Mean Girls is Back

 Mean Girls is back. Mean Girls is the comedic mind of Tina Fey. The movie hit theaters on January 12th, 2024. It’s been twenty years since Tina Fey’s original Mean Girls movie debuted in theaters, and the 53-year-old comedian is bringing back her iconic persona to the big screen — this time in a movie musical reimagining, based on the 2018 Broadway musical of the same name. But, even though the popular film was made in 2004, and has had its revival in 2024, it will never stop being a classic.

 The new Mean Girls is not just an ordinary remake, it’s a musical one. The film, which is based on the 2018 Broadway musical of the same name, is a sequel to the 2004 film of the same name. In Mean Girls, the group of popular girls called the “Plastics” welcome Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) into the top of the social food chain, ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp). However, when Cady blunders by falling for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she soon finds herself in their crosshairs.

Cady said it best in the original movie, “Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you any smarter.” Tenth grader, Joelyne Smith said, “It’s sad to see how people can judge you and think it’s cool but it doesn’t make you any better.” This line was given to Miss Norbury during the assembly scene in the movie musical. Janis and Damian (Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey) repeated the line in the movie’s closing credits. In the original movie, Cady narrates the story, but in the 2024 version, Janis and Damian tell it from a different perspective. They came back to tell the story after the Spring Fling.

 Janis may have been one of the worst characters in Mean Girls, but the last scene in the film showed that she, too, had learned a valuable lesson. There’s nothing to be gained from being rude to another person, regardless of whether they’ve been bad to you in the past or the present. Instead, it only makes you better to be bad to them, as Cady learns when she becomes “Plastic” and acts in the same way she judged herself. Ninth grader, Avneet Kaur said, “Changing yourself and not being who you are, just to get friends is not worth it.” If you’re willing to become someone else’s worst version of yourself just so someone will like you, then they’re not your true friend. The true message of Mean Girls is that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness because everyone deserves it.