“Every character has that human element, because everyone in the world is fighting a battle you can’t see.”

BY BROOKIE MCILVAINE
JUNE 14, 2025

Since Ginny & Georgia made its debut in February 2021, the family and friendship dramedy has depicted how teenagers struggle and cope with mental health in a way few high school-set shows have. The show weaves in very real issues, whether anxiety, body image issues, or family trauma, without making light of serious struggles. “[The show] approaches these themes with an adult reverence because they are real for teenagers, without this sense of it being maudlin or like a PSA,” says Felix Mallard, who plays Massachusetts high school student Ginny’s (Antonia Gentry) on-and-off boyfriend Marcus. “It’s not talking down. To treat it with that level of respect and love and honesty, [means] you can pull something profound out of it and can explore what it’s like without judgment or fear.”

PHOTO BY AMANDA MATLOVICH

Season 2 left the characters at a crossroads: Thanks to urging from dad Zion (Nathan Mitchell), Ginny starts seeing Dr. Lily (Zarrin Darnell-Martin) regularly to help her stop self-harming and find other ways to cope with her emotions. Marcus struggles to stay afloat as his depression gets worse, causing him to break up with Ginny. Max’s (Sara Waisglass) anxiety skyrockets after the dissolution of her relationship with Sophie (Humberly González) and a cold war within the MANG friend group, while Abby (Katie Douglas) and Norah (Chelsea Clark) deal with their squad’s fallout and their respective issues at home as well.

Season 3 ups the ante across all the characters’ storylines. And with Georgia (Brianne Howey) stuck at home on house arrest, the Millers can’t run from their mounting problems as they would’ve in the past.

“I’m grateful to see Season 3 of Ginny & Georgia tackle mental health issues — such as anxiety, intergenerational trauma, and seeking help — with the honesty and nuance it deserves,” says Schroeder Stribling, president and CEO of Mental Health America. “By sharing these personal stories, the show sparks vital conversations, reduces stigma, and reminds us all that asking for help is a sign of strength. Mental Health America is honored to continue our partnership with Ginny & Georgia as the show empowers viewers and inspires hope: We know we’re not alone. We will all have difficult experiences and emotions, and we can be there for each other through life’s challenges.”

Keep reading to hear from showrunners Sarah Lampert and Sarah Glinski and actors Gentry, Waisglass, and Mallard about how your favorite Ginny & Georgia characters are handling the unprecedented ups and downs of Season 3.

PHOTO BY AMANDA MATLOVICH

How’s Marcus holding up?

The character of Marcus has consistently challenged TV stereotypes that perpetrate toxic masculinity by openly exploring his mental health struggles — which is what drew Mallard to the role in the first place. When Season 3 opens, Marcus has “a big question mark hanging over his head,” says the actor.

In Season 3, one way he tries to manage his depression is by drinking, which gets so out of control that Max intervenes. “She wants to be a good sister to him, and knows that telling their parents is a huge betrayal to her sibling’s trust,” says Waisglass. Adds Glinksi: “When you have someone struggling, it’s really hard to figure out how to help them and figure out how big the problem is.” Season 3 ends with Marcus and his mom Ellen (Jennifer Robertson) driving to rehab, which Mallard is hopeful will help his lost character. “I feel like he’ll respond to discipline and structure,” says the actor.

It’s how Marcus will adjust to life after rehab that gives Mallard pause for Season 4. “Going back into regular life, into these dynamics with these people he loves, and showing up for them in a meaningful way — that’ll be a challenge for him,” the actor says. Glinksi is especially interested in what Marcus’ relationship with twin sister Max will look like. “She does the hard thing and the right thing, and there are huge consequences for her in terms of her relationship with her brother,” she says. “Going into Season 4, we’ll get to explore that a little bit more.”

Mallard hopes that Marcus will be able to practice some self-love upon his return. “It really is loving yourself enough to get help or understand how some of your behaviors are destructive or violent or not OK. So for Marcus, I want him to love himself enough to not be destructive to those around and especially himself,” says the actor.

For Lampert, exploring Marcus’s depression has been “a very healing thing to write.” One thing’s for certain: Marcus’s time in rehab will inspire some very angsty paintings on his garage walls.

Where do Ginny and Marcus stand?

A core tenet of Ginny and Marcus’ bond has been how they see and help each other through their respective darkness. As their relationship stalls, they are more distant than ever. “He doesn’t believe in himself enough to show up for Ginny in the way that she needs,” says Mallard. “He’s trying to set boundaries for himself, but he doesn’t know how to deal with all these big feelings that he’s got.” With Ginny, “the one person who can really understand him,” shut out of his life, the actor found it “a really interesting meditation to look at what happens when that support system isn’t there.”

Ginny’s own support system looks a little different this season: “She does have poetry [class] to express herself, and she’s definitely leaned on her friends a bit more, especially without having Marcus really there throughout the season,” says Gentry. “Of course, he shows up when it matters, but she’s really just come into her own independence, and that’s really nice to see.”

Is Maxine OK by the end of Season 3?

The end of Season 3 finds Max in her own dire straits, with some of her most important relationships in tatters. “Max is this bubbly person who only wants everyone around her to be happy, weird, excited, energetic, and authentic — that’s her dream for the world,” says Lampert. “She has been beaten down, and doesn’t quite know what her footing should be.” Adds Glinski: “She feels like the people she loves most in the world don’t love her back. That’s really hurtful. So she’s like, ‘If my authentic self is not lovable, who can I be?’ ”

Ginny & Georgia offers a grounded look at the mental health struggles high schoolers face, but, just as powerfully, it also depicts the specific challenges of caring for a sick loved one. Max straddles her loyalty to her twin and concern for his safety. “I love that she pushes herself to the limit of trying to help Marcus without going to her parents,” says Waisglass. “It’s only when it reaches a breaking point, and it’s so heartbreaking for their relationship.”

“That’s a really complicated and unique arc for a teenager helping another teenager,” says Glinski. Lampert adds, “She feels like she has to be the happiness in the house, and bring it tenfold to everyone.”

PHOTO BY AMANDA MATLOVICH

“We went deeper into Marcus’s depression, but you also saw Max trying to be the brightest in the room as a coping mechanism,” says Waisglass. Mental health manifests differently, even within the same family. “Whereas Marcus’s coping mechanism is to turn inward, Max turns outward. … It’s really interesting to show the other side of mental health, which is how to be there for someone who doesn’t necessarily have the energy that they normally have to interact with you in that normal way,” says Waisglass.

Looking forward to Season 4, Waisglass is worried for her character. “I know Max seems like the most confident person on Earth,” says the actor, “but I do think that that’s because she’s always had a safety net of her friends from childhood. To be rejected by the people who you thought you had an indestructible relationship with … I think she’s going to probably get very insecure.”

Despite the twins’ differences, Mallard and Waisglass prescribe the same salve for their characters in Season 4. “I’d love her to find a way to love herself and build her own solid base,” says Waisglass. “They’re 16, it’s a very pivotal time, and you need those skills going forward in life.”

How do the actors take care of themselves offscreen?

Mallard and Waisglass credit the familiarity and talent of the rest of the cast with making them feel comfortable on set as they explored some of this heavy material. “Everyone has such a deep understanding of their character and nuance,” says Mallard. “To be able to go on set and feel safe with everyone who you’re acting with, that’s a treat and it’s rare.”

Waisglass agrees. “We had each other, and that was an amazing support system,” she says. “Whenever I talk about the show, the number one thing I say is that we truly have the best cast in the world.”

And when that isn’t enough, Waisglass says, “Usually a bath really helps. I feel like I’m washing away the day and washing the character out.”

Through playing Felix, Mallard has gotten to know himself better. “You do these scenes and if you’re crying for six or seven hours, your body doesn’t know the difference [between acting and real life],” says Mallard. “So you have to constantly be in dialogue and understand that you don’t need to take it home with you. That takes a level of understanding of yourself that I think isn’t always immediately obvious.”

PHOTO BY AMANDA MATLOVICH

How’s the rest of MANG doing?

Abby’s mental health starts to look up this season. In the last two seasons, she struggles with body image issues and the fallout from her parents’ divorce. This season, Abby starts to recognize her worth and take herself more seriously thanks to her budding relationship with peer tutor Tris (Noah Lamanna). “Abby starts to care a little bit for herself through meeting Tris and doing well at school,” says Lampert. “I see there’s a little bit of maturity.”

Her path is by no means linear, however, which is why the complex Abby remains one of the show’s fan-favorite characters. “She’s two things at once: She’s strong, she’s feisty, she’s a little powerhouse,” says Lampert. “Then on the other hand, you see this deeply insecure character who is fighting for a grip in the world, and also really trying to hide that fight. … It’s a true coming-of-age story where she is fighting to find who she really is under the guise of being someone very confident.”

Norah has always been the most stable member of MANG, but between Season 2’s fracturing of their quartet, her wavering loyalty to Ginny amidst Georgia’s trial, some menstrual health struggles, and feeling underappreciated by her boyfriend Jordan (Colton Gobbo), the character has her own issues to navigate. “Grounding [these characters’ relationships] in real female friendships is really important,” says Lampert, who based some of the squad’s inside jokes on real-life bits she and her friends have.

Like mother, like daughter?

Ginny has never been more on top of taking care of her mental health.

With this newfound agency, however, comes a shocking twist: “Ginny is fully turning into Georgia by the end of the season,” says Gentry. “She viscerally reacts to [the possibility of her mom going to prison], and is willing to do literally whatever it takes to prevent that from happening — if that means she has to manipulate people and blackmail, she’ll do it.” This is a huge shift from Seasons 1 and 2, during which Ginny was distraught at her complicity in Georgia’s crimes.

PHOTO BY AMANDA MATLOVICH

But unlike her mom, Ginny has people supporting her through everything Season 3 brings, which is a lot: Between her mom’s murder trial, scrutiny at school, a new love interest in Wolfe (Ty Doran), and an unexpected pregnancy and subsequent abortion, Ginny has lots to talk about with Dr. Lily. “The show is really about how Ginny and Georgia are basically mirrors of each other,” says Gentry. “So Ginny going through a pregnancy in the same way that Georgia did, but being able to have the support system in her decision for what to do about it, is the key difference between the two.”

Georgia, on the other hand, finally admits that she needs to course-correct after her past decisions catch up to her in Season 3. In a monumental twist, the character admits that her tried-and-true tactic of running away — or turning to a glass (or bottle) of wine — will not solve her many problems this season; even more surprisingly, she agrees to go to therapy. “She knows she can’t continue to live like this, and it’s the first tiny step that she takes in terms of realizing she has to fix something within herself if she wants to keep her family,” says Glinski.

Ginny might have wanted Georgia to change for two and a half seasons, says Lampert, “but until Georgia wants to change, it’s not going to happen.” It takes Georgia being at her lowest for her to seek help.

PHOTO BY AMANDA MATLOVICH

More than anything, the Ginny & Georgia team takes care to demonstrate that mental health is a spectrum. “I love that we’ve never strayed from talking about how different everyone’s experience is, because mental health is not a one-size-fits-all situation,” says Waisglass.

Lampert tried to bring this perspective to the characters’ inner lives: “Every character has that human element, because everyone in the world is fighting a battle you can’t see.”