“East Los High,” a teen soap on Hulu, is about, mostly Latino, high school students growing up in Boyle Heights. But it has also served as a way to get information out about sex and sexual health to the Latina audience the show has, National Public Radio reports.
The show’s executive producer tells NPR that she wanted to represent diversity and address the teen pregnancy rate among Latinas with the scripted show. Boyle Heights has been labeled a teen pregnancy “hot spot,” which went into the decision to set and shoot East Los High in the Eastside neighborhood.
One way the show blends health issues with the plot without attempting to be ‘preachy,’ NPR writes, is by folding realistic themes in. For example, one character moves into a local women’s center after she gets pregnant and her aunt kicks her out. Her parents live in Mexico, she doesn’t want to live with her boyfriend, and getting an abortion isn’t an option for her.
Season four of “East Los High” will premiere later this year.
Photo above: ‘East Los High’ airs on Hulu. Photo courtesy of Wise Entertainment.
