Those early 2010 dramas weren't immune from doing that, but it feels a lot more prominent now that's most likely because we have screaming services like HBO, Max and Netflix where they can get away with centralizing teen characters. The WB and UPN couldn't have done that, at least not on the level that HBO and Netflix are doing it. Instead, those early teen dramas from the 2000s focus on making their characters compelling and making people want to root for them and connect to them