Because we portray periods as the single most important change in a preteen girl’s life…and there isn’t a lot of media that shows otherwise.

Calling all cringy girls

When I think about movies I've watched, there are a few where boys are shown as awkward and strange and interested in the girls. Although Rated R, Superbad is the first to come to mind. Teen boys can have desires, be unsure of how to behave, not know anything about periods… and it's fine? I can't name a specific movie, but examples of boys' voices cracking as they grow up are normal. We all know that's a thing—we don't need movies that spell it out.

Meilin and her friends aren’t so different from that. They pine for the singers in 4-Town, pretending they’ll all be married someday. They ogle the clerk at the local corner, and Meilin draws imagined scenarios of them together. Her heart beats faster when she sees her classmate, and she doesn’t get what’s happening to her. I mean, did any of us?

Portraying puberty for girls shouldn’t need a period to make a point. If periods were treated like cracking pubescent voices, would it be as weird?

Straight to high school

In the 1990s-2000s, there wasn’t age-appropriate media that showed the onset of puberty for girls. The movies available in my youth were sanitized of it. No pads, no training bras, nothing. Outside of books, nothing existed to say crushes and imagined romantic scenarios are normal for a 12 year-old girl.

High school comedies were funny, though mostly focused on romance… so where were the ones for girls like me?

Mean Girls was my first, and most memorable, movie on female adolescence. It paralleled parts of my middle school experience, and it was funny! Romance is only one conflict in the film, not the entire plotline. The themes of authenticity, insecurity, and friendship are all present, and this film's impact on pop culture is unquestionable.

But as much as I like the movie, it's not about the onset of adolescence… Where girls are still more like children than adults.

God, it’s brutal out there

Preteen girls have it rough. Liking boy bands is juvenile, but having a boyfriend is grown-up. They have bad taste in music but are the trend setters for, like, everything. They're too young to have desires but old enough to be desirable. Our current portrayals aren't enough as these same portrayals tell girls they aren't enough.

There’s so much fun in the messiness of growing up.

If we don’t acknowledge their imaginations or curiosity or awkwardness, we’re telling girls that they should jump neatly from the box of childhood to adulthood without any mistakes or any experiences. Another unrealistic expectation in an already long list.

Girls should just be. They should be cringy and goofy and weird without whatever hangups and expectations others have of them. Turning Red is a story that loves them for doing just that, and reminds us that we should too.

Big feelings, great expectations

Some people might turn red when they have big feelings, but Meilin turns into a red panda. It’s her first time dealing with intense emotions… Excitement about 4-Town! Fun with friends! Embarrassment by parents!

It’s a lot to figure out, but it sure is fun to watch.

Turning Red isn’t about periods—those are just one part of puberty after all. The film is about redefining your relationships as you grow and learn new things about yourself. It's about loving yourself through all the changes…And trusting that your people will love you the whole way through. I’m hopeful we’ll see more like it in the future.

At least that way, we can stop assuming movies for preteen girls are about periods.