Odd Girl Out

As a parent of a teenage girl, I feel it's important to watch movies involving the behavior of girls. I've watched so many movies with my daughter concerning true stories about girls acting in social environments. One movie we watched was a true story shown on Lifetime called "Odd Girl Out."

The movie follows Vanessa, who is a popular straight A student who loves everything about her life. She is best friends with Stacey, who is the campus queen that everyone wants to be friends with. Unfortunately due to an argument of misunderstanding, their friendship has hit a snag. Vanessa, now feeling like an outsider since the dispute, is being taunted with, harassed, laughed at and picked on. It upsets her so much. She doesn't understand why this is happening to her. She knows she hasn't done anything wrong to upset Stacey. She tries hard to win back Stacey's friendship. It doesn't do her any good. The mean girls' behavior still aims towards Vanessa even more. Sadly, with the more taunting and teasing, the more Vanessa becomes hurt, confused and unstable. So unstable, that she goes ahead and cuts her own hair. She didn't know what she was doing. She assumed she was ugly and that's why no one was being her friend. Her mother tries to comfort her but she was unsuccessful. Her mother tries to talk with her but she is not respondent. Her mother tries to stop the teasing but no one is on her side to fix the problem. So the problem continues. Time goes on. The teasing has gotten so bad that as a last resort, Vanessa ends up swallowing prescription drugs. She thinks she would be better off dead. Her mother finds her in time and rushes her to the hospital and she is saved. As she recuperates, she starts to realize that none of this problem is her fault. She realizes that these girls are not worth all the pain she is going through. At the end of the movie, Vanessa graduates and then confronts Stacey. She comments that Stacey is one of the meanest people there and she is not worth her time and doesn't want to be her friend anymore. The End.

I feel that the moral of the story is you are worth so much and don't let others make you think any different. Vanessa responded to this difficult situation in an unfortunate way that made her do damage to herself. It was only towards the end that she learned to handle it in a brave manner. It's so hard to get through these problems alone. It's always best to have help and support. Vanessa found that with her mother, the school staff and her true friends.