I’ve seen some fans here write that they think it’s “woke” exaggeration that Penny is still not okay 3 years later and links her panic attacks to her experience with BoJack.

I’d like to explain what Penny’s “problem” was to people who think it’s not “traumatic enough”:

1)She had a crush on a teenage boy from her class for a long time. This can get pretty intense and consume all your focus and attention when you are a teenager.

2)She was hoping to go to the dance with this boy but got disappointed. This alone is a pretty sad memory. Many people happily and luckily get over it with time, but those who experience more rejection do come back to it.

3. a grown up family friend staying at her house offered to go to the dance with her as her date which, when talking about it later with more people and a therapist, might start sounding gross. Even if it doesn’t,it was a turmoil of emotions: The grown up family friend promised this will make her seem desireable in the eyes of the boy she likes, once he sees her having fun.

4. her underage friend ended up in a hospital because of this very same grown up man, the friend of her mother, a man who actively offered her friend more and different alcohol.

5. looking back at the memory, it feels really gross to realize that this grown up man actually let the friend with another underage teen alone in front of a hospital. The mix of fear, guilt,shame and stress for Pete Repeat in that situation can become very real to Penny when she talks about the situation with an adult months/years later.

6. Penny’s emotions that were 100% directed to her teenage crush in the morning, got all wild by the end of the day and she became interested in this grown up family friend, missing completely that what he did to her friend at the hospital was wrong - realizing this later cancause an avalanche of guilt and shame.

7. She tried to kiss the friend of her mother. At first, the grown man rejected her, as he should, which made her cry because of rejection, sadness, shame, confusion.
   It might make her feel extremely ashamed to remember how she tried to offer herself to him, and she brought up the fact that she knows how to use a condom, etc.

8. She chose to offer herself to him again, later, after crying for some time alone. This time he accepted.
   He let her in his room.
   He let her on his bed.
   He touched her and let her touch him.
   They ended up on his bed in his room, behind closed doors, undressing each other.

9. Her own mother caught them in that position. And told her to leave. Penny left crying.

So the fear of her angry mom,the guilt and shame of offering herself to this grown family friend,
the uncertainty of whether or not it was even right thing to do on her part,
the realization that this very morning she was still into her teenage classmate,
the later shock of the thought of what a good responsible grown up would do about her drunk friend,
the thought of what kind of man was she on the bed with?
What would have happened if her mother didn’t walk in?
Why did he let her touch him?
Why did he start to undress her/let her undress him?
What kind of family friend in his 50s does that?
Why didn’t he lock himself alone in there and stay away from her like a responsible adult?

…All this mixed together in a mind not fully developed yet, ridden with hormones, not 18 yet,

that is more than enough to give you anxiety,very unpleasant memories mixed with all kinds of shame and fear,and even panic attacks.

Being a teenager sucks.