After rewatching 13 Going On 30 as an adult, there are a lot of things we learned from this great movie. Thirteen-year-old Jenna Rink wants nothing more than to be a thirty-year-old who’s a sexy businesswoman. Once this wish comes true, she has to relearn her life and discover how everything she ever wanted wasn’t always the best thing for her.
First things first, we start the movie back in the ’80s when Jenna Rink is more than desperate to be popular and apart of the group that calls themselves The Six Chicks. In order to get them to attend her 13th birthday party, she offers to write their book reports for them. We quickly learn that it was a terrible idea, in that they take the reports after leaving her in the closet waiting for a boy who isn’t coming. Buying friends didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now.
Between stuffing her bra to plastering on the makeup, Jenna can’t wait to grow up. The women in her favorite magazine Poise leave her craving maturity when she is just becoming a teenager. One of the main things adults say to kids and teenagers is to don’t wish away your childhood. You’re only young for so long but you have your entire life to be an adult!
This ties into our last point, but the whole concept of thirty, flirty, and thriving is a big part of the movie. It is one of the main parts of the magazine Poise in the 80s, inspiring Jenna to grow up quick and become a fun thirty-year-old. Being thirty will be great one day, but enjoy every age of life!
Jenna learns that her relationship with her best friend Matt was ended the day of her 13th birthday party because she wanted to be popular. As an adult, she realizes she spent the past seventeen years with fake friends just because they have a certain image. Having true friends that love you for who you are is always better than being miserable in a fake friendship.
When Jenna becomes thirty overnight, she learns the next morning that she is working for her favorite magazine, Poise. Even though she isn’t thrilled about all the choices she made in life, her big dream of working for Poise magazine came true!
From Thriller to Jessie’s Girl to Why Can’t I and so many more, Jenna had an amazing soundtrack in both the ’80s and 2000s. With her slumber parties, getting people to dance along to Thriller at a work party, and just dancing around getting ready for her day, Jenna was always jamming to an amazing playlist!
From the Six Chicks matching hair to Jenna’s work party dress to everything in between, 13 Going On 30 reminds us that every decade brings us a new sense of fashion. Of course, we’re already aware of this, but from the things we learned in this movie, fashion is something that can’t be ignored. Some of the most memorable outfits and styling techniques were shown in this amazing movie!
Maybe a cliche, maybe the title of a song, but nonetheless, Jenna Rinks reminds us that love is a battlefield. Whether you are thirteen or thirty, navigating your way through the mind of men can be a challenge, and relationships aren’t always easy. Jenna struggles to realize that her dream life isn’t everything she ever wanted and that love is complicated.
After Lucy completely sabotages Jenna in the workforce, it is obvious that she was never a true friend. Most of us knew this in the very beginning of the movie when she wasn’t a true friend at thirteen, but Jenna was blind to it back then. Now, as an adult, Jenna realizes that she was being used and betrayed for years by someone she considered to be her best friend.
When Jenna is confused and sad, visiting her childhood home and seeing her parents make her feel better immediately. She asks her mother if she regrets anything in her life, and her mom says she doesn’t, which comes as a surprise to Jenna. Once she realizes what her life was really like, she is filled with regrets and wants to go back in time to do it right. Seeing her family makes all the difference and gets her inspired to make a change.
Maybe a little odd in the grand scheme of things, but Jenna hosts a sleepover for all the teenage girls in her apartment building, where she guides them on all things womanhood. Now most of us probably don’t want to have a party with people half our age, but regardless of this fact, a good ole fashioned sleepover is always a good idea. No matter what you are currently going through, surrounding yourself with friends is a guaranteed way to get through it.
In the workforce, we have to be adaptable in order to stay relevant. When Poise is working on a redesign of their magazine, Lucy goes overboard and tries to look too far ahead in the future. But Jenna takes a different approach, focusing on the Class of 2004. She wants the magazine to resemble people you can actually recognize rather than just models in over the top makeup and extreme set productions. Her unique approach is a hit, except it goes wrong when Lucy steals it.
We can tell throughout the entire movie that Matt and Jenna have clear feelings for each other. Matt has always loved Jenna, but as kids, Jenna was again blind to it. As the movie progresses we’re taught that true love doesn’t go away, and it is always worth fighting for!
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