Alexa and Katie: Writing Real Life

By Ava King

Background: What is Alexa & Katie?

Alexa & Katie is a TV series that released its first season March 23, 2018. The series follows a young girl, Alexa, and her journey through high school as she starts the ninth grade with a leukemia diagnosis. The show is unique in the way it portrays adolescent cancer.  

Introduction: What Alexa & Katie Has to Offer

The show doesn’t start with the devastating news of a cancer diagnosis. Instead, the story begins with hope, with the very first episode being centered around Alexa being allowed by her doctor to attend her first year of high school along with all her friends. The only catch is that she is not permitted to participate in any sports, including basketball, which Alexa looked forward to playing in high school. It is exactly this pattern of instances of hope and miracles followed by a setback that gives the show its realistic quality, appropriately showing a major part of cancer: Its unpredictable nature. 

Exhibit A: Alexa’s Relationships

One of Alexa & Katie’s greatest strengths as a show is its excellent portrayal and development of relationships in response to the cancer of a loved one. Everyone close to Alexa including her family members, her best friend, and even her worst enemy are all developed beautifully, flawlessly capturing the realistic complexity illness-impacted relationships hold, exhibiting a unique take on cancer’s impact on not just the diagnosed person themselves, but those around them that they hold closest to their hearts as well. 

1. Alexa and Katie

Alexa and Katie, the very duo the show is named after and centered around, is the strongest example of this sentiment. Throughout the show, Alexa and Katie grow extraordinarily together as people, so much so that by the time you’d reach the end of the series, you’d look back at the first episode and marvel-- or simply burst into tears. 

Katie steps out of her shell and comfort zone so many times throughout the show for Alexa. Alexa pushes her to take opportunity by the hands and seize it. Katie helps Alexa to feel less alone, helps to pull her back to earth when things get tough and Alexa resorts to self-destructive behavior. Together, they build one another up and keep each other grounded, helping one another develop as individual people, together. 

2. Alexa and Her Mother

Helicopter parent (method of caretaking served to hinder the support that Alexa actually felt, instead, Alexa felt as is she were not trusted, as if she were smaller than her illness) → showing proper support and love through trust in her daughter’s strength and growth as a person 

Alexa’s mother, Lori Mendoza, loves and cherishes her daughter more than anything in the world-- a sentiment distinctly impacted and amplified by Alexa’s cancer diagnosis. In the beginning of the show, Lori is what many might deem a “helicopter parent,” meaning she shows Alexa an amount of love, care, and attention that is so extreme it becomes extremely overbearing. This is a natural response to knowing that your own daughter is fighting long and hard against an illness that is working against her very life. Alexa’s cancer is not something Lori can directly shield her daughter from, and so, through her overbearing displays of affection, Lori only means to protect her daughter in every way in which she actually can. However, this attitude won’t protect Alexa from much of anything-- in fact, it largely only hurts her. Alexa hates the thought of being dependent. She is very strict about the person she wants to be-- and that person is not her illness. Lori’s overbearing tendencies weaken the mindset that Alexa is fighting to maintain, the mindset that she is stronger than her cancer. Lori herself, however, does not yet realize this, instead constantly coddling her daughter with blankets, reminders to take naps, packed lunches, and many, many strict rules. Under her mother’s watchful eye, Alexa is often prohibited or discouraged from doing many things that might have an affect on her health-- such as going out with friends or practicing sports. Lori’s rules don't convince Alexa to value her health, they only convince her to neglect it. As a growing teenager, it is only natural that Alexa would express a sort of defiance against rules, and this sentiment is only amplified by Alexa’s diagnosis, as the girl longs to feel independent and separate from her condition. Alexa ducks under her mother’s rules, at times going out of her way to cause trouble and prove her independence to her own self, such as through her graffiting a billboard in the middle of the night. 

It takes Lori a while to realize her overbearing love is only making things more difficult for Alexa and sparking her defiant and self-destructive behaviors. However, once she does realize that her efforts are not being received as she hoped they would, and takes steps back instead of forward, allowing Alexa the room to grow, the relationship between her and Alexa, as well as Alexa’s behavior, drastically improves. Alexa feels like she can trust and rely on her mom again, rather than having to dodge the small box Lori was attempting to put her in for safe keeping. Through Alexa’s diagnosis, Lori grows exponentially as a parent and becomes increasingly self-aware of her own actions. Her parenting, overall trust, and understanding of her daughter grow greatly by the end of the series.

3. Alexa and Her Brother

Throughout the series, it is apparent that Lucas, Alexa’s older brother, does not take school or academics very seriously. However, by the end of the show, instead of giving up school as a whole the moment he graduated, Lucas decided to go through with college to become a doctor. He makes this choice not for himself, as most of his actions previous to this point were often aimed to benefit, but for his little sister. 

Lucas was there for each and every part of Alexa’s journey, from the early signs of her cancer, to her diagnosis, to her sweet sixteen, her junior prom, and, finally, to her eventual beating of cancer-- from the very beginning to very end. Despite the shallow nature Lucas often exhibited throughout the show, just as Katie, Alexa’s mother, and Alexa’s father grew individually from Alexa herself’s experience with cancer, Lucas did just as well. Inspired by the strength of his sister, and hit with the sudden drive to make a difference in people’s lives, to play a part in ensuring that life prevails through the torment of disease, Lucas decides to continue school to become a doctor. This is something that, without Alexa, Lucas would likely have never even begun to consider. Just as Alexa’s life changed due to her cancer, Lucas’s very future would similarly take a drastic pivot. 

4. Alexa and Gwenny

Gwenny is Alexa’s lifelong rival, the two sharing bad-blood between one another ever since elementary. Despite their rivalry, Gwenny, similarity to Katie and her family members, holds a considerable impact on Alexa’s life. 

Any time they were to come across one another, at any time and in any place, they would typically engage in a ruthless exchange of petty insults... but the moment Gwenny, along with the rest of the school, finds out about Alexa's cancer, this dynamic ceases to exist. Gwenny starts being extremely nice to Alexa, cloyingly so, baking her baskets of muffins and cookies and offering encouraging words accompanied by reassuring pats on the shoulder. 

Alexa is thoroughly disgusted, utterly despaired, and most of all: offended.

Gwenny’s animosity towards Alexa helps Alexa feel normal. It reinforces her view that cancer is not the one thing that defines her. With everything changing around her, Gwenny’s nasty attitude towards Alexa would be a rare and appreciable constant. Gwenny being nice to Alexa, as she only began to do the moment she discovered Alexa’s illness, represents Gwenny seeing Alexa as only the condition she was diagnosed with, and not as her entire person, which she only moments ago couldn’t stand.

Gwenny’s niceness only lasts for so long. Alexa pushes back against this front, and pushes back hard. She subjects Gwenny to ruthless teasing and unthinkably petty pranks, and Gwenny ultimately cracks underneath the pressure, unable to maintain her saintly facade. She and Alexa revert back to their old ways, with a hilarious exchange of witty quips and snarky comments solidifying the restoration of their dynamic. In this moment, they both smile at one another. Gwenny’s return to her typical mean, arrogant nature brings Alexa a major sense of relief. With every one of Gwenny’s glares and cross remarks from across the room, Alexa feels her identity grow further and further apart from that of her cancer, and closer towards what makes up her own self. 

5. Alexa and Her Support Group 

At the pediatric cancer center Alexa often finds herself in for check-ups and whenever her condition goes awry, Alexa forms life-long relationships and connections that are thoroughly invaluable and hold an infinite sort of weight and meaning in Alexa’s life. 

Though Alexa had her family and Katie by her side, her second family at the hospital offered her a sort of comfort, understanding, and sense of place that others simply could not. Where others lended her sympathy, the friends she would come to make at her hospital would lend Alexa understanding. Their respective fights against cancer served to pull the group together-- and with one another, they were able to turn the bleak walls of the hospital into a safe place of hope, validity, and connection. 

Together, the group would find just about any way to have fun within the hospital-- playing small pranks on the nurses, sneaking out of bed after hours, filming dance videos with the hospital staff… Even in the place where cancer looms closest overhead, the place in which the children were often at their weakest, the home they’d carved out for themselves amongst the tiled floors and white lights, between the heart monitors and IVs, allowed them the spiritual strength through connection that helped them to keep cancer and its threats from dominating their lives and emotional wellbeing. 

One episode in the second season of the series revolves around Katie feeling insecure due to Alexa’s close relationship with her support group, feeling as if her friendship with Alexa is inadequate or of lesser value when compared to the bond they share together. However, by the end of the episode, Katie realizes the profound and unique value the group has to Alexa, acknowledging how their shared experiences generate an indomitable connection that allows for a collective sense of understanding and validity that is often difficult to find amongst others. She is able to realize that both her and the support group’s friendship with Alexa holds unique value, with Katie acting as form of escape from the disease, allowing Alexa to mentally move past her cancer and keep it from holding her back in life, while the support groups creates a space of understanding, allowing things to simply be as they are, with hopes and experiences being exchanged under a shared comprehension. 

At the end of their talk, Katie accepts that both she and Alexa’s friends from the hospital hold a pivotal impact on Alexa’s life, and that ultimately, they are all striving for a common theme: Alexa’s happiness. 

Exhibit B: Alexa’s Perseverance 

Throughout the series, Alexa does anything but let cancer take control of her life. Despite her illness, Alexa dedicates herself to experiencing all the joys and new experiences that high school has to offer, no matter what. 

Alexa doesn’t let her hair falling out stop her from attending her first day of high school. Instead, she walks in on her first day sporting the brightest and most peculiarly-styled wig one could imagine, and takes her first steps into Kennedy Highschool with her head held high, and her best friend in hand. 

Alexa doesn’t let her cancer hinder her dreams of playing competitive basketball. Instead, she continues to practice, despite the warnings from her parents and doctor, striving towards a dream she’s refused to let out of sight, even if temporarily. While Alexa’s behavior can often be self-destructive and negligent towards her health, it represents her fierce determination to overcome the brakes that her illness has attempted to place over her drive and dreams, demonstrating the solid, steel-like quality of her internal strength. 

Alexa certainly doesn’t let her cancer stop her from making unforgettable memories in high school, either. Whether it would be strewing toilet paper all over her high school principal’s house, attending her senior prom, or pursuing love, Alexa strives to make all of the high school memories that any other girl would, and then some. 

This isn’t to say that Alexa is immune to the impact that her leukemia had on her life. Between the laugh tracks and corny jokes, Alexa & Katie does a splendid job in handling the more serious and critical aspects of Alexa’s journey through cancer. They handle the themes of declining health delicately, displaying the message that though the future is unknown and uncertain, what matters most is how you handle and take advantage of the now. 

Despite the setbacks, Alexa’s mentality remains relatively constant, and her confidence in her inner self and the unwavering strength harbored in her soul plays a major part in Alexa beating cancer emotionally and mentally, just as she would eventually come to do so physically. 

Conclusion: Alexa’s Parting With Katie. 

Just as it started and progressed, the show also ends in a way one wouldn’t expect. 

The last episode of Alexa & Katie is called “This Feels Right.”

Alexa and Katie have made it to their last year of high school. Alexa has officially beaten cancer. These were both events that were relatively unforeseen and unimaginable for both girls, and yet, there they were. Now it was time to consider the next stage of their lives: college.

Ever since they were young girls, Alexa and Katie have been together, attached by the hip-- so much so that their respective families, in a way, became one another’s own. The notion of them separating seemed so extraordinary that the girls did not even consider the possibility of it. They simply assumed life would go on as it always had-- with one another just one door, or one step through the bedroom window into their shared treehouse, away. 

Reality would set in. Alexa and Katie would be accepted into different colleges, ones that weren’t just a house away-- but multiple states apart. This is both the girls’ chances to further their dreams-- for Katie to pursue her passion of acting and for Alexa to pursue her interests without the hindrance of cancer looming close overhead. Their respective colleges offered both girls what they yearned to achieve, giving up one for the other meant one of the girls would have to give up their dreams.

But Alexa and Katie know better. Maybe when they were younger, newer to the world and prior to the extraordinary leaps their relationship would take in terms of development, they would be willing to sacrifice something major, in this case, their futures, to be together. Here is when it becomes devastatingly apparent just how much Alexa and Katie have developed as people, separately. 

As they grew together, experiencing the pains and joys of growing up all while in each other’s company, they’d come to help one another develop as individuals just as much as they’d grown as people together. They’d help each other unlock some of the deepest, most important parts of themselves that made each of them who they were, respectively-- so much that when it came time to part, both the girls would come to a clear understanding. 

Even if they would have to move states apart from one another after the summer met its end, they’d still be together. This is an inexorable truth. Their bond runs past the bone, holding so deep and so strong that something as small as distance didn’t stand a chance in severing or even devolving their relationship. With the distance, their relationship wouldn't be the same as it always had, but just as Alexa and Katie’s friendship withstood the test of time and conflict, it is bound to withstand a change that they’ve unknowingly been preparing for the moment Katie decided to shave her head solely so Alexa would feel less alone in the world.

When Alexa prospers, Katie prospers, and vice-versa. Their respective colleges are where they’d most thrive. And so, in the very tree house where it all began, Alexa and Katie would decide, despite the pain, that they’d allow for this inevitable separation. This decision was possibly the most natural choice made between them in the entirety of the series, and a maddeningly natural conclusion to the show, keeping its theme of realism and excellent portrayals of relationships that served to set it apart from nearly any other show of similar basis.