I turned 13 in 2003, the same year Thirteen premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Bookish but witty, I entered my eighth-grade year at my middle school, determined to escape. Before middle school, I’d spent my entire academic career in a tiny, highly rated elementary school with the same 18 classmates I’d had since kindergarten. Being intelligent and knowledgeable was praised by both my peers and my teachers in my formative years. However, when I wasn’t accepted into my dream middle school, I found myself on an hour-long bus ride from my neighborhood, attending a seventh and eighth-grade program that shared the same building as a popular high school on Chicago’s South Side.
While I never had problems making friends, things were different there. Name-brand clothes were vital, fights often broke out, and the massive student body ushered kids who had seen and experienced way more than I had at such a young age. Suddenly, my dark skin complexion mattered, the shows and films my mother didn’t allow me to watch became evident, and my eagerness to learn and remain academically focused was deemed awkward and lame. Though I had a handful of friends who moved over from my elementary school with me, I never fully felt accepted in my new environment. For a 13-year-old girl, acceptance is everything.
In ThirteenTracy’s experience begins much like my own. Living with a warm and embracing mother, Mel (Holly Hunter), she and her best friend, Noel (Vanessa Hudgens), spend their days listening to music and hanging out. However, while my home life was mainly stable despite my parents’ deteriorating marriage, Tracey’s parents had split years prior. Mel was a recovering alcoholic whose boyfriend and friends treated her home like a motel, and there was some financial instability.
Tracy sticks out like a sore thumb in her new school. However, unlike her friend Noel who is content to be exactly who she is, Tracy is desperate for the approval of her peers — especially after she’s singled out by the most fabulous girl in school, Evie Zamora.
Earning Evie’s approval becomes Tracy’s obsession. She begins stealing, experimenting with drugs, engaging in sexual activity, and being horrible to her mother and brother. However, as Hardwicke is careful to highlight, the change in Tracy’s behavior isn’t solely about her desire to fit in. Many other factors contributed to the disturbing path that Tracy finds herself walking down.
