When you think of the movie Mean Girls, you probably think of it just like everyone else does. A hilarious cult-classic about vicious girls trying to make it through high school. Everyone remembers the sassy comments, the mean jokes, and most importantly- The Plastics. This movie has become famous for the nasty girls that rule the school, but I really think the public has missed the point. This movie is really about getting along with others and staying true to who you are (pretty shocking, right??). Let’s take a look:
I don’t think we, as young women, understand how important it is to build each other up. How far just one compliment could go, and how much of an impact one kind word can make on someone. Today’s culture is so obsessed with competition that girls would rather spread a nasty rumor about someone than reach out a helping hand to someone who’s hurting. Like Cady Heron said, “Calling somebody else fat won’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you any smarter. And ruining [someone]’s life definitely didn’t make me any happier.” Looking back on my high school career, I know for a fact that I didn’t understand the importance behind being a genuinely kind person. For the majority of my four years at my school, I saw the means girls get all the attention, and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted into that clique of rotten girls who made themselves feel better by making fun of people and saying nasty things for no reason other than to put others down. Quite frankly, I’m ashamed.
Going into my senior year I still had this mentality. This Mean Girls-like attitude where I thought the only way to get attention was to know the in’s and out’s of everyone else’s business, and to talk about it at every chance I got. Sadly, I think this is how a lot of girls view high school, even if they don’t mean to. It’s just this era that we’re being brought up in. It wasn’t until I fell victim to several vicious rumors that I began to see how hurtful it really was. If you’ve read my previous article, “Why I Chose Life”, you know that I’m a teen mom. I found out on a Monday afternoon, and the news very quickly spread through my school. Coming from a pretty large town, there are actually three high schools that are part of my school district. With social media & texting, the news spread to the other schools in my town in a matter of minutes. When everyone found out, I felt as if everyone in the world heard about it at once. Considering the nature of what was being said, you could probably guess that some people weren’t exactly kind about it.
You know that quote from Mean Girls, the one that goes “Have you ever walked up to people and realized they were just talking about you? Have you ever had it happen 60 times in a row?” I don’t think I can even explain how awful it is to walk from class to class knowing that every single person in your school was just talking about you. I think experiencing this feeling myself gave me a whole new perspective on rumors and talking about other people. Nobody wants their private business to be the main topic of discussion for an entire school, but sadly with social media being so easy-accessible for everyone, rumors get spread a thousand times faster and news travels from person to person in the blink of an eye. After going through this myself, I quickly realized how important it was not to take part in gossiping about “the latest drama” along with everyone else.
I was inspired to write this after seeing yet another “twitter-fight” between two girls who still attend my old high school. Seeing these two equally gorgeous girls duke it out online for the world to see actually made me really sad for them. Watching how easy it was for them to call each other awful names and tear each other down was heart breaking. I began to think about how much better of a place the world would be if we all just took the time to compliment someone, or to say something kind, instead of just calling someone out for doing something we don’t agree with. Maybe that girl who “doesn’t even go here” had a point- “I just wish we all could get along like we used to in middle school”….. but maybe without the cake made out of rainbows and smiles. 😉
