‘Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s not going to happen.” Eight years after Mean Girls hit theaters, kids (girls and guys) at my own high school were still quoting it. We even had a “pink day” during homecoming week, where anyone angling for popularity — preps, cheerleaders, party girls, judgy sophomores, and even the Mormons — went all in. Mean Girls defined teen culture for my generation.
That power is what Bruce Handy surveys in Hollywood High: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies. The concept of “teenagerhood” is a modern invention. Before the 20th century, societies universally saw adolescents as adults in the making. They had to embrace duty and take responsibility for themselves and their communities. Hollywood helped to create teenagerhood by mythologizing kids: first as juvenile delinquents, then as free spirits, then as consumers, and finally as guardians of virtue.
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