Cady Heron undergoes several personality changes throughout the film Mean Girls. When she initially starts high school in the beginning of the film, she is friendly, aware of who she is as a person, albeit oblivious to the social norms of an American high school. Throughout the film, she is severely influenced by her peers, who persuade her to change who she is as a person in exchange for popularity. Cady progressively loses her individuality and refashions herself in the image of Regina, dubbed the ‘Queen Bee’ of the school. She adopts Regina's ruthlessness, abandoning Janis and Damien in the process and focusing solely on her image. Cady Heron is a teenager who is still attempting to build a self-identity that she finds appealing. Cady only discovers her true self near the end of Mean Girls, when she realises how much she has changed for the worst and how much it has affected others around her. As a result, Cady is said to have a dual personality throughout the movie. She is a thoughtful, understanding, and generally happy girl who seeks long-term relationships with family and friends when she is being herself. However, she is also viewed as harsh, stupid, and self-absorbed as a result of her peers' influence on her personality.

Cady Heron’s social group changes alongside her personality as she changes as a person throughout the film. At the start of the movie, Cady is the ‘new girl’. She does not have any friends at this new school, and as she’s been homeschooled her whole life, she has no clear idea of the social norms and expectations of an American high school, considering herself the “homeschooled jungle freak”. However, as she slowly indoctrinates herself into Regina George’s clique, ‘The Plastics’, this changes. She becomes a ‘popular mean girl’, wearing tighter silhouettes, heavier makeup and changing her interests to fit the standard ‘mean girl’ trope. Where she used to be interested in maths, she is now interested in fashion and boys. Her old friends describe her here as “cold hard plastic”, a “clone of Regina” and a “bitch”. When the ‘Burn Book’ gets posted around the whole school and Cady takes all the blame, she changes yet again to the ‘most hated in school’, losing all her friends and even having to eat her lunch in a toilet stall – a scene that parallels her doing the same thing at the start of the film, a time she had no friends. By senior year, she is shown to have ditched her ‘mean girl’ traits in order to finally be true to herself and who she is as a person. It is here she reflects on the path she took to find herself, saying how she had “-gone from a homeschooled jungle freak to shiny plastic, to most hated person in the world, to an actual human being.” These many changes are a result of Cady’s desire to fit in and be liked by her peers, representing the many people in high school who don’t yet know who they are as a person, but trying to figure it out.

by Ayla Preller 

Janis Ian is portrayed as witty, creative, sarcastic, and some would even say funny. Janis isn't afraid to tell the hard truth and call people out. Despite the fact that she's the queen of killer comebacks and one-liners, such as when she states “Wow Damian, you’ve truly out-gayed yourself,” she will be completely honest concerning her emotions and cares strongly about her friends.

In this movie Janis is mostly constructed as a bold high school rebel, working endlessly to overthrow an oppressive dictator. This ‘social outcast’ may despise Regina George with a fiery passion, but she’s without a doubt more like her nemesis than any other person in the movie. She shares the Queen Bee’s gift for figuring out a person’s most susceptible spots and precisely knowing a way to assault them mentally and physically. She’s driven with the aid of anger and the choice to make a person suffer just to make up for her personal secret pain.

 What group does the character represent and why?

In this film Janis Ian is represented as a social outcast and a so called ‘loner.’ In one scene she is shown to be sitting with the “art geeks,” which is no surprise as later on in the film she is revealed to be quite artistic and creative. Janis’s social status and character representation may have taken place because of her past relationship with Regina George. After being best friends in middle school they had a massive falling out resulting in Regina using derogatory slurs against Janis and spreading rumours that she was a ‘lesbian’. This affected Janis majorly and is why she separated away from Regina and her inner circle of friends and started expressing herself how she wanted. This also made Janis start a revenge plot against Regina with the help of ‘new student’ Cady, and why Janis is now part of the ‘group’ that we perceive her in today.

Regina George is played by Rachael McAdams in one of the most popular teenage chick flicks, Mean girls.

Regina George's character is portrayed as the ‘pretty blonde’ described as a living like “A barbie doll you’ve never had”. Blonde, glamourous, wealthy, beautiful, and seemingly carefree, she’s the original leader of the ‘plastics’ group followed along by Gretchen wiener, Karen smith (her minions) and soon to be Cady Heron, their group name associated with teen royalty. She’s the stereotypical popular high school girl, idolized for her beauty and accidental trend-setting disasters. Every student knows who she is, and everybody is always talking about her.

Throughout the film Regina’s character is represented as manipulative and intelligent; she manipulates the people around her into giving her exactly what she wants – whether she’s persuading her parents to give her a bigger bedroom or even if it’s a quick phone call to a mum about a fake pregnancy. Her social status is what keeps her at the top of the ladder as soon as that slips away so does her power. Regina’s hobbies are typical of a teenage girl: she likes shopping, makeovers, parties and gossiping about other people.

In this film, Regina George's group represents the popular girl stereotype group. Throughout the film she is referred to as the ‘queen bee’ and ‘ruler’ of her school Northshore High. Students make simple interactions with her sound like they literally met the queen of England. “One time she punched me in the face, it was awesome.” Popularity, after all, is a status that many teenagers like to reach and obtain. She embodied and resembled every mean popular girl who ever bullied someone in high school. People either love or hate Regina, some even felt threatened and personally victimised by her actions including Principal Ron Duvall and other teachers including Ms Norbury. Let’s be honest Regina does sound like a bit of a bitch. By senior year and after her spine healed from being hit by a bus, the plastics had broken up. Regina has now found herself taking out all her anger into sports after talking to her physical therapist, it was labelled as a ‘perfect idea as the jock girls weren’t afraid of her and nor was, she afraid of them’

She has discarded her mean and popular characteristics to finally find a place where she can take out her anger without being punished or blamed for wrong doing. She learns to be a better version of herself. From a manipulative, bitchy, mean plastic to someone who isn’t afraid to get dirty.

How is Karen Smith constructed?

Karen Smith, played by Amanda Seyfried, is one of the main characters in the movie, Mean Girls. She is a part of the exclusive popular group, also known around the school as ‘the plastics’. While being a major persona in the group, she is liked by everyone and quite friendly. She is seen as “Teen Royalty” by the rest of the year, as quoted by Janice Ian. “She is one of the dumbest girls you will ever meet”. Even though she may not have the highest IQ, she is self-aware and has an understanding of her limited academic abilities. “you’re not stupid Karen”, “no I am, actually. I’m falling almost everything”. Karen is naive and easily influenced by her friends, making it very easy for others to manipulate and use her as a blind follower. Despite all of this she does truly like spending time with them and has a positive and easy-going nature. “Do you wanna do something fun? Do you wanna go to Taco-Bell?”. She is very close with Regina George, the head mean girl, which we can see by the number of photos of them together on Regina’s wall, in her bedroom. She is usually seen in designer clothing, heels, small shirts, and skirts, only playing into her flirty and ditsy personality more. Overall, Karen smith is constructed as a dumb, but easy going and positive character through design, script, camera shots and general persona. 

What group does Karen represent and how?

Karen belongs to the exclusive popular group, otherwise known as “The Plastics”. She is a stereotypical ‘dumb blonde’ and strongly represents cliché high school girls. Karen is also very feminine and girly, easily the most feminine of the ‘mean girls’. She is conventional attractive and dresses in very soft clothing. However, Karen is very different to both Gretchen and Regina in the sense that she is liked by her peers because of her personality and not just looks. Despite this, consistently throughout the movie, she is seen as a popular and desired teenager, representing teenage girls throughout.