Recently, there has been an uproar of documentaries intriguing many highschool students. Of course, documentaries have always been around, but the two latest documentaries, “American Murder: Gabby Petito” and “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke”, have left teenagers glued to the screen.

“American Murder: Gabby Petito” was released on Netflix on Feb. 17 2025. It is the story of 22-year-old Gabby Petito who was murdered by her fiance, Brian Laundrie while traveling across the country in a van, in Aug. 2021.

The documentary includes interviews from Petito’s parents, step parents, friends and Laundrie’s sister. There were no comments from Laundrie’s parents as they have been speculated for interfering with the investigation and even hiding Laundrie.

This has intrigued many teenagers as it is a young love horror story that was documented by vlogging on YouTube, and constant updates on Petito’s Instagram page. Through Petito’s documentation an outsider looking in would have never speculated the domestic violence that was happening off screen. Two people who looked like they shared the most perfect, adventurous life were suddenly plastered on nationwide news. The documentary includes many unposted clips from Petito’s camera as she only got the chance to share one video with the internet.

“Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke” was released on Hulu on Feb. 27, 2025. It is the story of what seemed like the most perfect family of six children that had a family Youtube channel called, “8 Passengers”. On this channel, the mother, Ruby Franke was praised for her admirable parenting skills and happy children. Franke vlogged the family’s everyday life and had almost every moment of the children’s childhood on camera for the world to see.

Except, Franke didn’t capture every moment. She left out what she didn’t want her viewers to know. Franke had torn her family apart, and abused her children for years while still using them for profit on her channel.

The documentary includes interviews from Franke’s husband and her two eldest children. The four youngest were kept hidden in an attempt to maintain the little privacy they have left. The family gave Hulu over 1,000 hours of unaired footage from the camera, in which Franke kept rolling even when screaming at her children.

This has tracked attention from many teenage viewers as a good amount of them probably grew up watching these ideal family vlogs. Once again, a flawless life was depicted on camera, but once it was shut off, a nightmare ensued. Viewers never could have imagined what those children went through, so when the news was released, it was earth shattering.

These two documentaries are prime examples of how life through a lens is completely different from what life is like through real eyes. I believe that teenagers are attracted to these works as they are currently in the generation of social media, they see life on the screen, but seeing a real insight to the truth through these documentaries is something you can’t get anywhere else.

I believe that it is important for teenagers to watch these documentaries as it is a friendly reminder to not compare your life to someone else’s on social media, as you don’t know the real truth. These documentaries highlight the dangers of social media and serve as a call-to-action to all users.