Brie Larson shares about her life while prompting others in ‘Growing Up’

Adolescence taught Gavin Arneson a valuable lesson: “It’s going to take other people to help get you where you want to go. You cannot do it alone.”

Now a nurse in New York, the 23-year-old former Nebraskan found himself searching for help after his sole means of support, his father, died. Because there were no plans in place for guardianship, he relied on friends, teachers and others in his community to help him through high school.

“There were many times throughout my life where I thought I would not make it,” he says. “There were moments when I was like, ‘I have no options. There’s nothing I can do.’”

Just getting to school proved challenging. “I didn’t have a car and I didn’t live near a bus stop. A teacher offered to drive me to school for a week. And then I had a family friend loan me their car for a whole semester. Without that kind of support, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

Graduating at the top of his high school class, Arneson moved to New York, got his nursing degree and was on the frontlines of those caring for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

It talks a village? “Absolutely,” he says. “This isn’t a story about how I overcame so much by myself. It is about others helping.”

Larson opens up about her life

One of a handful of “heroes” interviewed in “Growing Up,” a new Disney+ series, Arneson says he wanted his episode to be a help to those going through similar situations. “If I had had a show like this, it would’ve helped me process very differently – I wouldn’t have felt like I was the only one who ever felt this way.”

Produced by Oscar-winner Brie Larson, the 10-part series looks at teenagers and the diverse obstacles they’ve faced growing up. Each 30-minute episode shows how the subjects faced and conquered fears and road blocks.

“The stories are never-ending, right?” Larson says during a Zoom interview. “The beauty is that it’s all about the individual. We’ve barely scratched the surface on what it is because even though we’ve told stories that deal with big issues, there’s nuance to every single one, plus so many things we didn’t even get to get into. A huge part of creating a better world is first learning to know that we can love ourselves.”

Larson lit on the idea of “Growing Up” while driving one day. “I realized I was living with shame about who I was,” she says. “I was presenting myself in the world either shielding certain parts of myself or living in fear.”

Shy as a child, Larson took refuge in the arts. She auditioned for a training program at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and, at 6,  became the youngest student admitted.

At 7, her parents divorced and she, her mother and her sister relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting. They had limited means and lived in a small apartment. When roles started coming her way, she became guarded about her past.

“I was like, ‘If I’m feeling this way, other people must feel this way.’” She asked friends, “What do you feel shameful about?” “and when they would open up, I realized that 100 percent of the time the thing that they felt the most ashamed of was not anything that was shameful at all.”

That led Larson to Culture House, a production company that has addressed other social issues.

“We realized if we could get to the root of it – at the point where we’re so vulnerable – we could highlight the things we feel shame about but also the things we feel are our biggest accomplishments,” Larson says.

Producers put out the call for young people willing to talk. Hundreds responded, according to Executive Producer Nicole Gavlovski. Directors were given a pool of subjects and got to pick the story they wanted to tell.

In the 10 episodes, Larson acts as a moderator of sorts, getting the subjects to open up and find connections.

“When she was in that space, she didn’t feel like a Captain Marvel,” Sage Dolan-Sandrino, one of the heroes, says. “I felt like I was in the room with somebody who really wanted to listen.”

Larson, who won an Oscar for “Room,” shared about her own life, her own fears “and that empowered us with the connection necessary to share ourselves and our stories,” Dolan-Sandrino says.

“I’m a super feeler,” Larson adds. “I feel people’s energy and all of these young people do as well. I was just there to kind of hold the room and be there if anyone needed anything. Very quickly, no one needed me to do anything.”

For Arneson, “Growing Up” sends a message that’s important for adults.

“You can be that someone for that young person in your community who needs your guidance,” he says.

“Growing Up” airs on Disney+.