It makes perfect sense for "Youth & Consequences", a YouTube Red original production series that has been described as a "woke" Mean Girls update, to approach its soundtrack with an attention to detail that matches Alexandra Patsavas' work on The O.C., Gossip Girl, Mad Men, the Twilight series and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. With its diverse casting, plot themes that involve feminism and gender identity, and recurrent social media espionage that keeps the audience guessing throughout, it made sense for the show's music supervisors to go down the (slightly) less-traveled route.
Mean Girls featured a fair number of tracks by established artists that were probably already familiar to most of its audience: Blondie's "One Way or Another", Christina Aguilera’s "Beautiful", Peaches’ "Operate", and Kelis' "Milkshake". The Youth & Consequences soundtrack, on the other hand, is mostly filled by many indie singer-songwriter types (and a few underground rappers) that may tempt viewers to pull out Shazam - or just wait until the end of the episode, where the songs are specifically mentioned after a PSA for The Trevor Project. The songs featured include actor Sean Grandillo's own "Let Go and Love", Equal's "Shakedown", and Natalie Walker's "Trust".
The standout track which appears to perfectly encapsulate that perennial sense of youthful angst while invoking contemporary Tumblr-esque aesthetics is Sydney-via-Adelaide indie singer-songwriter Moody Beach's "Vanilla". The song appears towards the end of episode 3 ("Gender Fluidity"), right after the show's queen bee (Farrah Cutney, played by Anna Akana) delivers an existential monologue about how teenagers have to accept a facade of stoicism despite the howling anxieties that rage within. As if on cue, Melissah Marie's vaguely dark and sultry vocals take no time to convey the all-too-familiar endeavor to find security in one's non-conformity in a seductive wash of psychedelic haze:
'I'm a modern poet in my head but you won't hear what I have to say
You're acting like you don't know me no more
And all my words just get in the way
But if you look at me closely enough you might see what I have to give
Won't pretend that I'm feeling okay because I know I will never be
Vanilla-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ha-ah.'
