Going on 13

About the Project

From Tweety Bird to Bow Wow, double dutch to chat rooms, Daddy's girls to first deceptions, watch as Ariana, Isha, Rosie, and Esme let go of childhood and fumble -- or sprint -- toward an uncertain future. This is puberty and for each of these girls of color, it's a whirlwind of change and new choices. Without flinching, Going On 13 enters their world as they negotiate the precious, precarious moments between being a little girl and becoming a young woman.

Four years with four girls in California's Bay Area. Meet Esmeralda, Mexican American, first to complete her daily schoolwork and also first in her class to have a "boyfriend" without her parents' knowledge; Ariana, African American, who transforms from a tomboy into one of the "popular girls" as her family struggles to leave the poverty of West Oakland; Rosie, mixed race Latina, who, at 9, is precocious and sunny, but grows into an alienated pre-teen who may have to repeat the 6th grade due to chronic truancy; and Isha, an immigrant from India, who despite her devotion to her traditional family, explores Internet teen chat-rooms with user names like "ghetto girl" and "cutie pie".

Using a mix of intimate interviews, cinema vérité, and stop-motion animation, Going On 13 chronicles the girls' coming of age: their blossoming desires and growing sense of responsibility, their hopes for the future, their difficulties learning how to love themselves, and the escalating tug-of-war between who they want to become and who their parents think they should be. We hear the girls talk about themselves. They take us into their world, with the music, television, digital media and books they adoringly ingest -- and that rarely reflect their own families' economic or cultural backgrounds -- providing texture, context, and contrast for the social and emotional challenges they face.

Going On 13 shows us a reality far more complex than what we are used to seeing in the media about pre-teen girls and urban girls of color. Without simplifying or sensationalizing their lives, we come to see these four girls as multi-faceted and gripping individuals. Through the everyday drama of their changing lives, Isha, Rosie, Esme and Ariana remind us that it is the small moments of insight that usher us down the rough road from childhood to adulthood.

Recognizing the popularity of video responses to original video content at websites such as YouTube, Going On 13 has created an effective and safe online portal for viewers to upload and share short videos about themselves. This process has extended Going On 13's central theme - the disconnect between youth and adults. By sharing their experiences in a secure and adult-curated environment, girls are able to learn from and connect to those that relate best to them: other pre-teen girls. In turn, Going on 13 is able to reach a larger audience - particularly urban girls of color and their families - who don't traditionally consume documentary media. Showing the lives of real, non-sensationalized, girls of color is revolutionary and has lead to new ways of girls seeing themselves and being seen by those people who are responsible for them.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to support the outreach for Going on 13 because we believe it sparks conversations about the complexity of youth, gender, parenting and race. So often, we take the easy route by not challenging our assumptions. Going on 13 and its accompanying audience engagement breaks down those walls and nudges us to ask tough questions and have uncomfortable conversations.