Mean Girls

About Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film, directed by Mark Waters and starring Lindsay Lohan. Written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey, the film features a supporting cast of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, and Lizzy Caplan. The film also features several Saturday Night Live cast members, including Fey, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler. Mean Girls has been praised as being Lohan's break-out film role.

Director Mark Waters described the movie as "Clueless meets Heathers," the latter of which was written by his brother, Daniel Waters. Mean Girls is based on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which describes how female high school social cliques operate, and the effect they can have on girls. Similar to its inspirations Clueless and Heathers, the film was a sleeper hit, and generated much discussion upon its release on high school cliques and bullying, despite the film being a light-hearted approach to those subjects.[citation needed]

The home-schooled daughter of anthropologist parents, Cady Heron is unprepared for her first day of public high school. With the help of social misfits Janis Ian and Damien, Cady learns about the various cliques, including The Plastics, an exclusive group of girls led by Queen Bee Regina George, who was once Janis's best friend. When Regina invites Cady to sit with her and the other two Plastics, gossipy Gretchen Weiners and dimwitted Karen Smith, at lunch, Janis and Damien see an opportunity to get even and convince Cady to infiltrate the Plastics so she can spy on them. Along the way, Cady learns about the "Burn Book," a top secret notebook filled with rumors, secrets and gossip about the other girls in school, and falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels, who sits in front of her in calculus.