To read an updated primer on Inside Out 2‘s new emotion, Anxiety, click here.

I initially wrote this to help families talk about puberty and menstruation in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (which is just as important for boys to see as girls). Given the great news that Pixar is not shying away from tackling puberty in Inside Out 2, let’s bring our dialogues about puberty and developing bodies back!

From Comic Book Resources:

Two notes: There are spoilers for Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Turning Red, and Inside Out here, and for the sake of this subject matter, I am using the binary terms “boy” and “girl.” OutThink Media is inclusive of all genders.

Meilinn’ Li’s Panda Toddled so Riley Could Fly

It might not come as a shock to you that I loved Turning Red. Besides meeting an entire ensemble of lovable characters, they talked about periods. A lot. So much so, in fact, that our preteen protagonist turns into a huge red panda.

There’s so much more to the story, and the movie opened an ongoing conversation in our home about [ahem] parental expectations of kiddos, but when it came to controversy, it was all about periods. People also had a problem with how Meilinn was disrespectful to her parents, like no girl in animation history has ever had to sneak out of her house in the middle of the night to have their adventures (except for Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jasmine, Merida, Ariel….).

We don’t have any information on the Inside Out 2 script besides the fact that puberty is confirmed to be a major part of the storyline, and Megan LeFauve is back as one of the screenwriters. Director Kelsey Mann explained to Comic Book Resources how he tried to pitch three ideas, but puberty kept coming up. Since Turning Red made such a big foray into this important part of a person’s life, it only makes sense to keep exploring the subject.

Dialogues: Puberty and Developing Bodies

Menstruation/getting your period for the first time:

This dialogue isn’t just for girls: it’s also beneficial for boys to know about a woman’s period. Are you There God? It’s me, Margaret does a good job of it – complete with a diagram – and here’s one way to explain what they’re talking about.

Every month, a woman’s body makes eggs in case she wants to have a baby*. If she doesn’t, then her body must release them. The eggs and their protective lining break down, turn into blood, and leave her body through the vagina. It’s perfectly normal, I’m not hurt, and it’s just part of life.

*I use the word “baby” here as a simpler way to explain it to younger children, not as a statement on the semantics.

Why are some parents awkward when their daughters get their period, but others are excited?

It’s fairly common for women to be taught to be ashamed of their periods. It was often called “the curse” and not seen as a triumphant rite of passage but a burden for women to bear. Even though menstruation is necessary to create life (should you want to), women were told to hide it and never mention it.

This is much like how Meilinn’s family treats it when she starts puberty, causing her to turn into a red panda that she feels obligated to hide, or, in her mother’s case, completely suppress her development.

In Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, Margaret’s mother, however, is part of the new kind of mom/parent (coming out of the 1960s) who wants their children to experience milestones with more joy and less shame than they endured. She had a bag of pads prepared for whenever Margaret got hers, and treated it as an exciting event, taking Margaret’s lead. We’re still working on that generational trauma, and it’s nice to see movies handling puberty so openly and well.

What is puberty?

People are often so scared to have “the talk” with their kids that they miss the point when they should have the talk about puberty. Although this book isn’t perfect, Everything Your Kids Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But You Were Afraid to Ask) is an excellent book. They give families developmentally appropriate ways to talk to kids who have questions. I have often flipped through, found what I needed, read a few pages, and felt more prepared to give the answers they need to understand their bodies and emotions.

How should you treat a classmate who grows and develops faster than others?

Some children grow faster than others, either in height, a woman’s chest, a boy’s voice, or body hair – any of these changes can go faster for a child than others in their class. Understand that they are likely very self-conscious about it already, and they cannot control how quickly or slowly their body grows. If others in your class make fun of them, especially more popular kids, the good choice is to tell those kids to stop and support your classmates who are growing faster. It might be hard to stand up to your friends but think about how you would feel if they were making fun of you for something out of your control.

Read more: Musings on Miyazaki by a Parent Who Feels Seen

Photo/Image Credit: Pixar, Comic Book Resources

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Sources:

• Mendez, Gabriella, “Inside Out 2 Director Confirms the Film’s Main Conflict,” Comic Book Resources, 1 December 2023, https://www.cbr.com/inside-out-2-director-main-conflict/ .