Mean Girls

Don't be fooled, it may seem like your typical teenage high school comedy, but it is so much more than that. After living all of her life in Africa, Cady Heron finds herself attending a high school just outside of Chicago. As you can imagine, after being homeschooled her whole life, high school is a bit of a culture shock. Through what Cady goes through, there are many lessons in the storyline. First off, we see that trendsetting and self-image are large issues portrayed in the film. Towards the beginning of the movie, Cady finds herself pretending to be part of the plastics (a popular group of girls in school) and everyone wants to be just like them. In the eyes of their peers, they can do no wrong and can pull off any outfit. Even when Cady and her friend Janice try to mess with Regina George, everyone in the school copies what they do to her. As we get farther into the film, Cady gets wrapped up in being a plastic and starts to become one herself.  A girls says, “"I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops." After a huge fight breaks out in the school due to the distribution of the Burn Book, all of the girls are put through what is basically a large counseling session. This portion of the film shows the importance of apologizing and forgiveness. Even the apology of, “Laura, I don't hate you because you're fat, you're fat because I hate you,” gets a positive reaction from the girls. The act of trying to be sorry is what they were looking for. By the end of the film Cady has learned that she should follow what her true interests are and that being popular isn’t everything. This positive message shows the importance of positive self-image. Cady discovers "Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you." Cady wins the crown at the school dance and passes out a piece of it to everyone to show that no matter how popular you think you are, it doesn’t really matter and you're not better than anyone else, so don't act like it. Finally and most importantly we learn that on Wednesdays, we should all wear pink and never let the haters stop you from doing your thang.