The sudden loss of my male friendships was one of the most jarring and confusing transitions of my adolescence. As someone who would have been considered a "tomboy", this doubled as feeling like I didn't belong anywhere. It went deeper than just individual relationships. It was a loss of community. Especially as a young girl coming of age in the early-to-mid-2000s, any exploration of gender expression was much more confined within traditionally gendered roles– supported by popular media, the toys we played with, and the activities and traits we were encouraged to identify with. Being forced to embrace "girlhood" moments after discovering it even existed was painful, but ultimately wonderful. Like Scout, I grew up and discovered my own definition of femininity, the beauty of ascribed community, and entered a lifetime of making new friends in the girls bathroom.

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One of the core values of this film is respecting the life phase our characters find themselves in. I want the viewer to step outside of their age and walk in Scout's shoes, and be confronted with the fact that when you are twelve, everything is important. Everything you're experiencing is for the very first time. Every feeling, every connection, every small decision feels huge. My hope is that people– not just girls– will see themselves in these characters, and find understanding in the fact that so many of us were having parallel experiences. This movie is not for any one age group or gender identity.

It's for anyone who's ever been twelve.​