whether these perpetuate traditional gender stereotypes. A mixed methodology is used, mainly qualitative content analysis. Results show that, although the representation of women is perpetuated from two opposite roles (the femme fatale and the innocent woman) there is a tendency towards new personality types and characteristics, such as comicality, rebelliousness, wisdom, and heroism.