Teen drama series Paa-Born to fly premiered last Sunday March the 13th.
Sky Girls, a social programme of teen girls, debuted the series, which stars an all-Kenyan ensemble.
The drama highlights the tale of three teenage girls living in Nairobi and coping with the everyday challenges of social pressure, sexual harassment, bullying and self-identity crisis.
Coming from different backgrounds, these three girls are influenced by each other to make both positive and negative decisions.
The drama series written by Davina Leonard and directed by Enos Olik intends to delve into the lives of teens in order to motivate them to make healthy choices, resulting in behavioural transformation.
Olik says the name of the series was derived from the Swahili word paa, which means to fly.
“By flying, we mean being inspired, getting successful, doing the things you love without following what other people think is cool,” he told Word Is.
Olik said the series does not target teenage audiences only since the highlighted subjects also affect older people.
“It took about a month to film the six episodes. Everybody in the crew was dedicated. There was a lot of passion and happiness on set. We depicted our world. Like the school was locked, we went there and created our own set.”
Sky Girls Kenya began its journey in September 2020 with a mandate to connect, educate and inform teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years within the greater Nairobi.
"We teach girls to make choices that are true to their values, beliefs. We also teach them refusal mechanisms," Sky Girls Kenya lead Svetlana Polikarpova said.
"Many times teenage girls are susceptible to negative influence by the community around them because they are still navigating their identity crisis."
