Within the first 30 minutes of the pilot episode of Euphoria, a young womans bare breasts enter the frame. Then, just six minutes into the second episode, 30 penises flop across the screen in a locker room scene gender-swapped with the one from Carrie.

But, despite what viewers may think, Sam Levinson , the showrunner of the raw and honest HBO show about a group of high school students grappling with sex, drugs and violence, didnt want the nudity to feel gratuitous. He wanted it to be authentic to the experience of being young.

I think the show is far more restrained than our world, and certainly more restrained than the internet, Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter . But theres always been a puritanical streak in America, and just the idea that there is any kind of nudity on screen is always something certain people recoil at.

That statement rings even more true in terms of nakedness on a show about teenagers. As most adults might say, its troubling to watch a graphic depiction of 16-year-olds having sex. But the goal for Euphoria isnt to outrage; its to shed light on the anxieties of growing up today in the ever-expanding, and frightening, time of internet culture and social media.

Sydney Sweeney , who plays popular cheerleader Cassie Howard on the show, was understandably nervous when it came time to shoot her various nude scenes and even had a long sit-down conversation with her mom about the daunting task. But the 21-year-old actress said she also was really proud to work on a project that wasnt afraid to go there in order to tell these stories truthfully.

The thing about the nudity in this show is that its not glamorized. Its not, Oh, heres a pair of tits. Its just real, Sweeney told HuffPost during a Build Series interview on Monday. I had to look at the whole picture of the entirety of the show, and I just fell in love with the rawness and the situations and the emotions that all these characters go through.