20 Life Lessons We Learnt From Teen Movies
This year marks 10 years since everyone’s favourite cult teen movie Mean Girls was released, so I (with a little help from Joseph and Holly) took a little look at what life lessons our favourite teen movies taught us that we carried into our twenties.
1. There is nothing you can’t get through in life if you have you have your friends by your side…even being turned into a guy!
Rachel McAdams certainly learnt that when she got turned into Rob Schneider a couple of weeks before prom in The Hot Chick.
2. That sometimes the loser does get the girl/guy in the end.
Remember when diner girl Hilary Duff kissed Chad Michael Murray in the rain at the football game in A Cinderella Story and gave all us geeky girls a little bit of hope for surviving high school?
3. That when a moment deserves a slow clap, “you’ll just know”.
Just like those guys in Not Another Teen Movie.
4. Being an introvert is not necessarily a bad thing.
Who wants to go out and party every single night when there’s books to be read and films to be watched?
5. Band geeks are not always as sweet and innocent as you might think.
Alyson Hannigan in American Pie, enough said.
6. You can love and hate someone at the same time.
Even if you’re just like Kat and can list 10 Things I Hate About You.
7. The “freaks” are the greatest people you will ever meet.
Remember Janice’s famous map of Northshore for Cady?
8. Just because he (or she) is popular or cool doesn’t mean they’re not a massive jerk. You’ll look back in 10 years time and wonder what the hell you were thinking.
As told by literally every teen movie ever.
9. Similarly, being part of the “in crowd” isn’t important and is more likely to be your downfall than anything else.
Something we wish we all knew when we were thirteen.
10. If you feel like you’ve wandered into a horror film, you probably have! Run!
Like those kids in Scary Movie should have done.
11. Letting your friends set up webcams so they can watch your “encounter” with a foreign exchange student will never end well.
Another lesson from American Pie. Don’t ever let them do it!
12. Doing the right thing is more important than winning.
Torrance risking the Toros losing the cheer championship, but making sure they did the right thing by the Clovers.
13. Things don’t need to last forever to be perfect.
And Kat Dennings in Daydream Nation was pretty perfect.
14. A hamburger phone is the perfect accessory at any age.
Admit it, we all wanted Juno’s hamburger phone!
15. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, so don’t wish your life away.
Becoming a teenager again might seem like a good idea at the time but remember it isn’t always better than being a grown up, besides, who wants spots a second time around?
16. Ruining somebody else’s life won’t make you any happier.
Even if it’s Regina George, making her fat, stealing her boyfriend and turning her best friends against her will never make you any happier!
17. I am the main character in my own life, it is not my job to save you.
Wise words from Kat Dennings as Caroline Wexler in Daydream Nation, go out and live your life for you.
18. Sex is “nobody else’s God damned business”.
Not that any of us believed this when we were 16.
19. When hitchhiking across Europe, make sure you speak the same language as the truck driver.
Or you might end up in Bratislava when you’re really wanting to go to Berlin on your Euro Trip.
But I think the most important life lesson we all learnt from teen movies is:
20. You cannot hold swim team practice in the projection room above the auditorium.
Come on Aaron, how could you fall for that one??
By Kat Lawson
