The teenage bedroom has always fascinated me. Is there any other place so obsessively personalized and home to so many formative experiences? When you’re 15, your bedroom is like your own little palace. You have final say on everything from posters to comforter color to lighting, at a time when pretty much everything else is decided for you. Whenever I would hang out with friends in middle or high school, I always loved to go to their rooms and just look around, because I’ve always thought that the best way to get to know someone is to simply look at the things they have most prominently displayed in their bedroom. So, I present a photo essay on some of the most compelling teenage bedrooms ever shown on film. All images are from the absolutely brilliant Tumblr, “Teenage Bedrooms On Screen.”
Juno, 2007, dir. Jason Reitman
Ghost World, 2001, dir. Terry Zwigoff
Edward Scissorhands, 1990, dir. Tim Burton
The Princess Diaries, 2001, dir. Garry Marshall
Palo Alto, 2013, dir. Gia Coppola
The Virgin Suicides, 1999, dir. Sofia Coppola
Clueless, 1995, dir. Amy Heckerling
Pretty in Pink, 1986, dir. Howard Deutch
The Lizzie Maguire Movie, 2003, dir. Jim Fall
Rebel Without a Cause, 1955, dir. Nicholas Ray
The Lovely Bones, 2009, dir. Peter Jackson
The Doom Generation, 1995, dir. Gregg Araki
The Bling Ring, 2013, dir. Sofia Coppola
Heathers, 1988, dir. Michael Lehmann
Boyhood, 2014, dir. Richard Linklater
Now the only question is: will you decorate your dorm in the style of Ghost World or Clueless? Make sure to check out Teenage Bedrooms on Screen for more!