On January 12, 2024, the new Mean Girls movie was released. Although there has been a musical aspect added, the storyline from the 2004 Mean Girls movie has stayed the same. The iconic original Mean Girls movie is known to be a hallmark high school movie. Freshman Leanna Lisecki said, “I feel like everyone’s emotions are exaggerated, and especially the drama is way too much, but they have some real-life situations in the movie.” Is Mean Girls realistic and relatable for high schoolers today?
According to Damian and Janis, where you sit in the cafeteria is crucial because you’ve got everybody there. The different cliques show who you are and how others may see you. The plastics are on the top of the top but beware of them.
“High school has cliques, unlike in the movies. We don’t have the jocks and nerds. I don’t think meeting different groups is necessarily intense, but sometimes it’s intimidating when you aren’t friends with those people. The different groups pretty much leave each other alone. The groups don’t all interact but rather the individual people do,” said freshman Amelie Buchler.
“Yes, high school has different cliques. People with different interests are likely to hang with similar people, which causes separation. Meeting different groups is sometimes scary because you never know what to expect,” said sophomore Scarlet Rowe-Vath.
The lifestyle of the plastics comes with constant pressure. You don’t know if you should risk it and follow what they say, or listen to your natural instinct. Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith telling you to go shopping with them might test your strong will so be careful.
“It was the last day before the semester ended and everybody was skipping class. My friends were repeatedly telling me to leave school with them and go to Starbucks. I almost went but I ended up staying at school because I felt guilty,” said sophomore Benjamin Rahav.
Cady Heron finds her first crush in her new school. What will she do? Being friends with “The Plastics” might get her a bit of trouble because her little crush is Aaron Samuels, the queen bee Regina Georges’s ex-boyfriend. There is only one way for Regina to get back at Cady for acting in such ways. There’s nothing like a little Halloween party to get her revenge
“There are friendships that people get backstabbed the way Regina back-stabbed Cady. Like backstabbing close friends or people they thought were their friends. Also, the people I trust the most are those I have known for a while, and if they tell me something, they can trust me. Regina getting back at Cady at the Halloween party was unrealistic because I feel like from my personal high school experience, I have never really seen anything like that happen,” said sophomore London Stone.
“The friendship dynamic of “The Plastics” can happen in real life but since it’s a movie they do have some unrealistic things as well. Like the dramaticness of every friendship is. Like how Cady tried to take revenge on Regina by giving protein bars to make Regina gain weight. I don’t think anyone would do that,” said sophomore Connie Kim.
Oh, desperate Cady. Was acting dumb for Aaron so that he could be your tutor even worth it?
“No, I’ve never tried to lessen myself for a guy. Not like Cady did when she tried to act dumb so that Aaron could tutor her. But I have a couple of friends that have tried to, and it never worked out in the end,” said freshman Leanna Lisecki.
“I’ve never tried to make myself dumb necessarily, but I have tried to make an excuse like asking a question to try and make conversation, which is honestly stupid. I don’t know why I did that. Thankfully, not to the degree Cady ever did, but I have done that once or twice and seen it with some of my friends at school,” said junior Kaia Heiberg.
Some LACES students may say the outlook on high school in the film may be extreme, but others can agree that current high school norms are similar to those in the movie.
