How the 31-year-old stars of PEN15 transformed into 13-year-old girls

The Cut

"The deception required a fairly convincing physical transformation, without the aid of special effects or soaking in a vat of retinol," Allison P. Davis says of Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle's transformation into middle school girls for their Hulu comedy. "It took a lot more than just strapping down their boobs (though that was required of both of them)," Davis adds. "Both of Erskine and Konkle asked their makeup team to give them 'furry brows' and to avoid using any cover-up in order to let all the pimples and, counterintuitively, wrinkles show. Erskine’s transformation into 13-year-old Maya started with the signature haircut of little kids with no agency: the bowl cut her character gets in the first episode. For Konkle, it was Anna’s orthodontia. She wore a set of prosthetic wire braces that changed the way she moved and held her mouth, mentally transporting her right back to picking out her own braces colors again."

ALSO:

• PEN15 is a celebration of the horny teen nerd girl: "The rise of TV's erotically charged dorky girls is lifting the veil on the inner lives of young women who were never the sexless killjoys pop culture imagined them to be," says Robyn Bahr
• Thanks to Eighth Grade, Big Mouth and PEN15, the lustful adolescent girl is having her moment
• Everybody is (refreshingly) a bully on PEN15
• Home Improvement neighbor Richard Karn was cast to play Maya Erskine's dad because he looks a lot like him