Don’t take your brain for granted.
It’s the best friend you’ll ever have.
Smart girls are all the rage these days
it's never been cooler to flaunt your knowledge and ambition.
So how has the Smart Girl trope evolved to mirror changing views
of what it means to be smart,
and the kind of brains we value in young women?
If we look at the Brainy Girl character type in movies and TV
we see some common patterns:
She's an academic whiz whose reputation for getting good grades precedes her.
“You were in my English class last year right?
You were that chick that got an A.”
She’s ambitious - often an overachiever and a career woman in the making.
“So what did everyone do today?”
“Appointed a Supreme Court justice.”
Because of her strong sense of self and pride in her high IQ
she can come off as uptight, haughty or intolerant
of people who aren't as smart.
"Honestly don't you two read?”
Her scrutinizing nature sometimes makes her feel apart from others.
"I actively work to make people dislike me
so I won't feel bad when they do"
and for a while, she might try to flee
her smart-girl persona in an attempt to fit in.
"You’re our best mathlete.
"Oh god.
Please don’t say that."
Sometimes she can be spotted
wearing the ultimate brainy girl accessory: glasses.
"Hey my glasses!
I can't see without them!"
And there’s a symbolic significance to this stereotypical costume.
the smart girl can see things that others can’t.
This is both a special gift and a burden.
At her worst, she’s crippled by overanalyzing everything,
and bogged down in insecurity.
“You outsmart yourself.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so smart.”
But at her best, the smart girl is a confident visionary.
"Just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved."
Here's our take on the rise of the Smart Girl,
what makes her tick and why she's far more complicated
than you might think.
"Yes, they let women do some things at NASA Mr Johnson
and it's not because we wear skirts.
It's because we wear glasses.”
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If the mean girl is driven by rage
and the cool girl is reflective of a male fantasy,
the smart girl is distinguished by deep self-awareness.
“Actually I’m highly logical which allows me to look past
extraneous detail and perceive clearly that which others overlook.”
This character’s’ curse is that she’s an over-thinker.
“I don’t know if I believe in it.
Real lasting happiness”
The mind that’s always dissecting everything can plague
the smart girl with insecurities.
"This is what you wanted, isn't it?
To humiliate me and make me quit?
God forbid you had to work with
the ugly girl your dad forced you to hire."
And a lot of the behavior that strikes others as arrogant
or superior stems from overcompensating for her fear
that she can’t be “normal” and well-adjusted like
the less intellectual people around her.
“I was so… scared of you.
I felt like I had to prove that
I was better than you.”
As we see also in her adult version, the Smart Woman
being smart doesn’t actually help this character in her personal life
especially not in romance.
“On the entire SAT, I got two questions wrong,
and in subsequent years, those questions were stricken
for being misleading, but I know...nothing about life.”
Her overthinking tendencies can lead this highly intelligent person
to make not-very-smart choices.
"I make AWFUL decisions!
Like really, you know,
really, really awful decisions."
Her over-analytical nature is likewise a problem when it comes
to socializing and friendships.
Sensitive and constantly readjusting in response to her surroundings,
the Smart Girl is hyper-aware when she doesn’t fit in --
“And I just know I'll never fit in anywhere."
and feels a pressure to conform.
"Straight A's, perfect attendance, bathroom timer-
I should be the most popular girl in school."
Even characters with firm convictions, like Mean Girls' Cady Heron,
can be easily swayed by the intoxicating promise of popularity.
“You know I couldn't invite you.
I had to pretend to be Plastic.”
“Hey, buddy, you're not pretending anymore”
Cady demonstrates the Smart Girl’s tendency to apply her trademark
academic rigor to making friends.
Cady scientifically observes her peers like she’s studying the animal kingdom.
So part of why the Smart Girl tests out other personas
or cliques that aren’t true to herself is due to her intellectual curiosity;
We see this anthropologist’s streak in Freaks & Geeks' Lindsay Weir --
a mathlete, like Cady -- who goes through a crisis of identity
when she distances herself from her egghead friends
and finds herself drawn to the "freaks" in her high school.
“Um, we're cutting.
Daniel is paying his brother 20 bucks
And he’s gonna buy us a keg”
Lindsay finds the freaks’ slackerdom appealing and intriguing…
Her immersive study of what it’s like to be one of them is a welcome escape
from the “brainy” identity she finds limiting and suffocating.
"Man.
I hate high school."
Still, even this deeply ambivalent brainiac
can't fully quit her scholarly, competitive side.
"At least put me back on the team
I am the best person at math in this school."
Because the brainy girl can never shed her intellectual nature --
pride in her smarts, and the determination to excel,
are integral to who she is.
"I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading"
For all her overthinking-induced insecurities, deep down
the smart girl has a foundation
of confidence that comes from knowing she’s brilliant.
There’s nothing more empowering
than having faith in your own mind and point of view.
And this is why, when it comes down to it,
this clever girl is tough, with a thick skin.
Harry Potter’s resident smart girl Hermione --
who embodies the smart girl’s trademark mix
of confidence and insecurity --
is, according to star Emma Watson,
"never afraid to take control of a situation
or be the brains behind anything.”
She says what she thinks and doesn't hold back.
"Besides you're saying it wrong - - it's leviosa not leviosAH"
So while she may temporarily pretend she can fit another mold,
try on another identity for size,
or worry she has to dumb herself down to get the guy,
ultimately the brainy girl can’t stand letting her brainpower go to waste.
“I pretended to be bad at math so that you'd help me.
But the thing is, I'm not really bad at math.
I'm actually really good at math.
You're kind of bad at math.”
She speaks her mind and stands up for
what she believes like it’s an inborn instinct.
“Why should I be deprived of a good education
just because I’m geographically undesirable?”
Thus the smart girl is distinguished by her strong sense of self above all.
This character’s struggle is to get out of her own way --
to transcend her hypersensitivity and overthinking
“You're being a little -- - Obstreperous?!
Recalcitrant?!
Truculent?!”
“I was gonna say cray-cray.”
So she can make her vision for a better world a reality.
“You have your fans I have mine.
Someday your fans are gonna work for my fans.”
The Smart Girl is a reflection of her era --
she reveals what her culture considers to be smart,
and its attitude toward intelligence, especially in women.
We can see early precursors to this character type in eras
when women displayed fierce wit and brainpower on screen.
In the 1930’s, screwball comedy’s witty, self-possessed heroines
held their own against their leading men --
“Stand still.
Don't be nervous.
- Make him stand still!”
“Don't be silly.
You can't make a leopard stand still.”
but in a sense these characters had to act like men—
and mirror male characteristics— to be seen as equals.
“You're a newspaperman.”
“That's why I'm quitting.
I want to go someplace
where I can be a woman.”
“You mean be a traitor!”
The femme fatales in film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s
used their feminine wiles and extreme intelligence
to tempt men down a dark path --
implying there was something dangerous about a woman being too smart.
“I’m rotten to the heart.
I used you just as you said”
Today’s Brainy Girl trope finds positive ancestors
in young literary heroes
such as clever and whip-smart girl detective Nancy Drew, starting in the 30s.
Over the decades Nancy was joined by more razor-sharp girl detectives,
and other protagonists whose intelligence was intrinsic to their personalities,
like Harriet the Spy.
"I want to remember everything.
And I want to know everything."
Or Beverly Cleary’s Beezus Quimby Despite this variety of precursors --
"If you need me, I'll be in the library"
the modern Smart Girl trope really rose to mainstream popularity
in the late '80s and early '90s.
Unabashedly bright young women
like Growing Pains' Carol Seaver.
“It says here that as the universe expands
all matter is slowly degenerating into a state of total disorganization.”
‘Thank god I thought it was just me.”
Saved by the Bell’s Jesse Spano
“We are not only gonna get an A on this project
but we’re also gonna win that science medal!”
Beverly Hills, 90210's Andrea Zuckerman
“This is the top ranked high school paper
in the country and I intend to keep it that way.”
“Wow you are intense.”
and Lisa Simpson owned their mental gifts,
and asserted their academic superiority
"I pick up books like you pick up beers!"
"Then you have a serious reading problem.”
The empowered Brainy Girl of this era
can be seen as a response to '80s teen movies,
which had glorified the male nerd stereotype.
"I'm a nerd, and uh, I'm pretty proud of it."
Girls in those same films could be depicted as
smart and put-together--
"You're doing extremely well in your courses,
and I think your chances of getting a scholarship are excellent."
but weren't explicitly valued for their academic prowess.
After all, when The Breakfast Club dissected the high school class system,
the girls were relegated to two categories:
a princess, or a basket case.
The brain character was a boy.
It wasn't until 1989's Say Anything that a teen movie featured a brainy girl—
valedictorian Diane Court—
who doubled as a beautiful, conventional romantic lead.
"Diane Court doesn't go out --- she's a brain."
"Trapped in the body of a game show hostess."
The ascension of the smart girl
can also be explained by major societal shifts.
In the '80s, women became a much more dominant force in the US workplace.
So these new brainy girls had their hard-working moms
as role models, and knew that they too one day
could be powerful working women.
“Why did you have to go back to work?"
"I didn't have to-- I wanted to."
Thus career ambition is a key part of the Smart Girl
from the 80s on.
This makes her inspirational, but it can also be exhausting.
“No stories, no time -- S.A.T.s.”
She frequently puts herself under so much pressure that she cracks.
“I’m so... scared.”
This overachiever is plagued by an obsessive pursuit of perfection
and a competitive streak, as she’s driven to prove
she’s the best.
“I have 699 A's.
I need one more.
Give me the A, Feeny!”
Starting in 2000, Gilmore Girls gave us
two contrasting examples of this ambitious smart girl.
"What did you get?"
"It's personal."
"Why won't you tell me?"
"Because it's none of your business."
Sweet Rory's identity is wrapped up in going to Harvard.
"I can't believe it --- I'm actually standing
outside of Harvard."
But Paris is a much more extreme type-A straight-A student,
who will stop at nothing and step on anyone
on her way to the top.
"She's got a C average which means she's either
lazy or stupid.
I can work with either."
Alexis Bledel who played Rory actually voiced that:
"As the years went by on Gilmore Girls,
I noticed that Rory was kind of like
an idealized product of the show’s imagination
because she was really perfect in a lot of ways,
which started to annoy me a bit."
So these comments back up the idea that
ruthless, combative Paris is perhaps more true
to the Smart Girl character type.
“I'm just dealing with the usual incompetence
around here that's all.”
To be fair, there’s a good reason
why smart girls have long stressed about being flawless:
they had to outperform males to be taken seriously.
“The company needs a man in this position.”
“Clients would rather deal with men
when it comes to figures.”
I lose a promotion because of some idiot prejudice.”
“Spare me the women's lib crap.”
Still, as she grows up, the Smart Girl benefits
from learning to accept the occasional failure
or slightly less than ideal result, in order to become
a more self-assured, mature individual.
In the '90s, third-wave feminism
begat riot grrrl a movement that
encouraged teens and women to advocate
for their bodies and their rights,
and recognize the systems of oppression
that didn't work in their favor.
"Haven't you ever heard of the women's movement?"
"Sure--put on something cute and move it into the kitchen"
And as the '90s progressed, brainy girls were earnest
and socially conscious, not afraid to question authority,
rattle the status quo --
"Isn't that just pointless busywork?”
"Bull's-eye.
Get cracking."
or challenge the patriarchy.
“May I remind you both that we are girls,
we are not foxes or any other animal
that you might like.
You understand?”
“Sure, kitten.”
Even though this character
is most identified with her bookishness,
if you think about it that old-school smart girl
who’s merely academically driven is based on a narrow,
traditionally male idea of intelligence.
Over time, the Smart Girl character type has added
more dimensions to her braininess -- she might be creative
instead of purely interested in logic and facts --
“I'll be unappreciated in my own country,
but my gutsy blues stylings will electrify the French."
or may have found humane, empathetic outlets for her talents.
The contemporary smart girl is empowered by her intelligence
to leave the classroom and use her brains
to impact the world.
"But then I think about Sebastian St. Clair
and going to work with him,
helping people and making a difference.
And I feel like I have a reason to get out of bed."
Perhaps what makes her so uniquely effective
is that she’s used to being right, when others are wrong.
At times this can make her an irritating know-it-all,
as she’ll most definitely tell you when you make a mistake --
“I'm naturally inquisitive.
Yes, which is also sometimes confused with
being naturally obnoxious.”
but it also means she’s used to trusting
her instincts and her own far-seeing brain.
She can envision the world’s future problems
(and solutions),
and believe in her insights,
even when others take a while to catch up.
“You are teaching me?
What do you know?”
“More than you.”
So it’s no surprise than many of today’s
renowned real-life smart girls are entrepreneurs or activists
who enact the change they want to see in the world.
"You must fight others, but through peace
and through dialogue, and through education."
Even if the Smart Girl was embraced from the 80s on,
often her story still put her in the shadow of a Cool Girl.
“I look at you at school and I think you have
the most perfect life.”
Narratives have long sent the message that,
for women, having beauty or brains is an either-or.
"It's like a scientific fact that you can be cute
or you can be deep-- but only one in a million
can be cute and deep."
The false beauty vs brains dichotomy intentionally
limits women to being just one thing
and ignores that Smart Girls (like people in general)
have complicated many-sided natures.
“And they say you can't be pretty and smart.”
Increasingly in recent decades, this character has begun
to escape her narrow, one-size-fits-all personality,
and that’s made for more interesting— and relatable—movies and TV.
Gone are the days when prominent smart girls
were overwhelmingly white.
Buzzfeed identified that in recent years
we’ve seen a rise of the “black-girl nerd” onscreen.
"Right now my little sister could hack you."
Gone are the days when she wasn’t
considered a viable romantic lead.
"I thought, 'I have never seen anyone read so intensely
before in my entire life.
I have to meet that girl'."
Also gone are the days when the smart girl was
automatically a social outcast.
In 2019’s Booksmart, quintessential Smart Girl Molly --
who’s superior about her college choice
faltering in the romance department, and alienated from her peers
is confronted with the revelation
that some of the popular kids she knows are also smart
and headed to great colleges.
"I'm going to Yale too."
So Booksmart leaves us with the takeaway
that our assumptions about smart kids and popular kids
(many of which stem from pretty old movies)
are outdated and wrong.
No one Smart Girl is like another -- and that’s how it should be.
“We are not one-dimensional.
We are smart and fun.”
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