Adolescent Development

The movie "Thirteen" is a perfect example of how a young thirteen year old girl named Tracy goes through identity crisis as proposed in Erik Erikson's adolescent developmental stage identity verses identity confusion. The main characters in this movie are Tracy, Evie (Tracy's best friend), Mel (Tracy's mother), and Brady (Tracy's brother). Quotes from the official website of "Thirteen" really set the tone for the entire movie. Some of the quotes were:

"Thirteen has always been the age when establishing individuality and a sense of one's importance in the world become imperative. In 2003, fashion extremes, body piercing, and petty crimes all became endemic to a generation desperately seeking its own identity."

"Girl Culture - it's everywhere - in schools, malls, television, popular magazines - girls in barely-there midriffs and towering spike heels, sporting tattoos and fashion runway makeup, strutting their stuff and living way too hard and fast for their adolescent years."

Cropped photo of Evan Rachel Wood at the Sundance ...

tracy

"At first the two sat down to write a light-hearted teen comedy, but as Hardwicke (director) probed Reed (who played Evie, and helped write the script) for specific details about what teen life is really like now, a much more riveting story emerged. Reed began revealing a world fueled by confusion, anger, rebellion, and fear of not fitting in; a world rife with sex, high fashion, eating disorders, shoplifting, self-mutilation, and drugs. Hardwicke was floored."

At the beginning of the movie, Tracy seems to be a normal, seventh grade teenager with a select group of best friends. One day while at school, Tracy notices Evie and the popular crowd and wishes she could be just like them. She kind of gets a little depressed, but shrugs it off. Then next day while at lunch, Evie walks up to Tracy and makes...