The movie Plan B, which was recently reviewed here, is one of the latest entries in a rather rare genre: high-profile coming-of-age movies about girls, directed by women. There are no shortage of movies about teenage hijinks directed by men, many featuring a mostly male cast – think Superbad, Stand By Me, American Graffiti and many more. Good movies all, but if you’d like to view stories of growing up through the female gaze, here are sixteen movies – some major releases and some indies – to enjoy.

Clueless (1995)

Directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Clueless stars Alicia Silverstone at her very best, along with dreamy Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Donald Faison and the late, great Brittany Murphy as upscale Beverly Hills teens worried about fashion, independence and love in equal measure. Silverstone’s Cher seems superficial and shallow at first, but challenges herself to grow into something more in this witty, charming, and smart comedy with a killer ’90s soundtrack.

Now and Then (1995)

The girl gang in Lesli Linka Glatter’s Now and Then hit all the hallmarks of a crazy teen girl summer in the 1970s: stealing boys’ clothes at the lake, conducting midnight séances in the cemetery and of course, making friends with an old man called Crazy Pete. Ok, maybe everyone didn’t do that last one. It’s a gender script-flip of Stand By Me’s nostalgic flashback with a group of friends growing up in small-town America. A young Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, and Gaby Hoffmann grow up to be Rosie O’Donnell, Melanie Griffith and Demi Moore in this tender and funny film.

Eve’s Bayou (1997)

Kasi Lemmons wrote and directed Eve’s Bayou, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield and featuring an impressive performance by Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country) as ten-year-old Eve. We see everything through her eyes, both the real horrors of dysfunctional family life and Eve’s haunting and supernatural premonitions. Husband, father and womanizer Louis Batiste (Jackson) is the head of an affluent family, but it’s the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies and mystic forces.

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Set in 70s suburbia and ripe with dreamy visuals, lens flare, and a hazy indie-rock soundtrack, this film (considered one of Sofia Coppola’s best) pulls back the curtain on the Lisbon sisters, imprisoned by their militant mother, forced to wear drab clothes and live a life of chastity. The film follows the Lisbon sisters through the perspective and narration of the boys that grew up with them and obsessed over them and explores many hardships of teen-hood such as blooming sexuality, rebellion against overprotective parents, along with very Coppola-esque touches like general melancholy and existentialism. This tale of teenage repression, love and tragedy is equal parts deeply disturbing and achingly beautiful.

Bend it Like Beckham (2002)

And now, sports! Two girls dream of playing football (that’s soccer to us Yanks) professionally in Gurinder Chadha’s comedy set in the U.K. Keira Knightly and Parminder Nagra want to go to the States where the girls get paid, get sponsorship and get proper respect. Jules and Jess are on their way with help from their coach, Joe, until they both fall in love with him. For both girls it means defying their parents, and in Jess’ case, her culture, to get what they want in this heart-warming charmer.

Thirteen (2003)

In Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen, L.A. teenager Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is an excellent student in her seventh grade class who gets along well with her mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter), until she befriends Evie (Nikki Reed), the most popular girl in school. Melanie changes course to follow Evie’s lead into the harsh realities of sex, drugs, and hard-edged adventure in this critically-acclaimed film from Twilight director Hardwicke.

Fish Tank (2009)

We see a very different slice of English life in Andrea Arnold’s critically lauded drama Fish Tank, rated the 65th best film of the 21st century by the BBC. We meet 15-year-old Mia, a girl growing up on an estate in Essex, a loner who dances in an empty flat. She’s also fearless and mouthy, getting into scrapes with other girls, but things reach crisis point when her mother’s new boyfriend moves in and takes advantage of Mia. First-time actor Katie Jarvis, cast when she was just 17, is a marvel. The movie deals with the complexity of sexuality and how it can overwhelm and confuse us as we grow up.

An Education (2009)

We stay in England for Lone Sherfig’s An Education, an Oscar-nominated coming-of-age drama about 16-year-old Jenny Mellor. She temporarily abandons her schooling, against her parents’ wishes, in order to spend time exploring the world and receiving a cultural education from an older man who pursues her romantically. Through this excursion, Jenny learns a lot about herself, questioning the course her life is taking and finding her own answers. The luminous Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman) received her first Academy Award nomination for this film.

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

The Karyn Kusama-directed and Diablo Cody-written Jennifer’s Body is a dark comedy that shows horror through the female gaze. Megan Fox is Jennifer, a popular and gorgeous cheerleader who also happens to be a succubus who devours boys. Amanda Seyfried is Jennifer’s shy, bookish and unpopular friend Anita, who must turn frenemy in order to stop her.

Runaways (2010)

Based on a true story, The Runaways by Floria Sigismundi is a slice of rock and roll history. In 1970s L.A., tough teenaged Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart), connects with eccentric producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) to form an all-girl band that would launch her career and make rock history. Dakota Fanning plays Cherie Currie, the fifteen-year-old rock prodigy found by Fowley, and her relationship with Jett forms the heart of the movie about the original riot girls of rock.

Pariah (2011)

In Dee Rees’ acclaimed debut feature Pariah, Bronx lesbian teenager Ailke (Adepero Oduye) juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection from friends and family, but pressure from home, school, and within corrodes the line between her dual personas and when she decides to finally express her true self, there are explosive consequences. Rees, who wrote the script, would later go on to be the first Black woman to receive an Oscar nomination for scripting Mudbound in 2017.

Wadjda (2012)

Saudi Arabia’s first female director Haifaa al-Mansour directed this heart-warming drama about a girl (Waad Muhammed) who dreams of owning a shiny green bike. Wadjda wants it more than anything, but the ultra-conservative society around her – even her own mother – disapproves of the plan, seeing it as counter to Islamic principles. Shockingly, it was only in 2013 that Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on women riding bikes (in controlled areas). Haifaa had her own bans to deal with: she had to direct this film mostly from the back of a van, using a walkie-talkie, so as not to raise any red flags with local officials.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a black and white oddity with skateboarding vampires and is set in a ghost town called Bad City. But at its heart, Ana Lily Amirpour’s feature debut, hailed as the first Iranian vampire Western, is also a coming of age flick: a simple tale of a lonely girl (Sheila Vand) growing up in a small town, wandering the streets at night, dreaming of the world that lies beyond and looking for love. All teens feel special or odd in some way; this girl just happens to be a vampire.

Lady Bird (2017)

In Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, a fiercely independent teenager (Saoirse Ronan) tries to make her own way in the world while wanting to get out of her hometown of Sacramento, California. She navigates her last year in high school while yearning to break free from her complicated mother (Laurie Metcalfe) and recently-unemployed father. Lady Bird was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture and director as well as acting noms for Ronan and Metcalfe.

Booksmart (2019)

Actor Olivia Wilde makes her directing debut with Booksmart, a film about two brainy girls who are about to graduate high school and suddenly realize they forgot to have any fun. Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) decide to cram everything they missed into the night before their graduation, and the results are predictably crazy and hilarious. Amy and Molly’s friendship feels genuine and the movie is a madcap romp, with a tone that veers easily from smart to low-brow without being insulting.

Moxie (2021)

The Amy Poehler-directed Moxie on Netflix is the story of Vivian, played by Hadley Robinson, who is fed up with the sexist and toxic status quo at her high school. The shy 16-year-old finds inspiration from her mother’s rebellious past and anonymously publishes a ‘zine that both sparks a school-wide, coming-of-rage revolution and helps her to forge new friendships and unite the cliques and clubs in her school. Based on the novel by Jennifer Mathieu.