East London webseries being streamed on Amazon Prime

Growin' Pains Webseries is written, produced and directed by Natasha Adams, from Stratford, and features a cast from all across London.

Natasha said the idea for the webseries, which was first released in 2017, stemmed from her experiences growing up at Sarah Bonnell School, an all-girls state school in Stratford.

Growin' Pains started filming Season 1 in 2017 (Image: Ben Moss)

She said: "Growin' Pains is essentially my life when growing up. When I was growing up I felt like there were so many stories just in my circle.

"We all grew up in the same area but we were all going through different things - some personal stuff, some street stuff - it varied depending on the person."

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Growin' Pains is mainly set in Stratford, but Natasha said some scenes were filmed in Plaistow, Upton Park and Forest Gate.

Natasha continued: "What I was strict on was keeping it very east London because if you look at the other webseries' out there, most of them are based in south [London] and show a very south London point of view.

"You would think that because we're all from London it's all the same but it's actually not.

"My main thing is showing more than just the crime element. Yes, there is crime that goes on in every part of London.

"But what we don't see is when we have family issues, when we're trying to deal with our friendship circle, when we've got things going on at home or our younger sibling is doing something and putting pressure on our parents or our parents haven't exactly got it all together but they have to raise three kids on a one-person income.

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"When people think of young Black people making a show they'll initially think that we're trying to glamourise crime.

"No, we're not.

"When you do something, there are going to be repercussions and once you're in a situation it's not so easy to get out."

Natasha is currently filming Season 4 of Growin' Pains, having had to stop filming during the pandemic (Image: Ben Moss)

She added: "Growin' Pains has a lot of room to grow so I've held back on the bigger stuff because I feel like I need a budget to touch that stuff.

"I'm hoping that after this season we will get some financial backing that will make us really able to tackle the more serious storylines.

"So far we've done really well to be an unfunded webseries that is now on Amazon Prime so I'm really proud of that."

Natasha directed and filmed the first season of Growin' Pains in 2017 when she was pregnant with her daughter.

She said: "I got pregnant just before I started filming Growin' Pains - just before the first season.

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"We had to film all 10 episodes by the time the baby came so we had six months.

"It was my first time filming. When I look back at the pictures of behind-the-scenes it's crazy. 

"I was supposed to go back to work [after she was born] - I worked in a gym, I had a nine-to-five, [the series] was just a hobby initially.

"But my daughter was born with complex needs and I couldn't go back to work so when she was in hospital I started writing season two and now this is my full-time job, outside of caring for my daughter."

Natasha said she has been asked to help direct Hollyoaks and Eastenders since starting her webseries (Image: Ben Moss)

Series two and three of Growin' Pains are available on Amazon Prime.

Since starting the show, Natasha said she has been asked to assist in directing other shows, including EastEnders in May 2021 and Hollyoaks in April 2022.