"The Optimist" is a YouTube web-series following the journey and friendship of Chloe Carters (Avery Bayes) and Romy Watson (Victoria Poe), two very different high-school freshmen who lead very different lives. Carters is a happy-go-lucky type of teenager who would rather be blissfully oblivious than have to deal with the conflict of her outside world, while Watson is a depression-deprived pessimist with a rough family background trying to deal with the broken promises of friends and family. When Carters discovers the meaning behind the knife in Watson's backpack and the butterfly on her wrist, she sets out on a mission to help her discontinue her harmful habits.—Rebecca Van Kirk