The Girls

Everyone is talking about girls and how lack of proper gender representation affects them and their media choices, but what do they have to say for themselves? Take a look at the highlights from these highlights from in-depth one-on-one interviews with a group of girls ages 11-13 (names have been changed for privacy). Click on the pictures to expand.

Lucy, 11, Caucasian

Lucy's favorite genre of films is kid's movies, because she's "still a kid." For a movie trailer to catch her attention, it has to have great graphics and look like it has a fun and interesting story. She's wary of bad reviews, but will give movies that have them a chance. She believes that girls watch more movies than boys and that all girls like different kinds of movies. She knows about women's empowerment, and thinks it's good that people are adding more female characters into movies, but that studios "don’t need to like overpower the boys, I mean, we don’t mean to make it so the boys feel in our situation."

Payal, 13, South Asian

Payal's favorite genre of films is horror, although she enjoys action and comedy films as well. She also makes sure to check reviews before watching films, and even though she thinks most girls like chick flicks because they're relatable, she herself doesn't like them because they're "too dramatic" and set up unrealistic expectations for normal girls. Her advice to movie studios trying to attract more girls like her to watch more movies is to avoid being stereotypical by showing girls as moody or weak, because "girls can be very strong."

Tanya, 13, South Asian

Tanya loves magic and mystery films and says that Harry Potter got her interested in the whole genre. She isn't a fan of watching new movies unless they're similar to something she's seen before, but she's "okay to take risks" if the movie looks really interesting. She doesn't think that you can tell what kind of a movie a girl likes "until you actually meet them", but still believes that "even the tomboy girls have a bit of girly girl to them". To attract more girls to movie theaters, she suggests that movie studios should have more "girl power" and "a bit action packed, and maybe even a bit of drama."

Rani, 12, South Asian

Rani really likes action and comedy films, and Dumb and Dumber is one of her favorite movies. She hates "boring and emotional movies" (which she defines as serious dramas like The Fault in Our Stars) and says that most girls like "comedy and chick flicks and stuff" because they can relate to the drama, "like friendship problems and stuff." She thinks most people would be interested in a movie about an all girl superhero team, and her advice to movie studios is to make "more interesting trailers that are kind of funny but then kind of mysterious too."

Marie, 13, African American

Marie prefers mystery films, which she likes because they "usually the ones that aren't so predictable." She dislikes it when trailers give away the entire story and she can guess the ending, because then she loses interest in going to see "what's the point of this?" She's not interested in owning movie merchandise, but her advice to movie studios reflects her attitude toward trailers- in order to get more girls to wach more movies, she thinks that studios need to "not give away the whole story in just the trailer...just say the plot...get them excited for the movie so they actually want to see it."