Isabel Lam, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh, has been keeping a secret since her senior year of high school—she’s in a Disney+ show. The new docu-series, “Growing Up,” tells the coming-of-age stories of a diverse group of young people. The second episode, directed by Brie Larson, is focused on the beginning of Lam’s advocacy journey
Lam, 20, and her best friend, Clare Della Valle, started a club to address period poverty at their high school. “Period poverty” refers to a lack of access to menstrual hygiene tools and education, exacerbated by stigmas that menstruation is “gross” or shouldn’t be talked about in public. These very stigmas made it difficult for Lam and Valle to engage their student community. But, eventually, they were able to build a movement to raise money for period products, present to classes, and even lobby the Pennsylvania state legislature.
The show highlights the lives of 11 young people through interviews and roundtable discussions. Lam and Della Valle, who now attends Cornell University, were the first two teenagers to be picked for the project. After a year and a half of sending producers video blogs because COVID-19 halted production, Lam finally got to visit the set in May of 2021. She laughed when she shared that everyone on the team said the same thing—“I know so much about you but you know nothing about me!”
On the show, Lam also discusses the experience of growing up in her small Pennsylvania hometown of Clarks Summit, as a daughter of Chinese immigrants, and how it was often isolating. She said that since starting at Pitt, she has felt much more empowered.
“I can say for a fact I've never been happier in my life, which is so amazing,” she said. “Growing up, I felt a lot of societal pressures. I’m the first one in my family to go to college, my parents are both immigrants.”
At Pitt, Lam has continued her advocacy by working on the Student Government Board and getting involved in cultural organizations including the Asian Student Alliance. She shared that being on this project while also being a college student was sometimes difficult to juggle. When the docu-series subjects were told about the “Growing Up”premiere in LA, they had a similar reaction: “What do we tell our professors?”
And while Pitt students may be excited to watch to see a familiar face, Lam said that she thinks the show will resonate with a lot of young people.
“I guess the moral of the story is, what the show has taught me is, if you walk into a room of random people, just like I did at the roundtable, you’ll be surprised how much you have in common.”
