The Netflix Documentaries That Actually Need to be Made

The "Netflix documentaries" trend is all over my feeds right now. I even hopped on the trend to make a joke about how I'll prepare when they make the documentary about what it was really like to be a woman of color working in the magazine industry during the height of the #girlboss era (which is something they should totally make a doc about...or you could just watch The Devil Wears Prada, tbh. It's not far off).

This trend got me thinking about the things that truly deserve to be made into documentaries. Because when it comes to women's wellness, there are so many stories that have gone unheard.

We are out here trying to tell them ourselves, but most of them deserve so much more airtime than they're getting. Rather than a social media post we're making, they deserve to be explored in long, nuanced ways, and given larger platforms.

Here are some concepts that deserve the Netflix documentary treatment:

• The pain gap: The minimization of women's pain is real. For too long, our discomfort has been normalized, and not in a good way: In a way that pain is treated like an expected part of life for women, rather than something to be explored and addressed. A documentary featuring women who have had their pain-related concerns dismissed, only to be suffering from a serious, treatable condition.

• The wage gap: Ah, another gap! This one (like the other one) is questioned constantly. Some people believe it's a "myth" (it's not), when it actuality, it's getting wider. We need a whole documentary exploring the wage gap and why we just can't seem to get rid of it.

• What diet culture truly did to millennial women: We grew up with some truly toxic attitudes around what bodies "should" look like and how we "should" get our bodies to look the same way. We desperately need a space for women who grew up with it to reflect on what diet culture truly did to them.

• The money behind social media: There's a real lack of income transparency where social media careers are concerned, and that's a shame — especially because this is one industry where women dominate. We need a real look at the money behind the machine, not just for transparency's sake, but also so young women can understand what to expect for this type of career. It would especially interesting for this documentary to explore the real money the "tradwife" influencers are making while pretending they 'don't work"...

• The behind-the-scenes of reality TV: Reality TV runs on women's pain. I've seen a few reality stars jump on this trend and every single time I think "wow, yes I would definitely watch this". I just knew there's a lot of crazy stuff happening behind the scenes, often to make women look worse or exploit their hardest moments.

• The "just freeze your eggs" narrative: Ten-ish years ago, the advice to young women was "freeze your eggs, build your career in your 20s and 30s, and have a baby once you've cemented your professional success". For many, that is the right path. But not for everyone: We need a documentary about how so many women felt lied to. They were made to believe egg freezing was guaranteed success. But...it's not. And it's not available to or the right option for everybody.

• Surrogacy: There are so many misconceptions about surrogacy. The reality is, it's complicated, with so many moving parts and variation from state to state. A documentary could clear up some of the mystery and misinformation...and hopefully, chip away at the stigma