‘Inside Out’ Paints Vivid Picture of the Adolescent Mind

Pixar’s new movie, Inside Out, paints a vivid picture of the inner workings of adolescent girls’ minds. It explains why children sometimes struggle with events like moving: it’s life-changing at that age. In the movie, the main character/setting, Riley is an 11-year-old girl, who is comfortable where she is and succeeding in school.

Then, her family has to move, and that’s when her emotions begin to run wild. Inside Out portrays Riley’s emotions as five characters: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. Inside Out gives viewers a deeper understanding of the struggles and stressors that young girls grapple with day to day.

Inside Out and depression

Inside Out broaches the topic of adolescent depression and how easy it is to fall into it. To adults, moving seems like something life-changing, but not necessarily disruptive. For adolescents, it’s quite different. For a kid of 10 to 14 years that has lived in one place for that whole time and made relationships and memories in that area, it’s extremely disruptive for them to be jerked out of that home. Sometimes this even leads to depression.

In Inside Out, not only does all of this happen to Riley, but her parents also start working more often, leaving less time for her, which makes it even harder. As a result, the character Sadness starts to take over more than Joy suddenly, making Riley’s life more unstable. This type of situation happens often to adolescents and most of the time, parent’s struggle with knowing how to deal with the sudden spike of moodiness and sensitive emotions in their child.

The transitional years

Riley is right at the cusp of transitioning from the preteen to the early teen years. This gives viewers an even deeper idea of what goes on inside preteen girls’ heads. Inside Out portrays the preteen mind exactly as it is: sometimes chaotic, sometimes harmonious. The movie shows exactly why kids sometimes can’t deal with all the stressors of life and need a little more support.

“It zeroes in on one of the most poignant times in an individual’s life, which is the transition to the preteen and early teen years, where kids — and, I think, in particular girls — start to really powerfully feel the loss of childhood.” – Dacher Keltner

How Asheville Academy can help

Asheville Academy is a therapeutic boarding school for girls, ages 10 to 14. At Asheville Academy, we help adolescent girls work through their inner issues and tap into their untouched potential. Through comprehensive, research-based therapy, we make true differences in young girls’ and their families’ lives.

For more information on how we can help your struggling daughter, call us today toll-free at 800-264-8709.