Like most kids, I grew up watching Disney Channel. I loved "Hannah Montana" and "Wizards of Waverly Place" but looking up to their main characters was fairly difficult because I knew that I would never be a pop star or a wizard. So instead, I looked to other aspects of the show to find inspiration. I loved Alex’s (hard ass) personality and I admired how Miley’s family treated Lilly as one of their own. The lessons I learned from my era of Disney Channel were about self-confidence and compassion. The only reason they are still so strongly instilled in my personality is that the characters who taught them were real, despite everything about them that was so….not.

Unrealistic characters sharing real lessons was something special about my childhood Disney Channel that is lacking in modern day DC. Shows on DC now try so hard to be relatable that they come off as simple, surface level, and overall insignificant.

I’ve watched my little sister go through her Disney Channel phase. And it was short lived. Yes, I understand that that was largely my fault. She wanted to watch what I watched, and when she was in prime Disney age, I was not. But there is also truth to the idea that maybe the new Disney Channel did not have enough dimension to keep her occupied. Like a song with simple lyrics, it got old after a few runs through the playlist. The messages of “be yourself” and “defy public perception” were important, but they were presented so simply that they were hard to adopt. They’ve diluted into bad acting and mediocre humor. If we expect to address serious issues facing today’s youth, we must also expect that these issues are presented with sincerity, reflecting their actual caliber in the community where children engage themselves the most.

DC’s focus has shifted from unique perspectives to characters whose conflicts are driven by stereotypes: Liv and Maddie’s fame v. intelligence and Austin and Ally’s confidence v. self-doubt. Even "Good Luck Charlie," the show that is centered around giving advice, lacks reality when the lessons are served in a perfect box with a bow on top in the form of Teddy’s video diaries. One-sided characters face one-sided problems, and the result is a big picture that falls flat.

So, Disney Channel, please understand that while conflicts of societal pressures, social media, body image, and self-confidence are the 101 of a child’s upbringing, presenting them on a silver platter makes them taste cold and metallic. The best lessons I’ve learned are ones I discovered in the unrelatable: the solutions I dug out of magic wands and blonde wigs.