Growing up, 13 Going on 30 was my favorite movie – and it still is. It’s what made me want to enter the journalism business, and I can also give it partial credit for helping me get into writing. Even now, it’s still full of lessons that are just as relevant as they were back in 2004, so without further ado, here are 13 things I learned from 13 Going on 30:
1. A new perspective can change everything.
When Jenna’s magazine needs to move in a new direction to avoid being shut down, she comes up with an idea different than anything they’ve ever done. Changing your perspective and moving in a new direction can be refreshing, and you can also solve many problems by allowing yourself to think outside of the box. You’d be surprised by what you can come up with when you think differently than usual – how can you come up with new ideas if you don’t change your perspective once in a while?
2. The people closest to you aren’t always rooting for you.
Once Jenna has a change of heart, Lucy exposes her true self and begins plotting against her and even sells her ideas to a rival magazine. It’s a dramatic movie twist, but the fact of life still remains: sometimes even those in your close circle aren’t looking out for your best interests. This movie reminds us that even when we’re adults, we don’t have it all figured out. We have to spend time with the people who truly care about us and want us to win – not those rooting against us.
3. A change in attitude can change your life.
Jenna’s realization of the damage she’s caused is the fuel that fires her subsequent turnaround. Her new attitude betters her relationship with her parents, her coworkers, and of course, her childhood love. Changing her attitude literally changes the storyline, and in a less dramatic sense, the same is true in reality. Adjusting an internal factor, like our attitude or outlook on life, can actually make huge differences in our lives.
4. The simple things are the best things in life.
Some of the sweetest moments in 13 Going on 30 are the simplest ones, like Matt and Jenna laying on the beach and eating Razzles, or Jenna bonding with her mom over smiley-face pancakes and a glass of milk. Why shouldn’t this be the case in real life, too? The simple things are the most special, and they’re often better than the complex things we’ve told ourselves we need in order to be happy.
5. You can fake it until you make it.
30-year-old Jenna has to act like she knows what’s going on even though she’s clueless. She eventually gets a handle on things and is still successful – even while the teenage version of herself is still trapped inside. She literally fakes it yet still makes it, and she does it well. The advice of “Fake it until you make it” does have some truth to it – if you exude confidence even when you have absolutely none and are able to keep it together when you don’t think you can, you’ll get ahead more than you would from acting like you can’t get the hang of things.
6. Remember what’s important in life.
Jenna throws friendship and kindness away for popularity and acceptance –and we all know how that turns out. Even though her life seems perfect, it’s a complete mess underneath because she forgot to focus on what’s actually important. It’s easy to get caught up on surface-level issues, but none of it truly matters at the end of the day. What does matter are the people in your life, the relationships you have with them, and doing what makes you happy – this is all you need to focus on.7. Use the past to solve problems in the present.
7. Use the past to solve problems in the present.
The throwback to “Thriller” is single-handedly responsible for saving a failing NYC party. Jenna reaches back to one of her childhood favorites to bring life back into a room of bored thirty-somethings. While this may be dramatized for filming purposes, it holds a simple reminder: new isn’t always the answer. Something we know from the past or enjoyed when we were younger can help us solve problems we’re dealing with now – it doesn’t have to be complicated.
8. Don’t forget to be nice!
Jenna’s adult life was so messy under the surface because of one simple reason: she stopped being nice. She discarded her nice self to be popular and liked, all of which backfired in the end. Even if you’ve made it to the top, or if you have everything you thought you ever wanted – remember to be nice. It means a lot to the people around you, and happiness spreads; if the people around you are happy, then you’ll be happy too.
9. Enjoy the present instead of wishing for the future.
We often want to fast-forward to a point in our lives that we imagine will be perfect. The thing is, we don’t know anything about how our future will be, and we’re missing out on the present in the meantime. You’ll miss everything life has to offer if you focus that time on waiting for something else. Try to enjoy the now instead of wishing it would go by faster.
10. Slow down for a minute to realize what really matters.
Sometimes we need a change of pace and we have no idea because we’re moving so fast. Take a minute to slow down instead of getting caught up and overwhelmed. If we move without stopping, we’ll lose sight of why we’re doing something in the first place. Once Jenna takes a step back, things become clear to her and she finally starts to make everything right. It’s necessary to slow down to see things more clearly.
11. You don’t need to be given a do-over in order to change things.
At one point in 13 Going on 30, Jenna asks her mom if she could have one do-over, what it would be. She think about the question herself, and though we know she gets a literal “do-over” at the end, she’s already managed to change things on her own. In reality, we’re not going to get any do-overs, but we can still turn things around if we don’t like how they are; we don’t need magic dust to fix our life if we don’t like the direction it’s heading in.
12. Embrace the opportunity to redesign.
When the Poise magazine staff is told they have to redesign the magazine if they want to stay in business, it’s understood by everyone that the company is over. Jenna is the only one who sees this as an opportunity` to bring life and creativity back to a magazine that has lost its way. The same can be said for a low point in real life: instead of thinking of any lull as the end of the world, think of it as an opportunity to restart, rebuild, and redesign. If you’ve hit a point where you think everything is over, remember it’s just another beginning in disguise.
13. It’s never too late to make things right.
No matter where we are in life, if we don’t like the way things are going, then we can fix them. Don’t think that just because you’re a certain age or at certain level that it’s too late to make your life the way you want it. People can still forgive and forget even if time has gone by. There’s no limit on how long we have to fix something important – we can always stop to make things right, and we should.
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