History Characters / MeanGirls

* AdaptationalJerkass: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. In the original, she was vacuous and pathetically trying to be friends with her daughter and her friends, Gretchen and Karen, but mostly polite, pleasant and harmless and ''very'' lenient. In the 2024 film, while still most of these traits, she is the one who introduces the Burn Book, calling it the funniest thing the Plastics used to do.

* AlphaBitch: The leader of the Plastics, and a fearsome one to boot!

* AdaptationalJerkass: In the original, she was vacuous and pathetically trying to be friends with her daughter and her friends, Gretchen and Karen, but mostly pleasant and harmless. In the 2024 film, she introduces the Burn Book, calling it the funniest thing the Plastics used to do.
* AffablyEvil: Evil is a ''massive'' stretch, but she is very pleasant, lenient, and harmless, even as the mother of a girl who's basically a bully.

* UglyGuyHotWife: Mrs. George's plastic surgery keeps her from looking her age, but the same can't be said for her overweight husband.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: '''[[TokenEvilTeammate Except]] [[BadBoss for]] [[BeautyIsBad Regina]]'''. The rest of the Plastics aren't all that bad (which includes Cady, despite her TookALevelInJerkass moments); they were all just negatively influenced by Regina herself.

%%* BeautyIsBad: She's the only one of the Plastics who's qualifiable for this trope.

** To an extent, she's also this to Karen, as both are considerable [[BookSmart academic]] [[DumbBlonde dumb blondes]]. However, Karen herself, despite being the less intelligent one (not just academically speaking, of course), is actually [[KindheartedSimpleton much friendlier]] than Regina, who's still smarter [[StreetSmart on a social level]], where the latter uses it to nonchalantly or spitefully manipulate others, even for no reason at all.

** Gretchen is the melancholic one because deep down her attention-seeking ways is apparently a good girl who wants to be loved by others, and is evidently emotionally broken inside partially thanks to Regina.

%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble:
%%** Cady (phlegmatic)
%%** Regina (choleric)
%%** Gretchen (melancholic)
%%** Karen (sanguine)

* HeelFaceTurn: At the end. She joins another GirlPosse, but without Regina around, she's not mean.

** Still, ''half'' true.", is what she says about the fat virgin in the plastics burn book.

** Also this with Gretchen and Karen before getting barred from sitting with them at lunch due to not following the rules of not wearing sweatpants on Monday.[[note]]Thursday in the 2024 version[[/note]]

** Also this with Gretchen and Karen before getting barred from sitting with them at lunch due to not following the rules of not wearing sweatpants on Monday.

* PrettyBoy: Cady can't help but gush over how cute he is. If it wasn't his cuteness Cady explicetely pointed out a few times, he could also qualify as a {{Hunk}}, considering his athletic built.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed. While he's no less dislikable, the musical removes some of his more heinous actions, though this is more because his role is less prominent.

* DemotedToExtra: His role in the musical is significantly reduced compared with the first film.

* HiddenDepths: In the musical, at least, she's shown to miss the times when Regina looked up to her as a role-model as a child, and is visibly worried for Regina when she looses her social standing after being publically humiliated

->'''Played by:''' Creator/RachelMcAdams (2004 film); Taylor Louderman (2018 original Broadway cast); Renee Rapp (2024 film)\\

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He cares about his students, he just can't do the squishy girly things. Case in point, when he talks with the Plastics about the Burn Book, while he is mad at the amount of gossip and allegations, he's also worried. Kids do stupid stuff and can be unintentionally cruel. Principal Duvall knows that if the word got out about the Burn Book, [[spoiler:it would cause a riot and he respects that the girls establish no one was supposed to ''read'' the pages. Rather than suspend all the junior girls for the hallway altercation, he instead tells them they need to shape up or he's cancelling prom, and they are working out their aggression towards each other in a healthy fashion. When he gets squicked out on hearing about heavy menstruation, he defers to Ms. Norbury. Later, when Ms. Norbury is being investigated, he establishes that he doesn't want the police to check the allegations, but they have to because the allegations against Coach Carr were true and that means anyone accused of committing crimes may actually have done wrong]].

* CoolBigSis: Her younger sister, Kylie, seems to be the person she cares for most in her family. Kylie is clearly heavily influences by Regina and their mother, and Regina is never shown ordering Kylie about or belittling her in any way like she does to their parents, instead greeting her kindly when Regina sees her.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Were it not for her distardly scheme she wouldnt have had to confront the fact that everyone hates her, she wouldn't have got hit by the bus and wouldn't have gone through character developlement and learned to turn her rage into sports. Nice job fixing yourself, Regina.

* TheDogBitesBack: Spills Regina's secrets to Cady in retaliation for Regina constantly putting her down.
* EvenBadWomenLoveTheirMamas: She is complicit in Regina's bitchery to the school but her recounting of how Regina forbade her from wearing hoop earrings and her tears at having to turn down a beautiful pair her parents once got her for Hanukkah seems to betray some guilt about possibly prioritizing her parents' feelings over Regina's wants.

* InnocentBetaBitch: She's only mean when doing Regina's bidding, or when she's getting back at Regina for hurting her feelings. She's a good and sweet friend to Karen, and is nice and accomadating to Cady for the most part. Gretchen just seems to be desperate for attention and for people to like her, and more neurotic and cripplingly insecure than anything.
* InsecureLoveInterest: Seems to be this for Jason, willing to put up with his cheating just to stay with him.

* LoveMartyr: To Jason, who two-times her, yet she keeps fawning over him.

* BollywoodNerd

* AmbiguouslyGay: Is Janis Ian a lesbian? Nope! She's "Lebanese". In the musical this is played more straight, where Janis never denies the lesbian rumor and actually sort of implies it's true. The only time Janis is shown having a genuine interest in men is when she starts dating Kevin at the end of the movie. Ultimately she could be straight, bi, or gay and simply not ready to be out yet. In 2024, she's not ambiguous. She's out and proud.

* FallenPrincess: Janis used to be popular, but her reputation was destroyed by a rumor and she now willingly embraces outsiderdom.
** Some fans have actually speculated that Janis was once the Queen Bee, while Regina (her best friend at the time) was kind-hearted like Cady, but slowly became mean as her social life evolved, which resulted in Regina betraying her best friend by starting the Lesbian rumour and replacing Janis as the new Queen Bee.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed. The musical removes some of his more heinous actions, though this is more because his role is less prominent.

* {{Briefs Boasting}}: As Aaron enters the Auditorium as Regina George is hooking up with her secret lover Shane Oman, a popular and muscular Football player, they have already taken their clothes off. Regina hides and Aaron doesn’t see her, but he does see Shane, who is wearing nothing but a baggy pair of grey briefs.

* CasanovaWannabe: Kevin's behaviour comes off as very similar to [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Howard Wolowitz's]], but surprisingly, he turns out not to be interested in Cady. [[spoiler:And he does succeed with Janis in the end]].

* ButNotTooGay: At no point in the film is he shown to be romantic with, or have a crush on, any specific boy. The musical partially fixes this with the song "Stop!"

!!Cady Heron (Creator/LindsayLohan)

!!Regina George (Creator/RachelMcAdams)

!!Gretchen Wieners (Creator/LaceyChabert)

!!Karen Smith (Creator/AmandaSeyfried)

!!Janis Ian (Creator/LizzyCaplan)

!!Damian Leigh (Creator/DanielFranzese)

!!Aaron Samuels (Creator/JonathanBennett)

!!Kevin Gnapoor (Creator/RajivSurendra)

!!Ms. Sharon Norbury (Creator/TinaFey)

!!Principal Ron Duvall (Creator/TimMeadows)

!!Coach Carr (Creator/DwayneHill)

!!Chip and Betsy Heron (Creator/NeilFlynn and Creator/AnaGasteyer)

!!June George (Creator/AmyPoehler)

* AdoptedOut: Chip doesn't appear in the 2024 version.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Is Janis Ian a lesbian? Nope! She's "Lebanese". In the musical this is played more straight, where Janis never denies the lesbian rumor and actually sort of implies it's true. The only time Janis is shown having a genuine interest in men is when she starts dating Kevin at the end of the movie. Ultimately she could be straight, bi, or gay and simply not ready to be out yet.

[[caption-width-right:350:"I know it looked like I was being a [[AlphaBitch bitch]], but that's only because I was ''[[BeneathTheMask acting]]'' [[BecomingTheMask like a bitch."]]]]

-->'''Cady:''' ''Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.''

-->'''Played by:'''
---> Creator/LindsayLohan (2004 film)
---> Creator/ErikaHenningsen (2018 original Broadway cast)
---> Creator/AngourieRice (2024 film)

* BettyAndVeronica: While still innocent and nice, she serves as the "Betty" to Aaron's "Archie" and Regina's "Veronica." This still applies to them even after Cady herself replaced Regina as the new Queen Bee.

* BookSmart: She is established as GoodWithNumbers when she first goes to school in order to contrast with her transformation into a [[ObfuscatingStupidity seemingly book-dumb]] [[AlphaBitch Plastic]] later in the film. [[spoiler: She still manages to clinch the win for the Mathletes, despite being months out of practice, at the end of the film.]]

* HomeSchooledKids: Until the beginning of the movie, Cady had never gone to a regular school and had been homeschooled since she was around four years old.

* NaiveNewcomer: She has no clue how to function or fit into the social climbs of highscool. She's taken under Janis's wing, and then Regina's.
* NerdsAreSexy: Zigzagged. Kevin hits on her because of her looks ''and'' her math skills (though he later claims he prefers women of colour). Regina and Damian both tell her joining the Mathletes is social suicide and she dumbs herself down to impress Aaron (although Aaron likes her just fine, math skills and all).

--> '''Cady''': They wanted me to get socialized.\\
'''Damian''': Oh, you'll get socialized, all right. A little slice like you.\\
'''Cady''': What are you talking about?\\
'''Janis''': You're a regulation hottie.\\
'''Cady''': What?

* PetTheDog: Does a couple nice things even whilst her transformation into Plastic is in full swing.
** Tells Karen she's not stupid
** Tells Gretchen "good for you Gretch" when Gretchen herself says that she's not taking the stuff from being mugged off anymore.

* TragicHero: Actually manages to be a near-textbook example.
* {{Tsundere}}: As she joins the Plastics, combined with her developed feelings for Aaron, she slowly becomes this, but ''only'' as a Type B, mainly because her conscience is still inside her even when she becomes the new Queen Bee.
* UnkemptBeauty: Downplayed. While she clearly fits the bill as her original self, opinions about her makeover are split. More specifically, when Cady first appears, she keeps her hair in a [[TomboyishPonytail messy ponytail]], uses minimal makeup, and wears a baggy shirt and jeans, none of which are quite enough to conceal her natural beauty but which give the impression that either she doesn't particularly care about her appearance or she isn't aware of just how pretty she is.

* WhatTheHellHero: As Cady becomes more and more Plastic, more and more of her actions veer into "What a bitch" territory.

-->'''Janis''': ''And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she's so much more than that.''
-->'''Damian''': ''She's the queen bee - the star, those other two are just her little workers.''

-->'''Played by:'''
---> Creator/RachelMcAdams (2004 film)
---> Taylor Louderman (2018 original Broadway cast)
---> Renee Rapp (2024 film)

* AlphaBitch: The leader of the Plastics and a fearsome one to boot!
* AntiVillain: She's a bitch, and the worst of the Plastics, but she's a teenager with issues. By the end of the movie, she is working through them, and is happier and a better person.

* BeautyIsBad: She's the only one of the Plastics who's qualifiable for this trope.
* BettyAndVeronica: The Veronica to Cady's Betty for Aaron's Archie.
* BigBad: Presented as one by Janis. Turns out she's just one of ''many'' mean girls around, including Janis. She just simply knew how to work the system to be at the top.
* BigEater: After her weight gain due to eating Kalteen Bars, she's stuffing herself, noticeably in her [[CutASliceTakeTheRest Cut A Slice Take The Rest]] scene. Her meal tray is overladen with junk food, while the other Plastics have an apple and a Diet Coke.

* BrilliantButLazy: Imagine all she could achieve if she put as much effort into her schoolwork and learning as she does in controlling the student body.
** Come end of the movie and she's finally growing out of it, what with her lacrosse sports and everything.

* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Some of the devotion showed by other girls borders on LesYay. She starts a rumor (albeit an untrue one) that Janis had a huge crush on her.

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Regina is the most arrogant bitch in the school but it's revealed of the course of the movie that she has anger issues triggered by crippling insecurities about her body weight and how well truly liked she is. In fact the reveal that she's actually rather hated triggers her second VillainousBreakdown.

** InUniverse - Fetch never happened, it was a verb not an adjective after all.