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What is agency and how does it have an impact on mental health? Agency is defined as an “action or intervention, especially such as to produce a particular effect.” 13 Reasons Why, produced and developed for Netflix by Bryan Yorkey, is a story of a teenage girl named Hannah Baker who undergoes a series of unsympathetic and hostile experiences at Liberty High School, resulting in her suicide. WandaVision, produced by Brian Chapek for Marvel Studios, is a series about a superhero, Wanda Maximoff, who is battling serious mental health issues due to the loss of her husband. These shows both demonstrate the impact that having agency can have on your overall mental health. The two series portray mental health issues in two different ways, with WandaVision doing a better job at showing viewers how to take action, empowering them to work past hardships in life

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Agency Shown Through Character Hannah Baker

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Agency Shown Through Character Hannah Baker

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In 13 Reasons Why, the writers choose to give Hannah a lack of agency, framing her suicide as out of her hands and in the hands of others around her. Hannah starts off season 1 episode 13 by saying “One last try I am going to give life one last try” (Yorkey). By this point in the season, Hannah has gone through a tremendous amount of harassment from her peers. This day is her last try at life but this time, instead of dealing with everything on her own, she decides to seek help. Hannah has a meeting with the school counselor Mr. Porter, and it becomes evident that Mr. Porter was irritated by Hannah's struggles. Hannah shares that she has been feeling lost and empty, and that she “doesn’t care anymore about anything” (Yorkey). Hannah also shares that she has no friends, she isn’t who her parents want her to be, and that she needs everything to stop, referring to people and life. During this time, Mr. Porter is paying attention to the phone ringing and tells Hannah that he isn’t following her conversation. Hannah realizes she needs to share more information so she tells Mr. Porter she was raped at a party. He responds with “listen Hannah, I’m not going to judge you, but did you do anything that happened that night that you regret” (Yorkey). He tells Hannah that by not saying no, she consented to what happened to her that night and that she needs to move on. Hannah thinks to herself, “he’s failed, my fate is sealed” (Yorkey). She hopes he will run after her after she leaves his office, but that doesn’t happen. Hannah’s last recorded words are “some of you care, none of you cared enough.'' (Yorkey). Trying to seek help and being denied shows the lack of agency Hannah has throughout the show. She left it up to one person to decide whether or not she lived or died. Even after being explicitly shown she won’t get external help, Hannah still internally puts the decision about her life directly in someone else’s hands.

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Agency Shown Through Character Wanda Maximoff

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Agency Shown Through Character Wanda Maximoff

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On the other side of character agency, we have WandaVision. In this series, the author chooses to give Wanda more agency in her story. Entrenched in grief from the loss of her husband, Wanda begins to trap people in a town and force them to play the role she made for them with her powers. Wanda creates a fictional family to cope with the loss of her husband, using the trapped people as a background and the likeness of her husband as a companion. Throughout the series, Wanda shows a lack of control until she, too, goes to seek help. In the finale episode, episode 9, Wanda’s powers start to fade so her control over the people does as well. The people start attacking her and begging her to let them live their lives not under her control. At this point in the episode, Wanda states “I can fix it”(Chapek). She realizes the mistakes she has made and sets everyone free from her control. In order to save these people Wanda had to give up the family she created in turn for everyone’s freedom. Wanda is able to use her agency by doing what’s right and working through her problems for the greater good. She takes responsibility for her mental health by getting more than one person to help her make the right decisions. In the false reality, her husband was the one that pursued her to make everything right. The people trying to save the town get her through her grief and right her wrongs but ultimately it is Wanda’s own actions that save her.

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Viewers of media are impacted by not just character’s actions, but also the writer’s portrayal of characters’ agencies. When mentally ill characters are robbed of their agency, like in 13 Reasons Why, viewers are given the message that getting help is pointless and that it is the responsibility of others to save them. A mentally ill viewer may internalize this and become helpless themselves. On the other hand, with a show like Wandavision, viewers can relate to Wanda’s grief and loss, while being shown that help is possible. This tells viewers that they do not have to go on alone, and empowers them to process their own problems. Portrayal of mental illness like 13 Reasons Why chains the audience to their problems, telling susceptible viewers to not get help. Depictions like WandaVision tell viewers that they can free themselves from their problems, and overcome their struggles.

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Chapek, Brian. “WandaVision The Series Finale.” Season 1, episode 9, Disney Plus, 15 Jan. 2021.

Yorkey, Bryan. “13 Reasons Why Tape 7, Slide A.” Season 1, episode 13, Netflix , 31 Mar. 2017.