13 Going on 30

The movie, 13 Going on 30,  is about a girl by the name of Jenna Rink. She is in middle school, feeling like an outsider, awkward, smart and just an average girl. She wants to be in the popular clique, The Six Chicks, but isn't pretty or cool enough to be a part of them. She has her best friend Matty by her said who secretly likes her and gives her quite the gift for her birthday. He built her her dream house and wishing dust. The night of her birthday party, the Six Chicks pulled a prank on her leaving Jenna in the closet where she cries and keeps repeating the wish, "Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving." After making this wish, it jumps her to life at 30 years old where it is the complete opposite of the life she envisioned for herself. Yes, she became the leader of The Six Chicks, went to prom with her dream guy and was at the top of her favorite magazine, Sparkle. It also meant a life where she was no longer best friends with Matty and wasn't close to her parents anymore. She got her "Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving" life but not the way she envisioned it.

In this movie, the first stereotype illustrated in this film is Lucy, a.k.a. Tom-Tom. She is the leader of The Six Chicks, she matured physically faster than others, and ruled the school. Every girl wanted to be in this popular group, including Jenna. Being in middle school is all about wanting to be liked, building relationships, and never really being yourself. When Jenna jumps to being 30 years old, you learn how insecure Lucy really was. She became the jealous one over Jenna because instead of Jenna becoming a follower, she became the leader and was above her even working at Sparkle. Lucy is the typical bully who puts herself on top by tearing down those around her and belittling them. She cares about how she looks and even though she is a bully, she cares what everyone thinks about her.

The second stereotype would be Matty. The typical boy-likes-girl-but-girl-doesn't-like-boy scenario. He is Jenna's best friend, dorky, awkward, sweetheart, and loyal. He likes music that other people don't like, like the popular kids. The great thing about Matty though is that he knows he is different and not popular but he doesn't care. He doesn't care about being liked, he doesn't care about being popular, and simply likes himself for who he is. He would do anything for Jenna and stuck by her side until she pushed him away in her futuristic life.

The third stereotype would be Jenna. She's an average girl who wants to fit in and would do whatever she could to fit in to The Six Chicks clique. Like I mentioned before, middle school is all about being liked and whether we want to say we don't care what people think, we always will care what people think. I don't think her character was over exaggerated. She was naive, she just wanted to be liked. She tried to hurt the people she loved to be popular and that is true to this day. I think that overall, this movie does a pretty good job at depicting life in middle school.

If I had to pick any character that I was like in middle school, I would compare myself to Jenna. I didn't actually attend a middle school because I was home-schooled but I was still a middle school kid who cared what people thought of her, who was bullied like Jenna and never fought back because I wanted to be like and accepted. It was when I learned to love who I was just like Jenna that I stopped letting the bully control me and stood up for myself.