Eighth Grade

By: Golda Moskowich

Throughout pop culture, at times, content creators may make media that encapsulates the sensations and feelings of niche marginalized communities that are otherwise not seen. In Bo Burnham’s directorial debut, Eighth Grade, Burnham centers the story around a thirteen year old girl named Kayla, who is attempting to finish her last week of eighth grade, all while striving to combat the loneliness by using the internet and social media as an escape, as well as overcome the anxiety that comes with coming of age in the tumultuous environment that is middle school.

Although Bo Burnham himself is not a thirteen year old girl, nor did he himself own a smartphone during his stint in middle school, Bo Burnham is able to craft a compelling narrative that documents the trials and tribulations of a girl dealing with middle school, all while combating loneliness through social media. In Sonya Sawyer Fritz’s A Room of Her Very Own, Fritz explores the concept of bedroom culture, and its relation to the way most girls spend a majority of their formative years in their bedrooms, which often are considered a sanctuary that reflects the person at hand. At one point, Fritz states that a girl’s bedroom often “reflects the unique tensions between public and private that girls of the period experienced as they navigated the variety of socio-cultural expectations placed upon them”, showing that despite the factors of one’s everyday world, the bedroom would serve as a safe haven for girls to exist in seldom scrutiny on their own time (Fritz 1).

This can be seen in Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, as the protagonist, Kayla, is often found seeking solace from the anxiety inflicted by her peers in the comfort of her own bedroom, in which she has access to everything under the sun on the internet, and is able to seek refuge on social media, as well as make her own self-motivational videos in order to combat her anxiety. By doing so, the character of Kayla is also able to strive to find a sense of self in her quest of establishing an identity that would appeal to her classmates and crushes. As Kayla embarks on this endeavor, be it subconsciously or purposely researching how to be more appealing, Kayla would soon come to learn that her identity is ever changing and who she was and currently is may differ from who she will be in the future. Although initially Kayla feels apprehensive of this revelation, at one point she is able to come to terms with it and exclaims, “stay cool, and I can’t wait to be you”, showing that rather than feeling anxious of who she is and will be, she has accepted that over time, she will gradually change (Eighth Grade, 2018). Essentially, Kayla is able to come to terms with the anxiety she feels related to being someone she is not, or aspires to be at some point, that may take years to come, which is the product of being caught between reminiscing about the past, and anticipating the future. In Richard M. Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness, Ryan comments that “individuals will tend to choose an identity that provides an integrated sense of desires, interests, roles and values so as to increase self functioning”, which is shown by Kayla, as she tends to rely on social media to guide her interests, as well as help cultivate her personality (Ryan 24). Kayla’s rampant reliance on social media is a form of escapism that she frequently relies on in an attempt to both distract and alleviate herself of her anxiety through means of self help, as well as discover ways to come off as more interesting and knowledgeable to her peers.

In Sarah Banet-Weiser’s Am I Pretty or Ugly?, Banet-Weiser remarks that incessant posting on social media for validation serves as “a symbol of young girls’ dwindling self-esteem in the contemporary moment, an expression of body image anxieties that is enabled in a heightened way in digital spaces”, showing that although low self esteem has always been prevalent in one’s formative years, it is especially present in the age of social media (Banet-Weiser 3). In Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, the protagonist, Kayla, is already insecure and anxiety ridden as it is, but is also prone to using social media as an outlet for these aforementioned frustrations. In her attempts of channeling her insecurities into posting self-motivational videos, Kayla seldom gets any views or engagement with her content, which amplifies the vulnerability and anxiety she is already experiencing at hand, as she is airing out all of her grievances online, only for no one to truly interact with it. Up until the end of the film where she is encouraged by a peer to resume posting videos online, Kayla essentially feels discouraged from honing her craft, as it feels like without any validation online, her loneliness in her situation, navigating the awkwardness that is being thirteen, is intensified. This parallels Banet-Weiser’s sentiment, as girls may already feel a plethora of anxiety throughout girlhood, but their anxiety is magnified once they start documenting it onto social media and do not receive reassurance for it.

In Rustono Farady Marta’s Social Media and Identity Formation: Content Analysis of Movie ``Eighth Grade”, Marta comments that “social media has become a complementary medium in self expression so that her personality growth becomes more flourishing”, in reference to Kayla’s reliance on presenting herself as a spectacle online, which she later comes to find out that she feels more fulfilled from her father’s “love and presence as it fulfills an important relatedness need in identity formation”, rather than her lukewarm online presence (Marta 397). Despite Kayla’s father having good intentions, albeit being bumbling, he is able to offer her the necessary support and affection that she feels is necessary in shaping who she is as a person going forward. In Ruth Nicole Brown’s Hear Our Truths, Brown states that “listening to each other ignites possibilities of circulating different sounds and new narratives and, most importantly, conveys logics for improving our daily practice”, showing that by hearing one out and listening to one’s personal experience, one is able to express themselves and share their own personal narrative (Brown 195). By doing so, one is able to receive the support they desire.

This is exhibited in both Kayla's use of social media for validation, as well as finally receiving the validation and love she desires from her own father, who although cannot personally relate to her experience, may offer her an outlet to express herself as desired. Kayla’s desire to be reassured by the internet as well as her peers essentially leads to her making a spectacle out of herself at times. In Sarah Projansky’s Spectacular Girls, Projansky notes that the “media turn girls into spectacles—visual objects on display”, as regardless of the media at hand and no matter the girl, the girl at hand will be heavily dissected by those who interact with the media, and subjected to intense scrutiny (Projansky 5). With that in mind, it is clear that Kayla’s vulnerability in her self-motivational videos essentially make her into a spectacle, as both, fictional observers within the film such as her classmates, and those who are watching the film in real life are able to experience Kayla in her self-motivational video form, as well as who she is outside of her hobby. With that, people are able to make astute observations on Kayla’s character, and analyze her logic and reasoning behind her actions.

Overall, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade depicts a narrative that is otherwise not too common in media, showing how kids, namely girls, may live their respective lives online as a form of escapism, as well as how that may affect their lives and how one views oneself, how it affects one’s real life interactions, and how social media and the internet can be used to craft an individual’s identity, as well as how it plays a part in the preconceived notion that children with a social media presence are often self involved, which in reality is not the case, as they are actually self conscious and are prone to creating personas and presenting themselves in ways that may appease an otherwise judgemental society.

Work Cited

Fritz, Sonya Sawyer. “‘A Room of Her Very Own’: Privacy and Leisure in the Victorian Girl’s Bedroom.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, Jan. 2015, https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2015.080204.

Eighth Grade. Directed by Bo Burnham, A24, 13 July 2018.

Bouffard, Léandre. “Ryan, R. M. Et Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-Determination Theory. Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development and Wellness. New York, NY : Guilford Press.” Revue Québécoise de Psychologie, vol. 38, no. 3, 2017, p. 231, 10.7202/1041847ar.

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Banet-Weiser, Sarah. “Am I Pretty or Ugly? Girls and the Market for Self-Esteem.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2014, 10.3167/ghs.2014.070107. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

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Moskowich 9 Brown, Ruth Nicole. Hear Our Truths: The Creative Potential of Black Girlhood. University of Illinois Press, 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt3fh5xc. Accessed 11 May 2022.

Cashmore, Ellis. “Spectacular Girls: Media Fascination and Celebrity Cultureby Sarah Projansky.” Women’s Studies, vol. 45, no. 3, 2 Apr. 2016, pp. 306–308,

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