Cardi B might have recently reiterated, “Broke boys don’t deserve no pussy (I know that’s right!),” but it was TLC who helmed that message best on one of their biggest singles, “No Scrubs,” from their FanMail album. Pointedly released in the weeks just before Valentine’s Day of 1999, the song caused an immediately polarizing reaction between the sexes. For women, it was a long overdue roasting of men who presumed that women should “bow down” simply because they were men. For the latter, it was their worst fear realized: the opposite sex not only calling them on their bullshit, but insisting they wouldn’t tolerate it anymore if there wasn’t even any money and associated lavishing to be had out of the deal.
Thus, T-Boz, Chilli and Left-Eye changed womanhood forever with five simple words, “I don’t want no scrub.” The definition being a guy who’s “always talkin’ ‘bout what he wants and just sits on his broke ass.” Tinashe clearly took that message to heart (as much as Cardi B on the aforementioned “Up”) with “No Broke Boys,” her third single from Quantum Baby. Just how much is made apparent when she declares, “Run up the cost, ‘cause I need me a spender/Love is never really for free.” Such a transactional view of “love” almost makes it seem as if she watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes before writing those lines (and yes, she is blonde in the video).
In contrast to her last music video and song, “Getting No Sleep,” Tinashe has opted to tap very much into her hetero side for this particular concept, even going full cheerleader in the accompanying visual, directed by Aerin Moreno (a frequent collaborator of Madison Beer’s). But more than just dressing in a cheerleader uniform, Tinashe seeks to evoke the vibe of 2000’s Bring It On, complete with her squad going pom-pom to pom-pom with a rival one. And the callback to that era makes sense considering how “00s hip hop/R&B” the backing track—co-produced by Zach Sekoff, Phoelix and Ricky Reed—sounds (it even has occasional tinges of Nivea’s “Don’t Mess With My Man”).
Opening with the verse, “Ex on the line, just as I suspected/No one really gets over me/I’m unaffected, why would you try to ever put me second?/You just another groupie to me now,” there’s something in Tinashe’s tone that recalls Mýa, even though the sentiment isn’t “Case of the Ex,” so much as bearing a similarity to (again) Cardi B flexing, “I like texts from my exes when they want a second chance” on 2018’s “I Like It.” As for the Bring It On “codedness” (read: totally overt callback to said 00s masterpiece), Tinashe and co. appear on the football field and on the bleachers to perform their lively choreo with ample confidence.
In one of the only scenes off the field, Tinashe—in the “costume” of a football player rather than a cheerleader (perhaps a subtle nod to her “swinging both ways”)—teaches her fellow women what she calls “Our Standards.” This done in a manner and mise-en-scène that also harkens back to another 00s movie: Mean Girls. Specifically, when Coach Carr (Dwayne Hill) warns his students in “health class,” “Don’t have sex. Because you will get pregnant and die.” Here, what Tinashe is ultimately saying to men is: Don’t be broke. Because you will be dead to me otherwise.
As for the standards Tinashe lists for her own far more attentive pupils than the ones in Coach Carr’s class, they are: 1) Not broke, 2) Under 1K followers (an interesting “ask”), 3) Big dick, 4) Not a DJ/promoter, 5) Six inches (or “6’s”) minimum, 6) Good with his hands and 7) Emotionally available. Not just a lot to require of any “modern” man, but additionally rather cliched and outmoded at this point in terms of conveying a stereotype about “what women want.” Nonetheless, as her squad takes notes, even the team led by the other head cheerleader (the one who looks like a version of Megan Fox in the earlier stages of her plastic surgery) has to stop and pay attention. So on board with the list, in fact, that they even put aside their differences/competitiveness long enough for them to nod in agreement, smile and infiltrate the class.
During the “big finish” of the video, the two groups join in together on their presently shared choreography, having found peace and common ground through this understanding of the “no scrubs” code that has, evidently, been updated to “no broke boys.” A concept Destiny’s Child also spoke to on “Bills Bills Bills,” which, incidentally, was released the same year as “No Scrubs”—but the former put their single out in May of 1999, two months after “No Scrubs” had already caused shock and delight around the world (though mainly in the United States, where a “response song” like “No Pigeons” “had to be” released in order to “keep women in check,” or some such bullshit male logic).
But Tinashe actually succeeds more deftly than Destiny’s Child at distilling and repurposing what TLC already said, refreshing their message with the upbeat chorus, “No broke boys, no new friends/I’m that pressure, give me my tens/Ain’t no lie, ain’t no shade/Fuck on me, then you know he paid/Looks so good, makes no sense/Bad ass bitch, with my bad ass friends/No broke boys, ain’t no shade/Fuck on me, then you know he paid.” All sung in a very “cheerleader chant” sort of way.
By the final frame of the video, however, Tinashe is walking all alone down the fifty-yard line—yet another indication that she’d rather be a “lone” wolf/cheerleader than settle for some dusty football player who’s going to end up as a used car salesman rather than a Travis Kelce. Hey, no one ever said capitalism and “love” weren’t inextricably linked. Least of all TLC.
Despite Lindsay Lohan’s rather limited filmography, it hasn’t stopped her from continually homing in on the main three movies that launched her into the spotlight—The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls—as premises/allusions in her various brand deals over the years. And, if not referencing one of those movies, Lohan has always been able finagle a brand partnership by making fun of her party girl past. She did as much in 2015 with an Esurance commercial, in 2018 for a brief stint as lawyer.com’s spokesperson and again in 2022 with an ad for Planet Fitness that was sure to play up how healthy and vital she is now. So “vital,” in fact, that she still needs to do commercials because of how few and far between the film roles are (and no, one isn’t counting her “Netflix comeback” with Falling For Christmas and Irish Wish).
This much was further emphasized again in 2022 when she released yet another ad that paid Mean Girls homage galore, this time for a shoe brand: Allbirds. Then, in 2023, she went back to Mean Girls again via a Peter Thomas Roth ad that found her playing a “customer service representative” (a.k.a. herself wearing a headset) to answer the call of a woman asking, “What can Peter Thomas Roth eye patches help me with?” In reply, Lohan gushes, “Hydration, depuffing, anti-aging…the limit does not exist!” Nor does the limit exist for the amount of products that Lohan will shill while simultaneously hammering home the point that the height of her movie career was in the 2000s (even though The Parent Trap came out in 1998). The Mean Girls milking didn’t stop that year either, with Lohan really going for broke (a.k.a. money) via a Wal-Mart commercial that would be as close as she could get to a sequel (something she had been blabbing about for years on various talk shows, only to be saddled with an embarrassing cameo in the eventual movie version of the Broadway musical).
In her latest to bid to remind people of her relevance by recalling the past (something Lohan’s longtime frenemy, Paris Hilton, is defter at), Lohan concedes to riff on The Parent Trap for a Nexxus hair product commercial titled “The Style Swap”—surely, you get the similarity in title. Obviously, this is because Mean Girls is too exhausted by now and she’s waiting to release the sequel to Freaky Friday (Freakier Friday) before she starts fully milking that again, too. Hence, reverting to The Parent Trap, her very first feature. After all, not many people are going to get a Just My Luck or even Life-Size reference. So that leaves a concept that starts with Lohan sitting at her vanity as someone calls from offscreen, “Lindsay! Ready to go?” “Give me five,” she calls back. Gazing into the mirror, she then “muses,” “Hmm, who do I wanna be today? I’m feeling twinspired…but, as I always say, let the hair decide.”
She then has a “fantasy” of two hairstyles meant to embody the personality types of Hallie Parker and Annie James, the twins separated at birth in The Parent Trap who end up reuniting at the same summer camp. While Annie is a polished and sophisticated Londoner, Hallie is a loose, casual California girl. Thus, Nexxus takes advantage of the hairstyle “contrasts” by showcasing one version of Lohan in a slicked-back ponytail narrating, “Do I wanna go understated with a sleek pony?” She then saturates her hair with a “slick stick” (not suggestive at all) and declares, “The Nexxus slick stick is my go-to” before breaking the fourth wall and asking (in Annie’s British accent), “Where was this in the 90s?”
The Hallie persona then enters the picture by way of Lohan lying on her back (no stranger to said position) on the bed with a deck of cards fanned out in her hands—an automatic callback to the poker scene in The Parent Trap. She muses, “Do I wanna go bold with hair as big as my personality?” “Hallie” then douses her tresses with a spray and explains, “This Nexxus XXL hairspray gives me major volume.” It’s at this point that she stares into a Beauty and the Beast-like hand mirror and tells herself, “You never looked better.” This being what amounts to an almost exact re-creation of what she does in the Peter Thomas Roth commercial with a hand mirror, also telling herself, “Honey, you never looked better.” Unless this is just her new occasional catchphrase (à la Paris Hilton with “sliving”), it seems ill-advised to use it in commercials for two separate brands. But then, Lohan is known for being somewhat sloppy.
Winking at the camera after repeating what she already did for Peter Thomas Roth, she’s then joined in the next scene by her “twinspirations,” with ponytailed Annie insisting, “Well, I think the choice here is obvious.” Hallie chimes in, “Yep, very obvious. Have you ever seen hair this bouncy?” The “real” Lindsay then announces, “I have a beyond brilliant idea [this being a Hallie quote from the movie]. Sorry girls, you’re dismissed.” Snapping her fingers, she disappears the two and proceeds to meld the best of both styles while cringily continuing her narration with, “Brat summer is over. Flawless fall is now.”
And, apparently, “flawless fall” means looking like Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix)—oversized black hat (granted, Meredith’s wasn’t that oversized) and white dress included—instead of either one of her twin selves. When Lohan finally shows herself to the person who was waiting for her, someone intended to be her daughter, one presumes, the girl says of her overdressed appearance, “I thought we were just going to the grocery store.” Lohan shrugs, “We are.”
Now out on the sidewalk in front of her brownstone (how Carrie Bradshaw), Lohan looks at the camera again and instructs, “Darling, always live like the cameras are watching” (because, frankly, they are—and who remembers that better than the formerly-stalked-by-the-paparazzi Lohan?). This being a statement more in line with her Lola Steppe character from Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Perhaps the next movie that Lohan will resort to referencing in a commercial, since Mean Girls and The Parent Trap are growing increasingly stale and there are few things that the I Know Who Killed Me storyline could work for in terms of advertising (even though that story, too, involves twins separated at birth).
In an era where everything old is new again, millennial nostalgia has reached fever pitch. Everything is a reboot or a remake or a rehash these days — from films like
Yes, IP is king, and Hollywood runs on sure bets. But also, we can’t overlook the power of a heartthrob to shape culture. And the particular brand of nostalgia I’m feeling is totally fueled by the unexpected comebacks of two early 2000s heartthrobs: Zac Efron and Chad Michael Murray.
Efron had a surprising summer Netflix hit in his turn as a reformed celebrity playboy in A Family Affair. Yes, the film stars Nicole Kidman — who’s in another age-gap romance this year Babygirl, alongside Efron’s former costar Harris Dickinson. But the most headline-worthy thing about the film was the press tour. Fueled by costar Joey King’s own memories of being a High School Musical and Hairspray fan, Efron took fans through a highlight reel of his finest moments.
From reaction videos of his most iconic scenes to brand-new revelations about decade-old performances, it was refreshing to hear Efron’s perspective. After distancing himself from the Disney bubble, Efron barely talks about his days as a teen dreamboat. But we haven’t forgotten. So this influx of information was a welcome change — and oh my god, the lore was better than I could have imagined.
Efron spent a lot of time reminiscing on his breakout role in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical. From revealing that the “Getcha Head In The Game” dance number (basketball shots and all) was filmed in one take to shouting out his castmates and saying he’s up for a reunion, it was everything I never knew I needed. The most rousing revelation was when he casually dropped the fact that his most memorable — and most memed — performance of “Bet On It” in High School Musical 2 was entirely improvised.
Fans reeled at the tsunami of tea. What do you mean that every perfectly executed moment of angst in that video was improvised? Pure genius. Virtuosic commitment to the bit. “Give Zac Efron a Retroactive Oscar,” exclaimed The Cut. And I agree. I’ve been saying that Zac Efron needs his flowers for years. He’s our generation’s McConaughey. And he’s finally getting his due — especially since his role in The Iron Claw last year, alongside Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson. With upcoming projects on the way, he’s in a verifiable career resurgence.
But he’s not the only one of my teenage crushes experiencing a second act to their career.
Chad Michael Murray, the brooding heartthrob who filled every millennial girl’s dreams during his time on One Tree Hill, has been staging a comeback of his own. While promoting his latest projects — Mother of the Bride, along with the new steamy CW series Sullivan’s Crossing — he’s been doing interviews, appearing on podcasts, and making TikToks to fuel our nostalgia — and it’s working.
For the past few years, Murray’s been popping up in the most random media. He did a stint on Riverdale as a hot cult leader (I would have fallen for it too). He did a couple of Hallmark movies. But now he’s back in the mainstream and digging into this nostalgia hole alongside us.
As he prepares to film Freaky Friday 2 — a sequel to the 21-year-old Lindsay Lohan flick, which is in turn a remake of the original-original 1976 Freaky Friday that starred Jodi Foster! — we’re eating it up. It’s 20+ years since the original, so Murray’s celebrating by spilling the tea on some of his best roles. He’s also been reciting some of his most memorable lines to melt fans’ hearts.
But along with the lore, there’s gossip galore. In hindsight, some facts about backstage beef and our faves feuding have emerged. But they don’t cloud our visions of those iconic millennial dramas — honestly, the smell of drama just makes me more intrigued.
The headline? Chad Michael Murray found himself in the middle of a love triangle between Lindsay Lohan, Hillary Duff, and Aaron Carter. Carter dumped Duff for Lohan in a move that’s reminiscent of the Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter drama.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Murray worked with Lohan on Freaky Friday the year before A Cinderella Story. As a co-star to both starlets, he became a conduit for chaos. Long story short, they both gossiped about each other in the press — a 2000s version of subtweets or Twitter beef — and Duff barred Lohan from the A Cinderella Story premiere. Here’s hoping Duff will make it to the Freaky Friday 2 premiere.
But it’s not just the stars who are feeling this nostalgia wave. The reunions and comebacks have created a strange new reality where millennials are simultaneously reliving their youth and facing their mortality. This nostalgia boom has led to some unexpected trends in the world of fashion and pop culture. Low-rise jeans are fully back and other millennial memories are being resurrected in front of them by Gen Z — raising questions about whether we’re moving forward or simply stuck in a Y2K time loop.
The resurgence of these millennial icons, combined with the run of reunion tours sweeping the nation, has created a perfect storm of nostalgia that’s hitting millennials harder than the realization that “10 years ago” is no longer the 90s. Take the reunion of the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus being crowned a Disney legend, and even Justin Bieber having a baby. Everything’s a reminder that our favorite childhood stars are old now — and we are too.
The resurrection of these cultural touchstones has sparked a new phenomenon: nostalgia whiplash. One minute, you’re belting out “Breaking Free” in your car, feeling like you’re 16 again. The next, you’re googling “Zac Efron age” and having an existential crisis when you realize he’s old enough to play the dad in movies. It’s like emotional time travel if time travel leaves you with a slight hangover and the realization that you can’t stay out as late as you used to.
And with time, secrets often emerge. Like how when Britpop icons Oasis announced their reunion, fans took a trip down memory lane to revisit the best and worst of the Britpop/hard rock band. With time, the good seems better, and the bad just gives it layers.
There’s no show that epitomizes this more than Glee. For better or for worse, Ryan Murphy changed the television landscape with this one. By making a show entirely about outsiders — namely putting queer people front and center for the first time — he was a pioneer of representation. But Glee didn’t birth a legion of gleeks for no reason — that chaotic, cursed show had a profound impact on us. Can you believe the first episode premiered 15 years ago?
It’s been 15 years since “Don’t Stop Believing” got an update, since a whole new generation of these kids were indoctrinated into loving the musical Funny Girl (guilty), and the world met Lea Michele. But the past 15 years haven’t been easy. The Glee curse is just about as tragic as the Kennedy family curse.
Stars of the show — Corey Monteith, Naya Rivera, and Mark Salling — have died. Members of the crew have also been victims of the Glee curse, including assistant director Jim Fuller, who died of a heart attack; production assistant Nancy Motes, who died by suicide; and Matthew Morrison’s stand-in Mark Watson, who died from a “car fire.”
Plus, shows like The Price of Glee and Quiet on Set have revealed the dark truths behind some of our cherished childhood shows. That’s the price of getting older: seeing the hard truths beneath the rosy veneer.
Yet, for all the existential crises and surreal moments, there’s something undeniably comforting about this latest wave of nostalgia. In a world that often feels chaotic and unpredictable, there’s solace to be found in the familiar chords of a Jonas Brothers song or still saying, “they did this on Glee” whenever you’re at a bar and a classic rock song plays.
I often wish it could just be 2008 again, the year High School Musical 3 and Twilight both came out in theaters. Or better yet, Summer of 2007, when High School Musical 2 premiered on the same night as the first episode of Phineas and Ferb and the Hannah Montana Episode “Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas” — the epic Disney Channel crossover that inspired the best Jonas Brother song, “Lovebug.” That just might have been the best night of my life.
But now I’m here: slathering on anti-aging treatments, considering “preventative” Botox, and checking my 401K balance. If you want to feel even older, here are some of our other teen media favorites that are having Significant Anniversaries this year:
1. A Cinderella Story (20th Anniversary)
Remember when we thought AOL Instant Messenger was the height of romance? Oh, to text Austin Ames “LOL” over AIM. Now we’re getting ghosted on the apps and no amount of fairy godmother magic can fix our dating lives.
This flick sold us the lie that the hot quarterback was secretly a sensitive poet who’d fall for the quirky outsider. A classic tale for rom-coms but this is arguably one of the best that’s ever been executed. No Cinderella adaptation has come close to this one. Especially not Another Cinderella Story with Selena Gomez — though “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” was a banger. With a new Freaky Friday in the works, I’m hoping this Chad Michael Murray flick will also get its remake.
I’ll never forgive Ryan Murphy for giving theater kids a platform …yet they can never make me hate Glee. Cast feuds, diva drama, and rumors of on-set fights just add to the allure of the drama. Glee is the reason TV went from High School Musical to an even more musical high school and then further onto musical college, like Pitch Perfect. But I can still sing every Mercedes harmony in the Glee soundtrack.
Yes, age has taught me that Mr. Schue was kind of a creepy man-child with a vest fetish who lived vicariously through his students — why were his students the only people at his wedding??? And though Rachel Berry was supposed to be the protagonist, we realized that being a diva doesn’t get you ahead in life. It only makes everyone hate you at the office Christmas party.
Yet, there’ll never be anything like belting the Glee version of “Don’t Stop Believing” — or better yet, Jonathan Groff’s rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
3. Mean Girls (20 years)
20 years ago, fetch happened. The movie is a hallmark of millennial nostalgia, with quotes so insidious they worked their way into memes and lexicons alike. Tina Fey’s magnum opus about teenage cruelty gave us unforgettable quips and unrealistic expectations of high school hotness. Two decades later, the remake they made for Gen Z starring Renee Rapp, frankly, doesn’t come close to the original. I cherish the Lohan version even more now that I’ve seen what a trainwreck the second version is. The limits of our obsession does not exist, apparently.
4. Napoleon Dynamite (20 years)
Remember when random equaled funny? This indie darling made awkward cool in peak millennial humor. Nothing about this movie would fly anymore. Gen Zs probably cringe at our love for it. But when it was good, it was very-very good.. We quoted it ad nauseam, wore “Vote for Pedro” shirts unironically, and thought “ligers” were a laugh riot. Every year, more than one person donned a Napolean wig, glasses, and a “Vote For Pedro” shirt and did that dance sequence in my high school talent show. That experience can never be replicated by TikTok dances or Netflix films.
5. Saw (20 years)
Nothing says millennial childhood quite like a sadistic puppet forcing people into elaborate death traps. This torture porn franchise kickstarted our generation’s fascination with escape rooms and moral dilemmas. Now we’re too anxious to watch anything more intense than “Great British Bake Off.” How the mighty have fallen.
6. The Notebook (20 years)
The fact that The Notebook was 20 years ago is a testament to Ryan Gosling. He’s still managed to be relevant to the zeitgeist and one of the least awful men in Hollywood. From playing our dear Noah in this Nicholas Sparks masterpiece to playing Ken in Barbie, he is always in our hearts. In the words of Glenn Powell, “Gosling is a legend.” Cut to 2024, and we’re swiping through dating apps, wondering why our Hinge matches don’t build our houses or write us 365 letters. But we can still dream.
7. Anchorman (20 years)
Is Anchorman the boy equivalent of Mean Girls? Every non-funny man I’ve ever met thinks “Stay Classy” is a hilarious quote and witty reference. And who can blame them? At the time, Anchorman was the peak of comedy. We laughed our asses off at Ron Burgundy’s chauvinistic antics. But still liking this movie is a red flag — it’s a sign that a person’s sense of humor might not have matured beyond age 15.
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (20 years)
The way stills of this movie haunted Tumblr should be examined. Pink and blue-haired Kate Winslet is admittedly still on my winter mood boards. This film was an episode of Black Mirror before Black Mirror. For a film about erasing our exes from our brains, it sure felt romantic at the time. Two decades later, we’re still trying to Marie Kondo our emotional baggage while stalking our high school crushes on Facebook. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet’s mind-bending romance feels more like an indie fever dream with each passing year.
9. Spider-Man 2 (20 years)
Have you heard about the Spiderman to tennis movie pipeline? Kirsten Dunst doing Wimbledon, Emma Stone doing Battle of the Sexes and Zendaya doing Challengers — I might venture to say these are the finest things to come out of the Spiderman franchise. But I have to admit, the Tobey Maguire version is a classic. The fact that we’ve been through Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland as Spiderman, plus the Spiderverse series — in the past twenty years! — is mind-boggling to me.
I remember walking into the cafeteria of my new school, and it was like someone punched me in the stomach. I was in sixth grade. My family had just moved from Virginia to Ohio. At first, I attended the local Catholic school. Within the first two months, I was begging my parents to go to the public school because the girls were so mean to me. And when I look back, wow, were they cruel.
My maiden name is Ackerman. They’d call me “Lisa Acneman” as sixth grade brought with it oily skin and some breakouts. When my parents decided that I would change schools, I felt relieved. Off to public school I went. But soon I found out that it didn’t matter whether I went to parochial or public school: girls were still mean.
Instantly, a group of girls took me in
They invited me to sit at their lunch table. Little did I know that they had kicked another girl off the table so I could sit with them. I was so grateful to have friends, but I was a bit naïve. Maybe that’s because I grew up in a home where we all supported each other and my assumption going “out into the world” was that everyone was like that, too.
Then one day I walked into the cafeteria, and I nearly dropped my brown paper lunch bag. I looked at the table where I had been sitting for the past week, my first week at school. I counted the number of girls at the table—eight. Eight was the maximum number of people who could sit at one table. The two girls who were the “leaders” looked at me, whispered to the other girls at the table, and everyone turned to look at me and laugh.
My heart sank. I went up to the table and feebly asked, “Is there space for me here?” hoping maybe I was wrong or that it wasn’t as it seemed. I couldn’t feel my feet beneath me. I felt dizzy.
I can’t remember what they said, but I must have gotten the picture because I remember turning and quickly looking around for a new place to sit. It was a small cafeteria so someone would notice me standing all alone soon. I didn’t want anyone to look at me. My ears were ringing, my hands were clammy, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I felt the eight girls’ snickering whispers like daggers in my back. There was no physical fight or blowup so the teachers on lunch duty were none the wiser.
I saw a table with no one at it. So, I sat down. I wanted to cry. But I didn’t.
I sat alone for two months
Eventually, I sat with a new group of people. For the next two years that we lived in Ohio, I had some good experiences—I even have a friend from that time who is still one of my best friends. But the two girls who banished me from the lunch table continued to be bullies. Yes, that’s what I can call them now as a psychotherapist and adult who understands what was really going on. They were the kind of “friends” who would invite you over and you’d feel like, “Oh, good! We are friends again!” only to have them negatively talk about you or put you down.
We all have had experiences like this
Just the other day, another mom friend of mine told me that she waved to two moms talking and they looked at her and laughed. It happens in childhood. It can also happen between adult women.
As a psychotherapist, I intimately know that when someone hurts others it’s because they are hurting. I have counseled both the bully and the one being bullied.
I know, too, from counseling parents how, when our children’s lives eclipse our own, we remember (consciously or unconsciously in our body’s cellular memory) our own experiences of hurt, rejection, and betrayal. And those old experiences, though healed, come back up and make us tender.
I had an opportunity recently to feel such tenderness. I’ll share that story in a moment. But first, I want to share this—the triumph. What came out of my experiences with “mean girls”?
I became an “includer”
After these heartbreaking experiences, I became someone who sees the outsider and looks to include them. I became someone who is good at bringing people in and making them feel like they matter and are a part of things.
I learned through years and years of mindfulness and compassion practices how to create space to “include everything” and how to abide with whatever is arising—even the nasty, hard-to-look-at, shameful parts of myself. I practiced forgiveness.
Those two bullies? I forgave them, even though they didn’t ask for my forgiveness. Other people who have hurt me? Other people I have hurt? I’m working on receiving forgiveness and extending forgiveness to them, too. Nothing and no one is excluded from forgiveness. Everything and everyone is included.
I became an “includer” in my work
As a psychotherapist and coach with individuals and groups, I can hold space for someone and help them learn how to include it all—to hold the parts of themselves they might have abandoned, ignored, tried to keep quiet, or kicked to the curb. I can abide with a client as they learn that excluding anything creates more suffering.
I became an “includer” in my family
As parents, Brian and I model compassion and empathy to our children. We try to create “abiding space” for our children to mindfully name and express whatever is happening within them. On the good days, I can say, “I’ll abide with you. I’ll be with you in this.” And, of course, there are days when I am short-fused and I snap at them. Then, we begin again. We come back together and include even those less-than-perfect moments in our human and imperfect way of being family.
Our family has become “includers”
We are about community and creating space—in our home, in our lives, in our hearts—for adults and children to feel loved and included just as they are.
Through gentleness, compassion, and mindful attention, these early experiences of rejection, betrayal, and hurt transformed me. Through loving attention, through learning to include it all with mindfulness and compassion, I—along with lots of grace—transformed these hurtful experiences into compassionate, inclusive arms to hold, words to speak, hands to give, and presence to offer.
They continue to make me tender. And that’s good—even holy—because they open me to see the hurt in others and be tender with them. It offers an opportunity for deepening my practice of mindfulness and compassion—for opening my heart even wider.
Like recently when my daughter came home from pre-k and told me, yet again, about an experience at school with a little girl. My daughter is four.
The details aren’t mine to share, but hearing about my daughter’s experience broke my heart. I talked with a few other moms about it, and God am I grateful to be alongside moms who are also “includers”—both within our circle of mom friends and in the lives of our children. I talked with my husband. And, most importantly, I talked with my daughter.
When my daughter—your daughter—is looking back on her childhood, she will tell her own story and I hope it will be one of how we walked alongside our girls. How we empowered them.
I hope all of our girls will someday share stories like:
—“My parents would advocate for and alongside me in situations that required adult intervention. They wouldn’t act out of fear or anger. They would wait and discern and pray and watch.” —“I learned ways of working through difficulties with other girls and women in ways that honor and regard each girl and woman’s body, feelings, experiences, and needs.” —“I learned to find my tribe of women. I learned to ask for help. I learned to be with others who uplift and honor each other.” —“I learned to speak up. I learned to speak up for myself and for others in the face of injustice – on the playground, in the hallways between classes in middle school, or in international peace negotiations.” —“I learned to be an includer. I learned to mindfully abide with whatever I am experiencing within my own inner landscape. And from such a place of inclusion, I learned to include and walk beside others.”
In my experience of meditation, compassion, and mindfulness, nothing can be excluded. Exclusion creates suffering. Inclusion facilitates healing. It’s the path to true freedom.
This is what I am modeling for my daughter
I know you want to model this to your daughter, too. You are the sacred space for your daughter. And I know you are doing the best you can.
This is how we heal the “mean girls” culture: we hold, we include, we love, we empower, and we regard our girls. And we model this in how we treat other women.
If you are a parent to a daughter, no matter the age, can you imagine your daughter telling such a story? Can you imagine creating the space for her to share, to abide with her, and to empower her? Can you imagine raising girls who “include”?
Can you imagine all modeling how to be an “includer”? And resolving conflicts, hurts, or insecurities with regard and compassion?
Can you imagine how this would impact our world if we raise daughters who know how to name what is happening within them and a situation? Who know how to speak up in the face of injustice? Who believe in their innate goodness? And who include rather than exclude because they have an inner confidence and have been raised to listen to the wisdom of their inner voice?
We have to imagine it and create it—for all of us women, for our daughters, and for our world.
Lisa is self-publishing her first book, Gems of Delight: seasonal inspirations for moms to heal the hurry and embrace what is sacred. This article was originally published on Motherly and edited with permission from the author.
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Reminding the corporate overlords that Pride Month is never really over (no Katy Perry reference intended), Kesha has brought us a balls-to-the-wall queer anthem for what marks her Independence Day far more than it does America’s at this moment in time. In fact, this musical release is just about the only thing to celebrate in the U.S. right now, with Kesha never disappointing in terms of the musical offerings she delivers (particularly in times of darkness—which seem to be all the time now). Mainly because, although each new song/album might take fans further and further away from the Dr. Luke-orchestrated sound they first came to love on her 2010 debut, Animal, she always maintains a core element of her original musical identity. Fourteen years on, Kesha has cultivated a sound all her own—something between psychedelia and electro dance-pop. This being established on her 2023 album, Gag Order.
The title of that particular record was a nod to her ongoing legal entanglements with Dr. Luke, which were “resolved” (as much as such a thing could be)/settled in June of 2023. One year on, Kesha is finally releasing music that is independent of her unwanted Svengali. Thus, it was only right that she should wait until July 4th to poetically release her inaugural single from Kesha Records. That’s right, Kesha’s not making the mistake of releasing music through any other channels but her own again. Enter “Joyride,” a moody, almost Tove Lo-sounding (musically and lyrically) song that establishes the jubilance Kesha feels over her liberation.
So while the U.S. as a whole has little to celebrate this “Independence Day,” at least Kesha can revel in her own liberty after decades spent under the thumb of a relentless oppressor. Especially creatively speaking. At last, without having to defer to Dr. Luke or his Kemosabe label any longer, Kesha truly is what Lady Gaga would call a “Free Woman.” Because if Britney could be freed from her conservatorship, then surely Kesha’s ability to release her music as she wanted to wasn’t far behind.
Having teased the “Joyride” promo photos on June 30th with a photo of her seductively pumping gas into a white Porsche while wearing a skin-tight red number (this combination of colors being peak “America”) in front of a station labeled “Joyride,” Kesha continued the Lana Del Rey-but-gayer gas station/7-Eleven-esque aesthetics over the next few days leading up to her independence anthem. And, in the spirit of anthems, it is unabashed and unapologetic, with Kesha proclaiming, “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t even try to gi-give me shit/I’ve earned the right to b-be like this/Oh, you say you love me? (that’s funny)/Well, so do I.” The immediate sense of braggadocio established on the song is indicative of Kesha’s love of hanging out with drag queens (that’s right, she was doing so before Chappell Roan laid primary claim to the “practice”).
As a matter of fact, Kesha chose to celebrate the single’s release into the world by posting a video of her and two drag queens singing along to it before her mother entered the frame to add to the overall campiness. And yes, Kesha has long been a provider and appreciator of camp (for one can’t provide it without also appreciating it). “Joyride” fits that very description with its zany, frenetic sonic landscape.
An automatic earworm, Kesha proves, once again, that she’s never needed someone else pulling the strings to create her own hits. Her producer on this particular track, Zhone, also specializes in the hyperpop genre, citing Charli XCX and PC Music in general as major influences. But Kesha was doing a “beta version” of hyperpop already in the 2010s, further perfecting that sound with certain tracks on Gag Order. Thanks to “Joyride,” she’s reached a new height with the sound, which, while not “on par” with Charli XCX’s particular style, is something that Kesha has made all her own—meaning even kookier and more unclassifiable.
Granted, “Joyride” might be described as Kesha’s version of Charli’s 2016 signature, “Vroom Vroom,” during which she sings, “All my life, I’ve been waitin’ for a good time/So let’s ride (vroom, vroom)/Bitches know they can’t catch me (vroom, vroom)/Cute, sexy and my ride’s sporty (vroom, vroom)/Those slugs know they can’t catch me (vroom, vroom)/Beep beep, so let’s ride.” Kesha even uses the “beep beep” term when she says, “Beep beep, best night of your life/Get in, loser, for the joyride.” That last line obviously being a nod to Regina George’s (Rachel McAdams) illustrious quote from Mean Girls.
For added pop culture reference cachet (which is always required of camp), Kesha also alludes to Cher’s “Mom, I am a rich man” aphorism in the opening verse, “Are you a man?/‘Cause I’m a bitch/I’m already rich, just looking for that (mm).” Her oozing-with-horniness vibe continues in the part of the chorus that goes: “Rev my engine ’til you make it purr/Keep it kinky, but I come first.” (And yes, Kesha also has a song called “Kinky” from High Road.) Elsewhere, she continues to maintain her cocky aura with the assertion, “Makin’ every motherfucker turn/Fell from heaven, no, it didn’t hurt.”
At times, Kesha is also channeling her inner Beyoncé, arrogance-wise. To that point, on “Alien Superstar,” Bey sings, “Mastermind in haute couture/Label whores can’t clock, I’m so obscure.” But Kesha might try to nonetheless. After all, she proudly notes, “Keep your eyes on the road/A label whore but I’m bored of wearing clothes.” Or, as she once phrased it more directly on “Blah Blah Blah,” “I wanna be naked.” But that’s the thing about the new Kesha: her lyrics are more “elegant” even if still direct. Another case in point being: “You want kids?/Well, I am mother.” A.k.a. she doesn’t need to push out any children when she’s already raised so many sons (and daughters). All of whom have been waiting for this glorious day when she could at last be deemed “independent.” As for America, well, its so-called independence is becoming increasingly tenuous. A tenuousness that might just snap come this Election Day.
In the words of Renee Rapp: “Can a gay girl get an amen?”
In the song “Not My Fault,” Renee Rapp teamed up with Megan Thee Stallion on an unapologetically gay anthem for the major motion picture, Mean Girls: The Musical. The song starts with the now-iconic clip from the original movie in which Cadie confronts Janice with the accusation: “It’s not my fault you’re like, in love with me or something.”
Since Mean Girls dropped in 2004, there have been many think pieces about Janice’s role as forming the caricature of early-2000s red-scare lesbian panic. That was the year after Madonna and Britney shocked the world by kissing on the VMAs stage. It was four years before Katy Perry solidified her stardom with her hit “I Kissed A Girl.”
Sapphic stars had, of course, achieved fame and success before — in the 90s, having a k.d. Lang poster in your room was the equivalent of listening to Girl in Red (we’ll get to that) — but queerness was still othered. For better or worse, Glee wouldn’t toxify our airwaves until 2009. And queerness was something to be whispered about, especially sapphic relationships — which went either ignored or fetishized.
Now, in 2024, having an explicitly queer song leading a major studio film shows a seismic sapphic shift. Janice is no longer at the fringes of the film’s plot. And the implications of having a lesbian play Regina George? Yes, a gay girl can get an amen from me.
Renee Rapp is just one of the young, sapphic popstars gracing the airwaves today. In those toxic early-2000s, a popstar’s success depended on how well their sexuality could be marketed by and to men. Hindsight has us reckoning with the egregious objectification of Britney Spears and her peers in recent years. But now, with social media, the biggest popstars have more control over their image and have achieved success by unapologetically marketing to women — 2023 wasn’t the year of the girl for nothing.
The biggest stars in the world are leveraging predominantly female audiences — Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and even male pop giants like Harry Styles. And now the queer girls are taking over by singing not just about girlhood, but explicitly about sapphic desire. Within this zeitgeist, they’re remaking what it means to be a girl for everyone. No longer is it about appealing to the male gaze, it’s about identifying with people who make you feel seen and follow your interests unapologetically. This message is resonating with the straights and sapphics alike. Particularly on TikTok, it’s causing some to realize they’re not as straight as they thought.
From Gay-Famous to Mainstream-Famous
There’s long been a category of celebs who are irrefutable icons in the queer space but who go largely ignored by the mainstream music crowd. Think Troye Sivan. He’s been gaymous since his first album, Blue Neighborhood. Close to a decade later, he’s finally broken through to the mainstream. Traversing from queer subculture to mainstream pop culture usually takes years. What’s exciting about the latest class of girls who like girls is that they’re starting their careers with mainstream recognition — and a lot of that is thanks to TikTok.
From young artists coming out in the past few years to emerging artists branding themselves as queer from the get-go, queerness is no longer relegated to the sidelines.
However, niche queer music communities are alive and well. It’s how “do you listen to Girl In Red” became code for asking if a girl was queer. And it’s why, on TikTok, algorithms are leading individuals to queer content creators and suddenly realizing they, too, are queer. “If TikTok is showing you this, you might be gay,” read a wave of videos during the pandemic. And for many people, TikTok was right. Perhaps this surge of sexual awakenings has something to do with a new generation looking for queer representation in music. And finally, finally, it’s here.
Perhaps this is what Jojo Siwa was talking about when she declared in her now-notorious interview that she was the harbinger of “gay pop.” When she said in an interview that she “wanted to start a new genre … called ‘gay pop,’” she might have been onto something. She later clarified that she didn’t mean she invented the genre, but wanted to be part of brining it mainstream. “There’s so many gay pop artists … but I think that those gay pop artists do deserve a bigger home than what they have right now,” she said.
Fortunately for Jojo Siwa, she’s getting what she wanted — gay pop artists are getting way bigger platforms. Unfortunately for Jojo Siwa, it’s not her.
Femininomenons
Take Coachella 2024. It might as well have been Pride. One of the hottest queer moments was the rise of Chappel Roan. Bard of bisexuals everywhere, Chappell Roan has been giving gay girls infectious pop hits since 2020, with “ Pink Pony Club,” the lead single of her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
After her Coachella set and her viral summer single “Good, Luck Babe!” — a song about a queer girl who leaves the singer for a man — Chappell is one of the biggest rising stars to emerge from the desert, the people’s princess. Roan’s album is full of soaring pop bangers that put queerness at the center. The opening track, “Femininomenon” is a neologism Chappell created that combines “feminine” and “phenomenon.” The songs that follow are about coming of age, coming into one’s queerness, and discovering one’s whole self — themes that have earned her a cultish fanbase and a viral Tiny Desk Concert, the hallmark of any true indie artist.
Other femininomenons are shaking up the industry scene across all genres — both on and off stage. Billie Eilish has been a global megastar since she was only a teenager. After coming out as bisexual in 2023, Billie made headlines at Coachella for her undeniable queer energy. Having a Grammy-winning pop superstar be openly queer is a sure sign that the tide is changing. Especially since, after penning the song that defined girlhood last year — “What Was I Made For?”, which won Song of the Year at the Grammys for Barbie — her new album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, features songs like “Lunch” about queer desire.
Billie isn’t the only established young female singer to explore queer themes in their music and videos. Singers like Madison Beer, who was discovered in 2012 at the age of 13, has since come out as bisexual and talked about songs on her new album that are inspired by relationships with women. And these go beyond the lyrics.
Her newest single, “Make You Mine,” is accompanied by visuals inspired by emblematic bisexual film, Jennifer’s Body. Her other single, “Sweet Relief,” features a trans model as the love interest — which should not be revolutionary in 2024, but in the mainstream pop world, it still is.
Then there are the bevy of alternative and rock artists who have become queer icons. From Phoebe Bridgers and Boygenius to MUNA and Remi Wolf, Gen Z favorites are here, queer, and soon everyone will be talking about them.
The industry and mainstream audiences are finally feeling the heat from these female stars and paying attention in a huge way. In the words of Chappell Roan herself: “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.”
Here are the young, queer popstars singing about sapphic love:
Renee Rapp
Our media-untrained princess is a loud and proud lesbian force. After declaring “a huge thank you to every man that helped make me realize that I was a lesbian” at the GLAAD Media Awards, I’m excited to see where her music and personality take her next.
Chappell Roan
This Midwest princess launched the gay pop hit of the summer with “Good Luck, Babe!” We’ve been massive Chappell fans for years, and we love watching her finally get the attention she deserves. Sapphic sleeper hits from her debut album include “Naked in Manhattan.” Stream The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess now!
Billie Eilish
Billie’s latest era promises to be her most authentic yet. She has always been known for her daring fashion and unconventional approach to popstardom — traits that many have read as signals of her queerness — and it’s thrilling to see her step into her new album bringing an unapologetic vibe to everything she does. Stream “Lunch” now.
Victoria Monét
After winning Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammy Awards, Victoria Monét’s career is primed to to hit the stratosphere. A songwriter and frequent collaborator with big names like Ariana Grande, Monét has been behind the scenes for years. But now her own songs are poised to take over the airwaves. She’s also confirmed her bisexuality and how coming out freed her as an artist — perhaps allowing her to earn her a Grammy.
“In songwriting, I stopped writing pronouns that weren’t accurate,” she told Em Rata on High Low. “It was really freeing, and it opened up another window of creativity where I could say whatever I actually feel and be true.”
Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Bridgers has been the unchallenged giant of the confessional indie singers since her debut album Stranger in the Alps. Collaborations with artists like MUNA, she has confirmed her queerness in her music and in everything from Sapphic sartorial choices and of course, her work with Boygenius. At this year’s Grammys, Bridgers issued a direct FU to the straight male gatekeepers of the industry, using her way with words to say: “the ex-president of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, said that if women want to be nominated and win Grammys, that they should “step up” … To him, I’d like to say, ‘I know you’re not dead yet, but when you are, rot in piss.’”
Boygenius
Comprised of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, Boygenius is a collaborative project of Sapphic singers singing rock bangers. The 2024 Grammys saw them winning in traditionally male categories such as best rock song and best rock performance for their single “Not Strong Enough,” as well as best alternative album for their debut studio album, The Record.
Ethel Cain
Another for the sad, ex-Tumblr girls, Ethel Cain’s melancholy melodies are finally gaining mainstream attention. Ethel Cain’s character says Southern gothic fantasy of Hayden Anhedönia, a 24-year-old artist whose stage persona is much like character-based singers of yore — think Marina and the Diamonds. The world she creates in Preacher’s Daughter and her other work is similar to the dark fantasies of Lana Del Rey. And similarly, this world is about chasing freedom above all else.
“I want some variation for the trans experience as depicted in trans art,” Anhedönia told Billboard in 2022. “Ethel Cain the character is trans, but I didn’t make it a big part of the story because to me, being transgender is kind of boring. It’s like, ‘I have brown hair, I’m transgender’ — it’s very ‘whatever,’ you know? Ultimately, it’s not about the identity itself, it’s about the freedom to be whatever you are.”
MUNA
MUNA is an indie-pop comprised of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson who have been gaymous since their
debut album in 2017. Thanks to collaborations like “Silk Chiffon” with Phoebe Bridgers and features in queer films like Alex Strangelove, they’ve been reaching an increasingly mainstream audience with their infectious gay pop bangers.
Remi Wolf
With multiple viral hits under her belt and one of the most impressive voices on the pop scene, Remi Wolf is the coolest Gen Z stars out there. Her eclectic style, genre-bending sound, and energetic stage presence make her a certified superstar. And her indiscriminate use of pronouns in her music solidifies her as a bisexual superstar.
Girl in Red
Girl in Red used to be an IYKYK niche music act known pretty much only by girls who like girls. If she came up on your Spotify algorithm, it was trying to tell you something. But she has since exploded and become an indie-pop darling — even collaborating with pop princess, Sabrina Carpenter on “ You Need Me Now?”
Madison Beer
Like Billie, Madison’s latest phase feels more herself and unrestrained. A child of the Tumblr days, it’s no surprise that she’s drawn to queer ephemera like Jennifer’s Body. As she blossoms as a musician, let’s hope we hear more sapphic themes in her lyrics.
Jenna Fischer put her acting skills to the test on the set of 2024’s Mean Girls. The actress revealed this week she filmed the movie with a broken shoulder.
“I shot for one day on Mean Girls, and then I didn’t have to shoot for a month,” Fischer told People. “And in that month I went on a ski trip and I fell on a sidewalk and I broke my shoulder. So I had to shoot the rest of the movie with a very newly broken shoulder.”
Fischer played Ms. Heron, the daughter of protagonist Cady (Angourie Rice) in the musical movie. After she returned with her arm in a sling, the actress said the crew got creative in accommodating the injury.
“If you notice in the movie, I am exclusively gesturing with my left arm,” she said. “It was the wildest experience. So a big part of my role in Mean Girls was pretending I didn’t have a broken shoulder.”
She continued with a few easter eggs for eagle-eyed fans: “If you notice in the opening shot of the movie, I’m out in the middle of a field and Cady is singing, and I have a crossbody bag on. And I’m holding my crossbody bag,” she said. “The reason I’m doing that is because I had to take my sling off. That was serving as a sling for me.”
Fischer has since been on the long road to recovery. “I’m still in physical therapy for it,” she said. “I’m still rehabbing it. It’s a complicated injury, as anyone who’s injured their shoulder will tell you.”
Despite the one-armed adjustments, Fischer said Mean Girls was an “amazing experience.”
“I was so excited about the reaction to that movie because the people in that movie were so genuinely kind and wonderful and talented,” she said. “That young cast was just outstanding and it was one of those things where, when you finish shooting it, you think to yourself, ‘Gosh, I hope this movie does well because this is a good group.’ You want the good guy to win, right? So I was really rooting for it.”
Mean Girls also featured actors Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Busy Philipps and Jon Hamm. Lindsay Lohan, the star of the original 2004 movie, made a cameo in the new film, and Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprised their roles as a math teacher and the principal of North Shore High School, respectively.
Saint Patrick’s Day is perhaps famously lacking in movies centered on it as a “holiday” for good reason (see: Leprechaun as part of that good reason). After all, if one is going to write a screenplay about loads of drunks in New York (where St. Patrick’s Day is most celebrated), then they’d have too much competition/already been beaten by way of Mad Men. Irish Wish, Lindsay Lohan’s latest ill-advised “comeback” “film,” makes no claim of being a “St. Pat’s movie,” but it was very blatantly timed for a release that would coincide with Saint Patrick’s Day weekend. Obviously, as the title suggests, that’s because the “narrative” is set in Ireland. And yes, “narrative” is perhaps too generous a word for what goes on here. For the bulk of the story appears to be a combination of regurgitated plotlines (from no less than previous Lohan fan favorites, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, with a dash of Sweet Home Alabama thrown in for more 00s-era measure) and shat-out pieces of cornball dialogue.
While that dialogue was supposedly provided by Kirsten Hansen (known for churning out similar Hallmark-esque schlock like Nantucket Noel,Love Under the Rainbow and Love on the Slopes), the mawkishly shot scenery comes courtesy of director Janeen Damian, who also brought us Lohan’s first outing with Netflix, Falling for Christmas a.k.a. (Not) Falling for Shitmas. While, ironically, it can be argued that Irish Wish is more watchable than the latter (though that’s kind of like saying Joe Biden is more electable than Donald Trump), Benjamin Lee of The Guardian accurately points out that “her last Netflix rom-com was perhaps more forgivable because of the season, when a great number of otherwise unacceptably shoddy films are given a mild pass because of the festive spirit.”
But because, as mentioned, no one really considers St. Patrick’s Day a holiday (least of all Irish people themselves)—unless you count frat boys and other rapey varietals of men—Irish Wish has little hope of appealing to much in the way of “festive spirit.” Though it might appeal to creating a drinking game built around taking a shot every time something non sequitur or completely shudder-inducing happens. Take, for example, the opening of the movie, during which viewers’ introduction to Maddie is not only her gawking at the “UK’s bestselling author,” Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos), à la Cady Heron “grooling” over Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett) in Mean Girls, but also her scarf being ripped off her neck by a taxi. Because, among other ersatz things about this version of a briefly glimpsed New York City, people still rely on the yellow cab over an Uber, Lyft, et al.
As she lets the scarf unravel from her neck in such a way so that it twirls her around like she’s in a well-choreographed dance number, little does the viewer know, this is arguably the most dramatic, high-stakes occurrence that will go on in Irish Wish. Though it’s certainly not the most unbelievable. That credit might go to the fact that Paul’s “book reading/party” is depicted as though it’s a red carpet-worthy awards show, complete with eager, fawning paparazzi just waiting to snap a photo of Paul and ask him questions. New York might be the supposedly last literarily-enthusiastic place in the U.S., but this delineation exhibits just how little grounding Irish Wish has in any form of reality.
However, perhaps treating a book launch like a Hollywood industry event was merely a “signal” to viewers to prepare for things to get even more batshit in the next several minutes. Including Paul’s sudden attraction to one of Maddie’s “besties,” Emma Taylor (Elizabeth Tan), who presents herself to him in a state of feminine chaos as her fake eyelash is coming unglued. Paul appears to find this utterly captivating as the two fall under one another’s spell—much to Maddie’s dismay, as she watches it all unfold from across the room.
As their flirtation escalates (incongruously) over the next several minutes (which, in movie time, is a full evening), Maddie can see that she’s watching the man she “loves” slip through her fingers. And this despite what her mother, Rosemary (Jane Seymour, who appears to be taking on the role they couldn’t afford to give to Mary Steenburgen), warned her about: she needs to speak up for herself. Rosemary’s intermittent presence via telephone serves little other purpose than that…apart from showing people how to fix a stuck button on a keyboard.
Unfortunately for Maddie, she didn’t heed her mother’s advice and, by the end of the night, it’s “clear” that Paul and Emma are “smitten.” Still, Maddie tries to soothe herself in the taxi with her friends afterward by insisting to Emma, “It’s just a phone number. It’s not like it’s a proposal.” The cab lurches forward at that instant and the months on the calendar we see before us turn from June to August, followed by a brief scene of an airplane (with a shamrock logo and nothing else on it, naturally) flying across the sky. Cue Maddie’s other “bestie,” Heather (Ayesha Curry, who’s been on the promo tour for this movie with Lohan more than anyone else), remarking expositorily, “I can’t believe Paul and Emma are getting married. It all happened so fast.” Alluding to the cab’s lurching forward from a few months back (but in viewers’ minds, only a few seconds), she quips, “Like whiplash.”
As expected, “hijinks” ensue immediately upon her touchdown at the Knock Airport in County Mayo. Namely, she starts fighting over a suitcase with a “hot” photographer named James Thomas (Ed Speleers). Predictably, the suitcase explodes open and Maddie ends up touching his underwear (try desperately as it does to cultivate a meet-cute, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife this is not). This is about the closest viewers will get to seeing something sexual happen (apart from Maddie covering her eyes at the sight of Paul in the shower). Whether that’s because of the “family-friendly” intent of the movie or the fact that Lohan is going back to a state of arrested development so as to return to the glory days of her “chaste” films (which are still not nearly as chaste as Irish Wish), well, that’s anyone’s guess.
What’s also anyone’s guess is why the “mischievous scamp” trope needs to be wielded, yet again, about the Irish. Indeed, the Irish stereotype that its people are somehow “magical” is alive and well in the movie’s use of Saint Brigid (Dawn Bradfield). She being, inexplicably, the person responsible for granting Maddie her casual wish to marry Paul under what’s apparently a wishing tree. Or maybe it’s a wishing bench she’s sitting on. Who the fuck knows? Logic clearly isn’t the point here. After all, as Olivia Rodrigo says, “Love is never logical.”
Just ask Melanie Smooter a.k.a. Carmichael (Reese Witherspoon) in Sweet Home Alabama, who also finds herself involved in a difficult love triangle (albeit a more believable, non-supernatural one). And, in case anyone had doubts about the Irish component of Irish Wish, the only cliche missing from the movie poster is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow prominently featured on it. As for those who could doubt it’s a “love triangle” movie, in that same poster, Lohan, framed in the center of her two “love objects,” holds out each hand on either side of her in a pose that indicates she’s weighing both of the men featured next to her. “Hmm, which subpar, generic dude shall I pick?” Neither of which, by the way, are actually Irish. In fact, sadly, the most Irish person in this movie seems to be Lohan herself (Speleers is British, while Vlahos is Welsh).
Another overt comparison to better rom-com premises of yore is My Best Friend’s Wedding, also about a love triangle and also starring a red-haired woman who has been staunchly friend-zoned by the object of her desire. Jules (Julia Roberts), however, at least has more to offer audiences on the Lucy Ricardo front than Lohan. And it is evident that Lohan seems to think having red hair should make her a natural comedienne. Alas, it does not, and she’s simply left trying to make the best of a very bad script. One that even has to drag ostensible “Irish mascot” James Joyce into things when James, who has conveniently been hired as the wedding photographer in the alternate reality where Maddie is marrying Paul, takes her to the Cliffs of Moher as a potential location for wedding photographs…despite it being a two-hour drive from County Mayo, where Paul’s family’s house is supposedly located if we’re going by the bus that drops her off right in front of it saying “County Mayo” on the front. However, among other glaring issues with Irish Wish is its Home Alone 2: Lost in New York sense of geography. Because the house the Kennedys live in, the Killruddery House, is actually in County Wicklow, an almost four-hour drive from County Mayo. And yes, Lough Tay, where the “wishing bench” is located, is also in County Wicklow, not Mayo.
But back to Joyce… To perhaps give him the swift kick in the crack he’s more deserving of than praise, Lohan as Maddie muses, upon finding herself on the cliffs with James, “I think I just stepped into a James Joyce novel.” It would seem she hasn’t actually read one based on that assessment. For Joyce’s novels were anything but “idyllic.” Oh yes, and, it should be mentioned, one supposes that Maddie is an aspiring writer-turned-editor who has compromised all integrity by letting Paul take the sole credit for writing his latest trashy romance novel, Two Irish Hearts (though, truth be told, that might be a better movie based on a book that whatever Irish Wish is—apart from a title that sounds like a takeoff on The Rural Juror from 30 Rock).
After their jaunt on the cliffs, which they were allowed to go alone on because Maddie kicked the shit out of Paul the previous night for trying to have sex with her as she was dozing off (“it was a knee-jerk reaction”)—more signs pointing to a not-so-hidden conservative agenda—a fallen tree blocking the only road back seems to further seal their “meant for each other” destiny. Thus, James decides to take her to his go-to pub, where he then “teaches” her how to play darts. Leaning into him, she hits a near bull’s eye that prompts James to “suggestively” tell her, “Maybe it’s the luck of the Irish then.” Another saccharine exchange the two share while he “teaches” Maddie how to throw darts is summed up by her looking up at him and gushing, “You’re a good coach.” Speleers is able to keep a straight face as he replies, “Well, you’re a good student.” This dialogue smacking of Cady telling Aaron Samuels, “Well, you’re a good tutor.” And yes, the Mean Girls element of Irish Wish is the fact that Emma is the Regina George of the outfit, the more “polished,” “put together” friend that Paul, the Aaron Samuels of the equation, falls for easily compared to “dowdy,” “awkward” Maddie a.k.a Cady (and, needless to say, Maddie wears glasses to confirm her dowdiness). And, if you’ve managed to get this far into the movie, it’s pretty damn facile to surmise how things are going to turn out.
With regard to the Freaky Friday premise at play, switching places with Emma is the patent allusion to that particular film, which Lohan has confirmed she’ll be dredging up with a sequel very soon. Because, as one can see, there aren’t exactly a lot of new roles that are clamoring to make her a bona fide star again.
As for Irish Wish supposedly being added to the canon of “Saint Patrick’s Day movies,” if you’re looking to feel “festive” about said day, maybe stick with The Fugitive. Or even Mad Men.
In a series called Mondo Bullshittio, let’s talk about some of the most glaring hypocrisies and faux pas in pop culture…and all that it affects.
As though to further confirm that Mean Girls has entered into the so-called woke era, the latest development in its digital release ultimately comes as no shock. For the “slight alteration” caters to a particular person’s sensitivities, which is what life after the early twenty-first century has been all about. Pandering, bowing, capitulating, etc. Even to the very celebrities that were once so readily fed to the wolves in the era of “Lindsay Lohan supremacy.” An era that, as many know, was very short-lived once Lohan buckled under the scrutiny of child/teen fame and proceeded to pull a Miley before Miley even did. In fact, it could be argued that Lohan (in addition to Britney Spears) paved the way for women like Miley Cyrus to have their “rebellious” (read: normal reaction to their situation and lifestyle opportunities) “phase” with far less flak. Because, believe it or not, Cyrus was far less shat upon in her “shedding the Hannah Montana persona” days than Lohan or Spears in the mid-00s.
Although there were “attempts” on Lohan’s part to make a comeback (something she’s been announcing since she started to fall off after Herbie: Fully Loaded), it seemed no matter what movie she made it was 1) rather bad (even if bad in the gay-loving camp sort of way) and 2) totally mitigated by her latest drug-addled hijinks. In 2006, when the infamous “fire crotch” line that served to sting Lohan (even, when she least expected it, in 2024) came to light, it was caused by the unholy matrimony of the internet and celebrity-obsessed culture. Thus, the existence of a video like the one of Brandon Davis (who no one except Paris and Lindsay remember) calling Lohan a fire crotch could be immortalized in the annals of pop culture. But it was so much more specific than that mere “epithet,” still often used to demean the female ginger. No, Davis got extremely passionate about Lohan’s fire crotch, egged on by Paris Hilton to deliver his epic monologue on the subject while drunkenly sauntering through the streets of Hollywood after going to Hyde Lounge (the height of “seeing and being seen” in 00s LA). In fact, Davis wasn’t even naming names until Hilton goaded, “Who has a fire crotch?”
And that’s when Davis let it rip: “Lindsay Lohan has got the stinkiest, fuckin’ sweaty orange vagina anyone has ever seen. I haven’t seen it! But it shits out freckles, it’s orange and it fucking smells like diarrhea.” Elsewhere in the tirade, Davis adds, “The truth is, her movie bombed and her pussy is orange. Nobody would fuck her with a ten-foot pole” and, again, “Lindsay Lohan is a fire crotch. And she has freckles coming out of her vagina.” There’s no doubt that Lohan saw the footage of this at some point. Or was at least informed of it. Indeed, 2006 was the year of bandying insults for Paris and Lindsay, with the latter calling her a cunt on camera and then immediately taking it back to say, “Paris is my friend.” In any case, it seemed no coincidence that Lohan dyed her hair a dark shade of brown that year, almost as though to deny her ginger-ness altogether. Though, in the present, she’s obviously decided to fully embrace it by starring in a Netflix movie (yet another one) called Irish Wish (which surely has to be better than Falling For Christmas…a feat that’s not difficult to achieve). Parading that red hair of hers for good “Irish roots” measure. Perhaps if Davis ever sees the movie, he might be severely triggered again.
Just as Lohan was by the term “fire crotch” being wielded in Mean Girls 2024 by none other than Coach’s new-fangled/erstwhile Regina George, Megan Thee Stallion (who also offered her services for the lead single from the soundtrack, “Not My Fault”). The line, no doubt written by Tina Fey, comes up after Regina (Renée Rapp) falls with a major thud onstage at the Winter Talent Show (something that, of course, doesn’t happen in the original movie) and a barrage of TikTok videos commenting on the literal and metaphorical fall is unleashed. Among the commenters speaking in favor of Cady (Angourie Rice, taking on Lohan’s part) “saving the performance” is Megan Thee Stallion, who declares, “Okay so, somebody sent me this look and I was like, ‘Hot girls, we are going back to red!’ Y2K fire crotch is back!”
But, as Lohan has decreed, it apparently isn’t (even though the drama she created about the phrase being used resulted in her making far more headlines than she’s lately been accustomed to). Or at least, that “hurtful” two-word moniker isn’t…even if the look itself (for her) is. In fact, Lohan was very “disappointed” (as Ms. Norbury would say) in the use of that “slur” in the movie, taking her back to a place, emotionally speaking, that she didn’t want to revisit. Not just 2006, but also her cellblock in 2010, for it was also reported that fellow inmates would chant that nickname at her. Per a July 25, 2010 report from Intelligencer, “Lindsay Lohan has reportedly been brought to tears in jail because…inmates have been calling her ‘fire crotch.’” But hey, like the show says, “Orange is the new black.” Or maybe, like “fetch,” Lohan can’t seem to make it happen. But what she could make happen was airing her sentiments about the line out there for everyone to hear (well, everyone who’s still interested in 00s pop culture…so yeah, everyone). Except, instead of releasing a statement herself, she had her “representative” announce, “Lindsay was very hurt and disappointed by the reference in the film.”
Be that as it may, “hurt feelings” being a reason to stifle an artistic choice or a certain breed of humor is a dangerous habit to form. And yet, it is a habit that has appeared to become a “best practice” in recent years, as we’ve also seen Taylor Swift eliminate the word “fat” from her “Anti-Hero” music video and Beyoncé remove the word “spaz” from her lyrics. All of these things done pretty much instantaneously upon the expression of offense. Designed to blot out the fact that it ever happened (in true Orwellian fashion).
With the removal of Megan Thee Stallion’s “shady” comment, however, Mean Girls 2024 becomes the complete version of its overly-sanitized self—including changing “fugly slut” to “fugly cow.” Because Lohan forbid we should have any hurt feelings. And yet, even when the steps to “eradicate” the potential for such hurt occurs, most people know full well that we still live in a world of mean girls (and boys). Alas, in “girl world” (run by little boys posing as men), all the fighting continues to be “sneaky.”
“New student Cady Heron is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called ‘The Plastics,’ ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George and her minions Gretchen and Karen,” reads the film’s synopsis. “However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels, she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis and Damian, she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.”
Tyler Treese: One thing I loved about this musical is that you updated the setting and included social media, which was really the elephant in the room when compared to 20 years ago. How was it balancing that new inclusion and making it add to the story rather than detracting from the core element, which is the Burn Book and all the drama that goes on?
Samantha Jayne: Yeah, it’s true. We didn’t want social media to be this gimmicky thing that we hit everyone over the head with, where it’s like, “Okay, we get it — phones,” you know? [Laughs]. But we wanted to incorporate it in a realistic way. I mean, the first step we did was we actually went to Arturo’s Old high school, and we spoke to the kids about how they actually use their phones and social media every day.
Arturo Perez Jr.: We don’t have kids that age. We’re about to have a kid right now. [Laughs]. But you can’t just read an article about what kids’ life is really like. We wanted to talk to them at the source and be like, “All right, what’s it really like?” One of the things that struck us so much is how nice people are to your face now but how vicious they are to you online. That was the main takeaway. It’s like back in the day, if somebody had a problem with you, they would just eventually just tell you, or it would have to happen with verbal words
Jayne: Or a fight outside of Wawa, which is where I grew up. ^Laughsç.
Perez: They still fight, and they love to film it, but yeah.
Jayne: There’s always the filmers. We learned that [when] there’s a fight, then there’s the kids who film, which is the most important thing. And that is so crazy.
Perez: It’s a whole thing.
Jayne: We had to learn about that. It was important for Tina [Fey] and I to keep the Burn Book this physical, tactile thing, because it is so iconic and so representative of Mean Girls. I remember we all had conversations where it’s some kind of social media thing or whatnot. But I think coming back to it being a physical book and then disseminating the information through social media is the —
Perez: It’s the photocopier.
Jayne: Yeah, the update of the photocopier and how kids would do it today while still retaining that iconic piece of the original and the story
You both brought up Tina Fey earlier, and she obviously wrote the screenplay and reprises her role. When you’re doing a twist on something that’s as beloved as Mean Girls, how much did it mean to have her full support and have that co-sign throughout filming? I imagine there’s some pressure with doing something as sacred as Mean Girls and putting your own twist on it.
Perez: It’s everything. I feel so humbled to have also worked with Paul McCartney, and those are two legends. Two absolute … there’s something so special about both of them that I think … it’s not just knowledge — it’s instinct and it’s heart that you learn from these icons and and to have.
Jayne: I think you also always say your their willingness to collaborate.
Perez: Yeah, their ability to listen. They both listen so well. I think that that’s something that you learn true from from those types of people who are … the loveliness, it’s just wonderful.
One of my favorite songs is “Sexy.” It’s just so fun and we get to see all the costumes, which were all great. What was the highlight of filming that song? It seemed like everybody was having a blast.
Jayne: It was a lot of fun. I mean, our pitch for “Sexy” was … in the Broadway show, the biggest laugh of the show is that she walks on stage, she says her first bit, she messes up, and she’s like, “Wait, let me start over.” And then she walks off for a while and it’s so funny and it works so well for the stage. So we’re like, “How do we make that something that would work for this movie? What would she do?”
And we’re like, “If Karen’s really good at anything, she would just crush a ‘Get Ready With Me’ video.” It was our dream to do it that way from the beginning. So just seeing it come to life and building … I think it was fun. One of the editors would call it Mount Sexy. [Laughs]. Because we had dozens of boxes of these dancers and these social media personalities doing this dance and cutting it all together in like a fun dynamic way. That was a lot of fun.
Perez: If you look closely, there’s Busy Philipps in there and it’s hilarious.
Jayne: Yeah, Mrs. George is trying to follow along. She has her wine. She can’t figure it out. [Laughs]. So that was really fun.
Perez: There’s a lot of stuff in there.
Jayne: The one take was super fun too.
Arturo, it’s fun to see a couple directing together. Creative disagreements have to pop up occasionally. How do you settle those?
Perez: Just try to listen as to the other person as much as you can. We call it the “Yes Bus.” We had to make a map basically. [Laughs]. Because we work together and live together and are together most of the time. So we had to create this map and we call it the “Yes Bus.” And it basically just says, “When you have an idea or the other person has an idea, just listen to that other person’s idea all the way until the end. Listen as hard and as intently and as violently as you can.”
Then, from there, if there’s something that bumps you along the way, keep listening all the way to the end. Once they’ve told you the entire idea, then you could be like, “Oh, I don’t know about that thing, but what did you say about — that’s an amazing little piece of nugget that I’d never even considered.”
That’s what usually happens, you know? Then the listener gets to also go off on that idea or say the idea that you had, and you just Yes Bus around town and you do it and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it. Do it as much as you can. When you got the idea, you’re like, “I think this is it.” And then you both did it together, you know? More minds are truly better. We’re better together than individuals.
Jayne: The “Yes Bus” is definitely something that we use to collaborate. But if we fully disagree with each other, then we definitely make sure to go off on our own and talk about it. [Laughs]. We were like, “Oh, for sure.” It’s like, mommy and daddy need to go talk. [Laughs].
Perez: In production, we’ve got to go because it’s like writing.
Jayne: Yeah, yeah. We just go off and we figure it out. There has to be a quick solution, you know? Then we come back and, and move forward with it.
Reports suggest that the ‘Mean Girls’ reboot, now available on streaming platforms, has shortened Megan Thee Stallion‘s cameo.
As you’ll probably know, the comedy, released in January, made some not-so-positive headlines over a line where Meg appears to make a slight dig at Lindsay Lohan.
“Fire Crotch” Line Removed From ‘Mean Girls’ Digital Release
The Daily Mail claims that LiLo, the star of the original version in 2004, also made a surprise cameo in the movie and reportedly received a payment of $500,000.
However, the actress had no knowledge that writers included a joke about her, especially after she agreed to appear in the motion picture.
In the scene in question, Meg appears in a TikTok video as a photo of Cady Heron, formerly played by Lohan, pops up next to her.
“OK, so somebody sent me this look and I was like, ‘Hot girls, we are going back red, Y2K fire crotch is back,’” the ‘Body’ rapper said.
The flick, which eagle-eyed fans have been watching on platforms such as Prime Video, noticed that Meg’s cameo no longer includes the “fire crotch” remark.
The digital version of #MeanGirls has altered Megan The Stallion’s controversial “fire crotch” line after Lindsay Lohan was allegedly hurt by the joke.
The line now ends at “We are going back red” and jumps to her laughing, cutting out “Y2K fire crotch is back.” pic.twitter.com/LDytcHj1SL
Instead, there’s a slight cut that then jumps to Megan saying, “Somebody sent me this look and I’m like, ‘Okay, you know what? Hot girls, we are going back red!’”
A rep for Lohan previously claimed that the ‘Herbie’ star didn’t find it amusing, but rather hurtful, according to Variety.
Socialite Brandon Davis infamously attached the phrase to LiLo, giving her the derogatory nickname during a night out in 2006 with Paris and Nicky Hilton.
Megan Has Not Commented On The Situation
Meg hasn’t addressed the controversy that erupted when Lohan’s team openly shared that the actress was displeased by the scene.
But the decision to take the line out would clearly indicate that producers were looking to rectify the mistake they made by including the joke to begin with.
Outside of her cameo, Meg played a huge part in the film’s success.
She teamed up with Reneé Rapp, who stars as Regina George, for the soundtrack single, “Not My Fault,” which was accompanied by a Mean Girls-inspired music video.
The pair promoted the track in a joint performance on Saturday Night Live, where Megan also got to meet the OG Regina George — Rachel McAdams.
Now that they have revised the digital release, everyone can return to enjoying the film without having to hear the “fire crotch” line that haunted Lohan throughout the ’00s.
Roomies, do you think the line was uncalled for or would you have been okay with it?
In another quiet weekend, David Ayer’s The Beekeeper kicked Mean Girls out of the top spot in its third weekend, earning $7.4 million (-14%) compared to the latter’s $7.3M (-37%), per Deadline. To date, Beekeeper has collected $42.2M domestically, while Mean Girls sits at $60.8M.
Otherwise, the only notable news was the financial bump (or lack thereof) given to Oscar hopefuls such as Barbie ($218K), Killers of the Flower Moon ($220K), The Holdovers ($520K, after expanding to 1,267 theaters), Anatomy of a Fall ($211K), American Fiction ($2.89M), Poor Things ($3M), and Oppenheimer ($1M).
In other good news, Godzilla Minus One claimed the No. 10 spot with an estimated $2.6M and with $55M total domestically, has become the third highest-grossing foreign-language film in the US, surpassing Hero ($53.7M) and Parasite ($53.4M). The Toho International-produced drama sits behind Life is Beautiful ($57.6M) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ($129M).
Luckily, this weekend sees a major release in the form of Matthew Vaughn’s action comedy Argylle, which boasts enough star power to ensure decent numbers.
Box Office Results: Domestic Top 10
1.) The Beekeeper (AMZ MGM) 3,337 (+7) theaters, Fri $1.8M Sat $3.4M Sun $2.2M 3-day $7.4M (-14%), Total $42.2M/Wk 3
2.) Mean Girls (Par) 3,544 (-282) theaters, Fri $1.9M Sat $3.2M Sun $2.145M 3-day $7.3M (-37%), Total $60.8M/Wk 3
3.) Wonka (WB) 3,014 (-122) theaters, Fri $1.35M Sat $2.85M Sun $1.7M 3-day $5.9M (-12%), Total $195.1M/Wk 7
4.) Migration (Ill/Uni) 2,962 (-132) theaters, Fri $1M Sat $2.54M Sun $1.57M 3-day $5.15M (-6%), Total $101.2M/ Wk 6
5.) Anyone But You (Sony) 2,885 (-43) Fri $1.5M Sat $2.1M Sun $1.1M 3-day $4.8M (-11%),Total $71.1M/Wk 6
6.) Fighter (Viva) 662 theaters, Fri $1M Sat $1.5M Sun $1.15M 3-day $3.74M/Total $4.3M Wk 1
7.) Poor Things (Sea) 2,300 (+900) Fri $849K Sat $1.3M Sun $899K 3-day $3.04M (+43%)/Total $24.7M/Wk 8
8.) American Fiction (AMZ MGM) 1,702 (+852) theaters, $791K Sat $1.27M Sun $829K, 3-day $2.89M (+65%), Total $11.8M/Wk 7
9.) Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (WB) 2,423 (-318) theaters, Fri $650K Sat. $1.36M Sun $810K 3-day $2.82M (-23%) /Total $118.1M/Wk 6
10.) Godzilla Minus One (Toho) 2,051 (+1516) theatres, Fri $761K Sat $1.2M Sun $616K 3-day $2.6M (+276%), Total $55M/Wk 9
We knew this was coming, didn’t we? Ever since the Mean Girls trailer dropped, the internet has been sounding off about everything. Millennials, who have never let that movie go since it came out 20 years ago, were offended by the tagline “Not your mother’s Mean Girls.” How old did the marketers think millennials are?
Then, the clothes. Immediately, the internet tore down the costumes. What made the original movie so iconic was partly the costumes. What can beat Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams in low-slung jeans and pink stilettos? Looking back, it’s an apt representation of 2000s style and Y2K trends — though maybe not an accurate representation of what actual high schoolers look like.
The new Mean Girls was neither. It felt like a SHEIN caricature of how Gen Z dresses. From tacky corsets to dirty sneakers and Regina George in Doc Martens and cargo pants? It managed to feel unrealistic to Gen Z while also missing the mark on the glamorous and aspirational camp of the original.
The lackluster outfits were especially disappointing, considering the Y2K revival of Gen Z fashion. The over-the-top, kitschy Y2K TikTok fashion would have felt more at home on the Mean Girls set than the costumes we actually saw. Give me Miu Miu and a Diesel skirt, or give me death.
While Mean Girls-style is getting skewered, Renee Rapp is only shooting to greater levels of fame. After her powerful debut on SNL this weekend as the musical guest with host Jacob Elordi, going viral for her unhinged (in the best way) press interviews, and releasing a banger of a debut album last year, Renee is on the rise.
More than her character of Regina George, Renee’s style speaks to Gen Z. Her vibe is very cool and very queer. Whether she’s doing press or on tour, Renee Rapp is quickly carving out a signature look that I’ve been obsessively pinning to my mood board. Every time she steps out — yes, even the time she face-planted on the streets of NYC — I scour the internet to ID her pieces.
If you’re more inspired by Renee than Regina, you’re in luck. Renee’s style isn’t just better, it’s more accessible. You can get Renee Rapp’s Tour Looks on Free People to curate an aesthetic worthy of your favorite queer pop star.
I tried some pieces from the collection and these are my favorites:
All products featured are independently selected by our editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission.
A leather jacket is synonymous with the rockstar aesthetic. 2023 brought back the “Rockstar Girlfriend” trend of Tumblr days past, it subverted the trope and asserted that girls are the rockstars, not just groupies. Just take a look at Daisy Jones and the Six. This vegan leather moto jacket is perfect for your own rockstar girlfriend aesthetic.
Regina George in Dr. Martens? Confusing. Renee Rapp in Dr. Martens? That feels right. These zipper Jetta Boots are a great dupe for The Row boots — and probably better quality for a fraction of the cost.
Saturday Night Live did not disappoint with its first episode of 2024. Jacob Elordi (Saltburn, Priscilla) hosted the show with musical guest Reneé Rapp, whose debut album Snow Angel was released last year.
Rapp is also known for starring in the Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls and plays Regina George in the movie musical Mean Girls. And while Mean Girls fans were hoping for a Tina Fey cameo, they were instead treated to an appearance by the O.G. Regina George, Rachel McAdams.
McAdams made a surprise cameo introducing Rapp for her second musical act, where Rapp performed “Not My Fault” with Megan Thee Stallion. The song was the first single released from the Mean Girls soundtrack, and while it isn’t performed in the film, it is told from Regina’s point of view.
McAdams also appeared in the sketch “Acting Class”, where she plays an aspiring actress named Natalie Partman who struggles with looking exactly like … Rachel McAdams. Surprisingly, McAdams has never hosted SNL. Rectify that please, Lorne Michaels.
Rapp also appeared in a sketch, playing “little lesbian intern Reneé” in “Entertainment Tonight Lip Readers.” Joining Elordi and Bowen Yang’s lip readers, Rapp quipped, “I’ve been going absolutely off in every single interview lately, so now I have to do 40 hours of court-ordered media training.” This is a reference to Rapp’s gloriously unhinged press tour for Mean Girls and her general IDGAF attitude.
McAdams, Rapp, and Megan Thee Stallion also took a moment to recreate the Spider-Man meme, which we can’t help but love. Regina Georges unite!
Saturday Night Live is back! And jam packed with famous faces!
In its first episode of 2024, Euphoria star Jacob Elordi took on hosting duties alongside musical guest and Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp, and boy did they have a show for us! In his opening monologue, the 26-year-old joked about his highly-popular film Saltburn and THAT grave scene… If you know, you know! He also reflected on his seven-year acting career and how special it was to be on the Studio 8H stage with his loved ones in the audience. Awww! Watch (below):
He hit the ground running with some pretty hilarious and relevant sketches! Joining show regular Bowen Yang, the two played “professional lip readers” who can “decipher exactly what someone might be saying” — emphasis on the “might”! First off, the duo attempted to read Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet’s famous Golden Globes convo, and of course, were pretty far off of what’s generally agreed was said. According to them, Timmy thought Kim Kardashian is Kylie’s mom! Ha! They also deciphered a paparazzi vid of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce before Reneé joined the pair to speculate on what was said during Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2023 lawsuit! Watch (below):
Jacob later introduced Reneé for a fabulous performance of her hit song Snow Angel, but the REAL surprise came when Rachel McAdams — yes, the original mean girl Regina George — introduced her for her second performance!
2004 Regina meets 2024 Regina! We’re seeing double! How fetch is that?? We all know the reboot needs some serious positive press right about now!!
Reneé performed her hit song Not My Fault off the Mean Girls soundtrack, and brought out surprise guest Megan Thee Stallion to help!!
Rachel flexed her comedy skills in funny acting class skit where she played Natalie Partman, an acting student who looks just like McAdams, but ISN’T McAdams! LOLz! Watch (below):
Also during the show were some pretty funny sketches about, the Bachelor, bowling, Alaska Airlines, and more. Catch up on all of ‘em (below):
So, what did you think of SNL’s first episode of 2024, Perezcious readers?? How’d Jacob do as host? Were YOU expecting to see Rachel and Megan?! How about that totally awesome crossover between the OG Regina and the new Regina?! Let us know in the comments down below!
We have a lot of time for Reneé Rapp, AKA Regina George, AKA our new feminist hero. The Mean Girls star has been tearing up social media with her exhilarating approach to press interviews, from blasting the owner of a bus tour company for his apparent sexism to claiming she’s “ageist” against millennial women – we’ll admit that last one hurt just a little bit.
One thing we definitely do not have time for, though? Body-shaming. While celebrities have long been subject to punishing body scrutiny, we must ditch the idea that it’s a rite of passage – particularly for young women navigating the spotlight. Thankfully, Reneé Rapp is leading the charge against this disturbing – and, let’s face it, sexist – cultural norm.
Whether she’s talking about the realities of living with an eating disorder or calling out body-shamers, Reneé is unapologetically forging a more promising path for women in the entertainment industry (and beyond).
Here, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite Reneé Rapp moments. And if you’re reading this Reneé, please never change.
When she shut down speculation about her body…
Speaking at the Teen Vogue Summit in 2023, Reneé was asked, “From a public perception [and] media standpoint, how do you reckon with what you can control and what you can’t?” Her response was – obviously – brilliant.
“The conversation around my body is f*cking stupid,” Rapp replied. “I’m like, ‘just shut the f*ck up.’ I mean, you’re so obsessed. You are clinically so obsessed. And I get it. I know I look good. You don’t need to talk about it.”
“I mean, it’s ridiculous,” she continued. “It definitely hurts my feelings on a certain level. I won’t say, ‘It doesn’t bother me, and I’m doing great with it.’ I think it’s harmful. I think it’s stupid. And I think it’s ignorant. But also, again, you’re obsessed. Like, shut up.”
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When she called out body-shaming on the Mean Girls Broadway set…
In an interview with The Guardian, Reneé claimed that people involved in the show “would say some vile fucking things to me about my body,” which exacerbated her eating disorder. At one stage, she says, it got so severe that her parents flew to New York to try and pull her out of the show for the sake of her health.
Mean Girls, the movie based on the musical based on the classic 2004 film, is finally in theaters. If you’re like me and end up buying a ticket out of curiosity more than anything else, you may leave the cinema with one question on your mind: “Why?”
At a glance, it would be easy to dismiss the Mean Girls movie musical as just another symptom of Hollywood’s obsession with reboots, but this case goes a bit deeper than that. On one hand, it’s deceptively easy to justify the existence of a modernized take on Mean Girls, but on the other hand, the end result may leave many wondering why Paramount didn’t just rerelease the original film in theaters instead.
Indeed, it’s no secret that Tina Fey struck gold two decades ago, and you could argue that it would have been unwise to tamper with the existing screenplay too much (a sentiment that 2024’s Mean Girls seems to agree with), but at that point, why even bother? If you hit the nail on the head back in 2004, why risk another swing at it?
That’s not a rhetorical question; the answer is that Mean Girls‘ material is absolutely, positively worth examining through a more modern lens—especially given the major cultural shifts that have occurred in the past 20 years, from the emergence of social media (the nuances of which completely change the playground in which Mean Girls exists) to more awareness surrounding the impact of social and cultural identities. Indeed, how Fey’s story might arrive at its climactic sentiments in the digital climate, and even the question of whether those sentiments would be any different today, could absolutely warrant a Mean Girls remake.
So why on Earth did they choose to just adapt the Broadway musical?
As we learned with Encanto, you can never bet on any reception, good or bad, to a film’s musical numbers alone. To that point, the most fatal flaw of 2024’s Mean Girls is that it is an adaptation of the Broadway musical.
For those of you not in the know, nearly half of the songs were cut from the Broadway musical in translating it to the movie musical, and the ones that were kept are not only largely hit-or-miss, but also do very little to improve upon the story—which by extension means that the story was noticeably diluted to make space for the musical numbers. This is perhaps most noteworthy during the ending, which occurs rather abruptly in the middle of the Spring Fling, depriving audiences of the 2004 film’s arguably crucial ending.
So, what we have now is a movie musical adaptation of a Broadway musical of a beloved 2004 film that somehow waters down both the plot of the original film and the musical aspects to the point where they end up fighting rather than supplementing each other, and the discordance just grows and grows from there.
Had things been different, 2024’s Mean Girls could have been a pillar for a brand new paradigm of teen comedy films that already include the likes of Booksmart and Do Revenge, ushering its timeless subject matter into the unprecedented social tornados of Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok while introducing a healthy crop of new fans to the decades-long cultural phenomenon. Indeed, remakes should typically be reserved for weaker tales of yore that could do with a fresh pair of hands, but given the real-life reboot that high schools have undergone in the last two decades, a proper revisiting of Mean Girls would be more than welcome.
Instead, Paramount rather strangely opted to release a Frankenstein’s monster of a remake that—despite a marked handful of bright spots in the form of great choreography, eye-catching production design, and an especially impressive turn from feature debutant Jaquel Spivey—tries and fails to ride the referential coattails of its 2004 predecessor in a sea of disjointed musical numbers, ultimately emerging as a shadow of everything it’s pulling from.
Unlike fetch, Paramount actually shouldn’t have stopped trying to make a new Mean Girls happen. But not like this.
For many actors, the cringe-y commercial when they’re just starting out is somewhat a rite of passage, but no such thing exists for Bebe Wood—not really. Once upon a time, she was “a laughing child for a television provider or a cable company.” She recalls, “I think it only aired in New York state. I can’t even remember the name of it.” There are very few actors, however, who can count Tina Fey as their first-ever scene partner. Wood is among them.
It was 2012 and in a tiny café in Queens, Wood played “Catherine, but everyone calls me Cat” in an episode of 30 Rock (Season 6, Episode 18). Fey, a revered comedy legend, was the first person that Wood—just 10 years old at the time—exchanged dialogue with on-screen. “She was amazing,” the Kansas City native says. “Tina just made that day so special. I think she really showed me what performing is all about.”
It could’ve gone completely differently. Wood’s parents weren’t psyched about her pursuing acting (the volatile nature of the industry is enough to make any parent wary), but she “begged and begged and begged” and finally, they caved. An audition here, a callback there, and Wood’s day on the 30 Rock set ended up being the litmus test on which her career teetered.
“You have these dreams as a child, like ‘Oh, I hope one day I can do this, oh, I hope one day I can do that.’ And then you finally get there, and it may not actually be anything like what you expect it to be,” Wood says. “There’s a huge possibility that on that day, I could have just gotten there, done the job, and realized that acting wasn’t for me.”
She might’ve been a historian had it all not worked out, but cut to 12 years later, Wood has come full circle (and you can probably gather that acting is very much for her). After a handful of minor to recurring TV roles, she stars as Gretchen Wieners in Fey’s refreshed Mean Girls—a cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical stage production. How serendipitous that the witness to the launch of her career would also facilitate her Big Break a little over a decade later. Life’s funny like that, huh? “My career, I attribute it to Tina,” Wood says emphatically.
On a dreary New York morning in January, I sat down with Wood at StyleCaster’s studios to talk about her audition for Mean Girls and find out if her parents have changed their minds about her career choice.
StyleCaster: Paint a bit of a picture for me. What was your first experience with acting? Bebe Wood: It started such a long time ago. I always wanted to be an actor ever since I was a little girl; since I was three years old. My parents took me to a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the West End and we were sitting in the front row.
In the middle of the show, the Child Catcher leaned over the edge of the stage, put his little sickle on my nose in the middle of the performance, and said, “I’ll get you kitty witty”. I didn’t even freak out. Apparently, I just started giggling and laughing, and I loved it. My parents were like, “That’s odd. That is bizarre.”
I would have burst into tears and sworn off musical theater for the rest of my life, I think. Right? Little three-year-old me was like, “Well, that’s just delightful.” I think that’s the moment that I caught the bug and fell in love with acting.
After you were in 30 Rock with Tina Fey, did she make the connection when you auditioned for Mean Girls? So, I’ll tell you how I perceived the situation, and then she recently told me something that gave me some more information about how it actually went down.
I got an email to audition for Mean Girls in November of 2022. I put myself on tape, I didn’t hear for months. Then in January, I got an email that said, “Hey, can you meet the directors tomorrow?” And I was like, “Oh, sure. I’ll pop on that Zoom.” It was supposed to be me, the directors, and our casting director. When I logged onto Zoom, the first person that I saw was Tina. She said to me, “Hey, Bebe, do you remember me?”
The Tina Fey was asking if you remembered her? It was very overwhelming, very surreal, and a bit emotional for me. I called my mom afterward in, like, a teary mess and I remember saying, “I don’t really care if I get the job at this point,” because that just felt like such a beautiful, full-circle moment. That was around the 10-year milestone of my career.
So, tell me the other side of the story. Yeah, so recently Tina told me that they were looking through audition tapes and they couldn’t find who should play Gretchen. So, she was like, “I want to see every tape,” and she did watch every single one. Then, she watched mine and apparently—which sounds crazy—but she was like, ‘That’s her like, that’s Gretchen.’ Then she looked at my IMDB page and saw that the first job I did was 30 Rock. She put it in a really sweet way: “I picked you once and I picked you again.”
What did you do for your audition? So, we didn’t have a choice, I did Gretchen’s song “What’s Wong With Me?”. I wasn’t super familiar with the Broadway musical, but I knew and loved this song. There’s just something so intimate and vulnerable and raw about it.
Ashley Park, who has a cameo in this film as the French teacher, played Gretchen in the Broadway production. Did she offer any advice to you? I’ve never met her! I was on set every single day and miraculously, the one day I had off was the day that she was there. A total bummer. I would totally love to get to know her. I think she’s so, so talented.
What about the original Gretchen, Lacey Chabert? Did you reach out to her? I haven’t met her either. I know that Jack Welch [new Damian] spoke with Daniel [Franzese, OG Damian] at the premiere, which I think is so sweet.
There are so many fun scenes. Which was the most fun to film? There were a lot of really surreal moments. The very first day we introduced the Burn Book in Regina’s room so that was surreal. But maybe the most fun day for me was the winter talent show.
It’s iconic. So iconic. I also love dancing. I was just so happy and thrilled. Like, I didn’t even feel the heels on my feet.
There’s so much hype around this film. Has all of this craziness sunk in yet? I don’t know if there’s any real true way to process everything that’s happening, because there’s so much happening all at once. I think this entire thing is crazy, like, I really can’t believe that the stars aligned in this way. It doesn’t feel real.
How do your parents feel about it all now? They don’t care [laughs]. Like, they really don’t care. I’m like, “Oh look, I’m on a billboard!” and they’re like, “Great, what should we have for dinner?”
They’ll always keep you grounded then. Totally. When you’re in the thick of it, I’m just like, “Well, this is my life,” and I’m so grateful for it. I love my job.
Mean Girls is in theaters now.
**This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.**
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“Mean Girls” 2024 has officially hit cinemas around the globe, and let’s just say that the reviews are a mixed bag of praise, criticism and of course, an undying love for Reneé Rapp. Of the reactions shared to social media, there’s been a consistent comment about the styling choices for ‘The Plastics’ and Cady Heron. Some said it wasn’t what they imagined, while others made suggestions about how they would’ve done it. So, yes, we’re jumping on the bandwagon to recreate the “Mean Girls” reboot’s most iconic outfits for Regina, Karen, Gretchen and Cady.
The Y2K fashion moments served up by the 2004 “Mean Girls” were, and are, unforgettable. However, giving such a culturally significant film a reboot for a new generation means that the new film’s susceptibility to comparison skyrockets. For anyone planning to see the new “Mean Girls”, it’s important to remember the context. This version is set in the 2020s, an era that’s openly more body positive, social media reliant and focused on standing out.
With this sentiment and the influences of the original film in mind, read on for our reimagined “Mean Girls” outfits.
“Mean Girls” 2024 Outfits Reimagined
Cady Heron (Angourie Rice’s Version)
Jojo Whilden/Paramount
Kicking off our new “Mean Girls” outfits — Angourie Rice’s Cady Heron needed a more drastic transformation that moved her from socially shy transfer student to Regina George rival. This outfit feels very IT girl but the wearer still feels approachable. Trendy and comfy, the heels aren’t as tall as her predecessor’s, but she’ll be taller than she was in her beater sneakers.
The details
Regina George (Reneé Rapp’s Version)
Jojo Whilden/Paramount
Using looks that already work for Reneé Rapp — blazers and boxy jackets — we’ve pulled together a loud luxury look that we think Regina George would rule the school in. She needs to look expensive and ready to conquer. So, the outfit combines brands loved by Gen Z, like Meshki, and some trendy designer items, like the Bottega Veneta Drop Earrings.
The details
Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood’s Version)
Jojo Whilden/Paramount
We’re going for off duty model vibes for Gretchen Wiener’s outfit recreation. Bebe Wood’s style is more experimental than most so it would make sense to have her in pieces that are timeless but also experimental. The bag choice from Marni Market reminds us of the skirt worn by Lacey Chabert in the 2004 “Mean Girls”.
The details
Karen Shetty (Avantika’s Version)
Jojo Whilden/Paramount
A mix of old and new Karen outfits, this ensemble for Avantika’s character elevates the skirt and top combo she wears on ‘pink Wednesday’. The textures of this outfit are sleek, with more room to incorporate the accessories and items that show off Karen’s personality.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Mean Girls.Since the first film ever to feature a post-credits scene, The Silencers in 1966, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made them ubiquitous in Hollywood. With the latest DCEU installment arriving in cinemas on December 22, 2023, it begs the question of whether Mean Girls has a post-credit scene because we all want to know if we need to hang around until the absolute end.
Mean Girls is a 2004 movie written by comedian Tina Fey and is hailed as a cult classic for its iconic lines and as a high school dramedy. In 2017, Fey adapted the movie into a hit Broadway musical and announced in 2020 that, in turn, would be adapted into a movie. (Cue that 30 Rock joke here.) However, it’s technically a reboot adaptation with young cast members like Angourie Rice, Renée Rapp, Aull’i Cravahlo, Christopher Briney, Bebe Wood, and Jaquel Spivey. Fey reprises her role as Ms. Norbury and Tim Meadows reprises his role as Principal Duvall.
Fey talked about the young cast in the new movie to The New York Times. “We learned so much with the [stage] show that there doesn’t have to be rigidity in the casting of these roles, in terms of what they look like and how they identify. This story works in many interesting permutations. Anyone with charisma is a good Regina. Anyone who looks like they might come apart can be a great Gretchen.”
Indeed, any movie can have a post-credits scene these days. Here’s if you need to hang around until the end of Mean Girls for a post-credits scene.
Does Mean Girls have a post-credits scene?
Does Mean Girls have a post-credits scene? Yes, there is a little treat if you hang around until the end, but unfortunately, it doesn’t elude to any sequels. It’s just a cute little touch. Spoilers ahead.
After the credits roll, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen turn around and look directly at the camera/audience. “You’re next,” Regina says. “You’d be really hot if we changed, like, everything.”
On the topic of sequels, though, the original Damian (Daniel Franzese) from the 2004 film said all the cast from his version of the story want a follow-up. “We all want it,” he told People at the premiere of Mean Girls on January 9, 2024. “You got to tell the boss lady [Tina Fey] over there. I’m sure [she’s] heard it a million times, but she’s the gatekeeper, so we’re all waiting.” He added that he was still close with the original cast members. “We all talk when we can,” he explained. “It’s very difficult. We were all really busy, but I love them also.”
On November 1, 2023, Walmart uncovered the first of a series of commercials featuring members of the cast of the 2004 movie Mean Girls reprising their roles. Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Daniel Franzese, and Rajiv Surendra all reunited nearly two decades after the release of the original film to promote Walmart’s Black Friday savings deals. They’re all grown up and have adult jobs with kids but are still trying to navigate their way through North Shore High School.
“Some things never change. On Wednesdays we wear pink, but now we shop Walmart Black Friday deals,” Lindsay Lohan (who plays protagonist Cady Heron) says in the ad, while Lacey Chabert (who plays Gretchen Weiners) pulls up in a convertible to greet her high school aged daughter with Walmart bags. There’s several throwbacks in the video like the iconic “Jingle Bell Rock” performance, Amanda Seyfried’s character Karen Smith predicting the weather, Rajiv Surendra’s character Kevin Gnapoor amping his kid up for high school, and a heartfelt reunion of Daniel Franzese as Damien Leigh and Cady Heron.
Image: Paramount Pictures.
However, the internet noticed one certain Plastic—nay the queen of The Plastics—was missing: Regina George (played by Rachel McAdams). One person wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Rachel mcadams was too good to answer her phone??????” Another posted, “Rachel McAdams returned as Regina George when she said “No” to a Walmart ad.”
After the ad came out, an insider told Page Six, “Rachel McAdams didn’t want to do it.” The source continued, “They were all offered it. But the three of them loved being together for their reunion. They had a great time talking about being moms, and it was definitely a loss not having Rachel there.”
Though she wasn’t seen in the ad, McAdams has been vocal about returning with her fellow Mean Girls cast and even making a cameo in the new Mean Girls movie based on the hit Broadway Musical. “I don’t see a way to shoehorn us in,” McAdams told Bustle in an interview about the movie musical hitting Paramount+, but she added, “If Tina can figure it out, I’m there, for sure.”
Mean Girls is in cinemas now.
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