Well, what elements do you want to emphasize in your story? What feature of the plight of these young people most resonates for you? It might be the sense of lostness. Children too far from home, in a crisis not of their own making. Maybe the temptation: one child’s gingerbread is another’s drugs. Maybe it’s having to fend for themselves, without their customary support network.
Alluding to a familiar story will give the audience the same kinds of ideas—alluding to Hansel and Gretel when focusing on a couple lost in the city illustrates those same feelings of despair and confusion.
