Every generation has a movie (or movies) that help to define them. People from that generation not only find great joy watching it, but they also identify with it on some fundamental level. For my generation, one of those movies happens to be called Mean Girls. In this movie a girl named Cady Haron moves from Africa to America and attends a new high school.

As some of us know, the teenage years aren’t particularly enjoyable. Your body changes and you have to learn how to navigate this world in a new phase of life. This is one of the reasons why Cady had it so rough. She had to not only deal with this “typical teenager stuff,” but she had other issues to deal with as well. Going to a new school is tough for anyone, but it’s particularly tough when you’ve spent your entire life going to school in a different country. Moving to a new school in a new country means that you have to get used to all of their different habits and customs, but you still also have to deal with the same plight that every other teenager is going through.

So Cady is thrust into this new environment in the middle of high school and is forced to adjust. The first few days are pretty difficult for her from a social standpoint (she even eats lunch inside of the bathroom). However, things start looking up when she meets two new friends. Cady instantly hits it off with her new friends Janis Ian and Damian. They help her to navigate this new and scary world. However, not too long after they meet, Janis and Damian tell Cady about a group called The Plastics.

This group of three girls is the most popular group of girls in school, and as such, they terrorize everyone around them who isn’t as popular as they are. Everything finally seems to be looking up for Cady when unexpectedly, the head Plastic takes an interest in her and asks her to come and eat lunch with them. Janis and Damian encourage her not only to eat lunch with them, but also to make friends with them so that she can attempt to destroy them from the inside. In the beginning, Cady doesn’t take much interest in the girls. She pretends to fit in with them so that she can carry out the plan to break up The Plastics. She gathers Intel and conspires with Damian and Janis about ways to take them down. However, as the movie progress, Cady finds herself not pretending anymore. At first, Cady disliked The Plastics and what they stood for. But now, Cady finds herself not only liking The Plastics and everything that they do but she also starts liking the person she has become as a Plastic. Soon she not only stops doing well in school (something that she once took pride in) but she also drops out of the Mathletes and starts being nasty towards the people around her, including her friends Janis and Damian.

It’s not until everything starts to fall apart for Cady that she realizes that she hasn’t been being true to herself. Once she finds herself at her lowest point, she decides to make a change to start being authentic with herself. She stops hanging out with The Plastics, starts studying so that her grades could get back up, joins the Mathletes again, and makes amends with everyone that she has hurt during her reign with The Plastics.

Even if you’ve never watched Mean Girls before, everyone (young, old, and in between) can take away an important message from this movie…

You shouldn’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not.

Pretending to be something that you’re not is draining.

But you know what’s not draining…

Being you.

Being you comes naturally to you because it’s who you are. You don’t have to put any effort into it because you’re doing something that you’re meant to be doing. Choosing to remain your authentic self is probably one of the best gifts you can give to yourself. And you’ll grant yourself peace of mind by doing it because you won’t have to be worried about keeping up a charade all of the time.

Cady may not have been the most popular girl at school and she may not have been the prettiest, but when she accepted herself as who she was then she was able to start enjoying her life again.

Accept yourself as you are positive thinker.

It’s a lot less time consuming as trying to be someone else, and you’ll end up a lot happier for it!

There’s enough of all the other people in the world, but there’s only one you!

Be the you you’re supposed to be!