The 50 Best HBO Teen Characters Of All Time, Ranked

They read Nietzsche poolside, educate their parents on pronouns, wear Raf Simons, amass large followings writing Niall Horan/Harry Styles fanfic, sleep with their French tutors and soccer coaches, achieve overnight fame with tunes like “I Wanna Marry U At Recess,” form Instagram covens with their besties, binge-watch Love Island in a state of numbness, and text at the dinner table because they "no longer have an attention span for real life." These are the teens of HBO's ever-expanding cinematic universe. 

And with the return of Euphoria Season 2, we thought why not also take a look back at how the premium channel has captured the youth of the moment all the way back to the new golden age of TV. These programs may not have given their protagonists aged 13-19 center stage like we see today in this wildly popular teen drama (or in Gossip Girl, Generation, We Are Who We Are, and Sex Lives of College Girls, for that matter). But that is not to say shows like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and The Wire didn't also produce a number of teen characters who were iconic in their own right. 

So to honor the many teen characters of HBO past and present, we brought together four BuzzFeed writers — who have collectively watched 22 teen adjacent programs on the network — to battle it out GoT style to decide, once and for all, the best teen character of all time. 

Before we dive in, let us clear a few things up:

1. In order for a character to qualify, they must be a teenager in an HBO Original or HBO Max Original TV show or miniseries. Unfortunately, CW transplants, movies, and documentaries do not qualify. 

2. We are ranking these based on five criteria: nuance, screen time, realism, likability, and, most importantly, how iconic they are. This means that unlikable characters may rank high on the list if they make up for it in other areas. Bad guys don't necessarily finish last here. It's the boring teens we really hate.

3. We did not dock points in the "realism" category for characters being played by actors much older than their fictional age. However, we were a bit alarmed to discover that the actors portraying Lily Goldenblatt and Brady Hobbes (And Just Like That...) are 26 and 27, respectively. 

4. "Flashback teens" were also left off this list. Sorry if you came here looking for Young Cal dancing to "Never Tear Us Apart"! 

5. Rock (And Just Like That...) is 12, despite the implication of this headline. 

6. Lastly, while we labored over this ranking (which included a highly complicated Excel spreadsheet, a Google Meet, several emails, and abundant Slack messages about whether Kat or Cassie should be higher), this is all highly subjective. And not unlike teenage life itself, everything here is very much in flux. We are certain that as more storylines are introduced to the currently airing shows featured here, that our minds will be changed.