How my later in life diagnosis of ADHD and OCD shaped Season 3 of 'Ginny & Georgia'
The third season, which premiered on June 5, debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. charts with 17.6 million viewers — in just its first four days — with fans eager to see the aftermath of Georgia Miller's (Brianne Howey) arrest for murder on her own wedding day. All three seasons of the series have been on Netflix's top 10 list for English TV for three weeks and running.
Ginny & Georgia centers on the mother-daughter relationship between teenage Ginny and her free-spirited, secretive matriarch, Georgia, as they settle into a new town and face unexpected challenges. Central to the show is mental health.
Growing up, Lampert never understood certain compulsions and behaviors that affected her life. It wasn't until her 30s, when she was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, that everything clicked. This revelation would later influence the character of Ginny's best friend Maxine Baker, whose behaviors, struggles and dialogue have pieces of Lampert's own experiences. Ginny and Maxine, aka Max, make up half of their friend group, nicknamed "MANG," along with characters Abby and Norah.
Maxine is a dynamic and complex character, known for her energetic, emotional and vulnerable nature. She often brings humor and heart to the series, but beneath her vibrant personality lies a struggle with mental health and a search for self-identity.
The character of Maxine naturally holds a special place for the creator, writer and executive producer. Still, she was conscious of not diagnosing Maxine onscreen this season.
Below, Lampert opens up about giving a voice to her personal journey through Max and how actress Sara Waisglass brought the character to life.
Coming out of the release of Season 3 of Ginny & Georgia, the comment I'm seeing the most online is 'I relate to Maxine!'
I've watched passionate TikToks about how deeply everyone feels for the character, the questions they have about her actions and the empathy they hold for her.
'Why did MANG leave her out?'
'I've never related to a character more!'
'She was trying to help!'
'Maxine, get behind me! My poor little glass child baby!'
Maxine's pain isn't obvious. She's not brooding or glum. She's energetic. She's the star of the musical. She is happiest when others are happy. She loves the spotlight but is wildly generous about sharing it. Maxine is constantly thinking about everyone else.
It is exhausting to be Maxine.
She always has to be OK. That's the role she's been cast in, especially as a twin to her brother Marcus. When she starts to not be OK, when she cracks, no one sees it because she's gotten too good at hiding it. Even when she tries to share her feelings, no one sees she's drowning.
The version of depression that we're more used to seeing onscreen is represented in Marcus, portrayed so achingly and hauntingly beautifully by Felix Mallard. But in a show where the theme is "everyone's fighting a battle you can't see" — what battle is Maxine fighting, and is it so dissimilar from Marcus's, or is it just packaged differently?
By entering Maxine's head in Season 3, the writers were able to give context to some of her over-the-top reactions from Season 2, revealing her thought process in a way that showed the chaos and heart that make up the character's inner world.
We also had the gift that is Sara Waisglass, who has the ability to make you laugh and cry in the same sentence. Sara was very brave in Season 2 in allowing Maxine to be so messy, to bring the character to places that we knew would be unpopular with the audience because she had to be flawed. She had to be human.
Does Maxine overreact to Ginny and Marcus's relationship? I think so. Is that something I would do at 16? Absolutely. She makes sense to me, her rejection sensitivity, the larger-than-life emotions, the dramatics. Of all the characters on the show, Maxine is the one I relate to the most.
I was in my 30s when I was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD. Suddenly, so many aspects of my life clicked and made so much sense. I realized that this wasn't unique to me. So many people — especially women — aren't diagnosed until later in life. Women's mental health, like women's physical health, is criminally overlooked.
And to be honest, I'm not interested in diagnosing Maxine. She's young. She has a lot of growing up to do. She's got pieces of me, but she's not me. She's a combined effort of the other brilliant writers who work on this show, and of the special sauce of Sara Waisglass, who infuses Max with her own spin so that everything feels so very Max.
I knew that it would mean a lot to depict Maxine's inner thought process onscreen. If we could get it right, I knew it would be powerful and others could connect to it. Max would make sense to them.
When Season 3 was released on Netflix June 5, the response was shocking because Maxine is all of us. Everyone felt for her. Everyone felt they were her. We've all gone through feelings of being too much, of being left out, of needing to be OK when other people weren't. The universality of that is beautiful to me.
I hope that if the show does anything, it makes people feel less alone. With Maxine's story specifically, I hope that it helps people pay attention to the friend who they don't think needs help, the friend that's laughing on the outside. Inside, they just might be hiding something deeper.
To those people who do feel like Maxine, I hope you see how you're not alone and how seen you really are. That's why it was so important to me to put the inside of Maxine's head onscreen, for all the Max's out there.
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