But I always argue strongly that whatever show grabs someone most is the best place to start for them. There’s no ‘best’ way and some of the shows reach different demographics better or worse.
I don’t disagree at all. In fact, I think TOS is probably pretty hard to sit through for a lot of people, not just your teenagers, but plenty of adults who grew up after TNG and more modern-looking shows existed. TNG suffers from 80sness here and there, but the look is unusual enough to not feel ridiculously dated, but TOS, as much as I love it, does not have that going for it. Special effects on a TV budget just wouldn’t have been enough in the 60s.
And I’m sure that a lot of people would be fine these days starting with something like SNW, but like I said, you could probably start pretty much anywhere. The only exceptions I would make are Picard and LD, both of which do rely on a lot of lore knowledge to really enjoy.
Also, Prodigy is such an incredibly good introduction to virtually all major Star Trek concepts that it’s a great place for anyone to start.