Heartbreak High’s Will McDonald explains what an ‘eshay’ is

Netflix’s Heartbreak High cast sat down with Yahoo Lifestyle to chat about season 2, fan interactions and behind-the-scenes moments.

Video transcript

- A young person, typically a male, who engages in what we would generally consider to be antisocial behavior with other young males, such as vandalism, theft, underage drinking, taking of illicit substances, and also potentially selling of said substances-- but--

- The dictionary definition.

- You're really on it.

- This is my job, mate.

- I guess the equivalent of like, a lad?

- Yeah, like the equivalent of like a--

- British lad.

- But like, there's a-- because like, lad culture in like, Britain is sort of like, oh, yeah, like, everyone like, put your really, really tight skinny jeans on. And like, let's go to the pub and watch the football. And like, I feel like lad culture here in Australia is like, more specifically associated with the eshays. And its origins and its roots go back to like, sort of like, a lot of different subcultures in the '80s and '90s in like, South Sydney and down in Melbourne. And it has like, a very storied history in those two cities.

And like, I feel like really, like, any subculture, especially like, subcultures with young people-- like, it's just like, young people kind of searching for belonging like, the same as any other kind of subculture. Like, they have a specific way that they dress. They have a specific way that they talk. They have specific music that they listen to. Like, there's so many subcultures that you can point to throughout history, youth ones, where it's exactly the same.

And I don't really buy into a lot of what you see on the news. This is kind of like, moral panic about like, eshays, gangs terrorizing. It's like, no. That's just like-- it's-- that's not a thing. And yeah, I feel like it's just like, young people searching for community, as they always have done and will continue to do.