Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Older than you'd think

I recently watched Breakfast at Tiffany's for the first time, the 1961 classic that I assumed I already knew the plot of due to its iconic imagery that’s been plastered throughout pop culture—dorm room posters of Audrey with her pearls or years of girls wearing sleeping masks during Halloween. Holly Golightly has been a phenomenon for nearly 65 years and is a contributing factor to why women are categorized as either a Marilyn, Grace, or Audrey. I always assumed this meant women either had sex appeal, class, or… what? Are they just cute? Now I know. Desirable women either have sex appeal, class, or manic pixie dream girl energy.

Defining the Manic Pixie Dream Girl

What exactly is a manic pixie dream girl? The term, coined in 2007 by Nathan Rabin in an article about Elizabethtown starring Kirsten Dunst (a classic MPDG, celebrated for both this role and as Lux Lisbon in The Virgin Suicides), breaks down the trope into distinct traits:

• Manic: This describes the woman as erratic, wild, exciting, and psychotically bubbly. One example is Kiera Knightley in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, who is frustratingly positive, even as the world is ending.

• Pixie: She’s otherworldly, playful, whimsical, and fantastical. Think of Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, with her cartoonish essence and plotline.

• Dream: The woman is adventurous, over-the-top, yet unknowable at the same time. Amélie is literally being tracked down from afar by Nino in this dreamy way.

• Girl: She embodies youthfulness and is adorable. Jessica Day from New Girl, with her colorful and childlike skirts and sweaters, is a prime example.

Audrey Hepburn embodies these qualities not just in Breakfast at Tiffany's (where she plans to take off to Brazil on a whim, drinks champagne for breakfast, belongs to no one, and wears pigtails) but in all her roles. In Charade, when she quotes Shakespeare, or in Roman Holiday, when she complains about her underwear, Hepburn’s characters are quintessential manic pixie dream girls. Sixty-five years later, this archetype gave rise to the “I’m not like other girls” trend women strive for today.

The Appeal

In contrast to the sex appeal of a Marilyn or the put-together elegance of a Grace, the MPDG is “a fantasy figure who embraces life and its infinite mysteries and adventures,” according to Rabin. The MPDG is often paired with a boring man to teach him this lesson. Take Paul in Breakfast at Tiffany's, who is in a writing rut until he meets Holly, who inspires his work. However, the very thing that attracts him to her—her excitement and fervor for life—is the same thing he later tries to change. She won’t settle down and belong to him. The main issue with the MPDG: they are always set up to fail.

She’s a wild figure who brings excitement to someone’s life. And yet, as soon as that person wants to be whisked away in her tornado, the problem emerges—she can’t be claimed. She’s criticized for being flighty, yet if she settles down, she is no longer a MPDG. As soon as she takes medication to tame mania,, stays in one place, or sticks with one guy, she is no longer the woman they fell for. She becomes "normal." She’s exactly what they were trying to escape in the first place—just like every other girl.

Speaking of "girl"—that’s part of the appeal. Young girls symbolize the possibilities of the future. They don’t have a set path yet, and everything is exciting and playful as they maintain a sense of wonder about the world. In Charade, Audrey asks, “Why do people lie?” showing the childlike curiosity she embodies. This has now become the stereotype, as coined by Taylor Swift, of the “sexy baby.” It’s the coquettish fetishization of little girls, Lolita-esque, where women speak and dress as young girls, hyper sexualized and childlike, as a clean slate to be molded into the ideal woman for a man.

The manic pixie dream girl/sexy baby embraces youthful styles—overalls, stripes, polka dots, tall socks, and unique, quirky clothing. Many MPDG are played by women with gamine body types, including Audrey Hepburn herself. A gamine, as defined by David Kibbie (style expert and founder of the fashion philosophy that there are 13 body types) has a petite frame with delicate bone structure and sharp angles in their pixie like face. Gamines look best in crisp fabrics with precise tailoring that flatters their straight figures. The combination of these traits makes them look at home in youthful, playful clothes that would look ridiculous on other body types. Literally making them “not like other girls” physically with their boyish frames yet feminine, lush facial features. Actresses like Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn, Natalie Portman, Elle Fanning, Keira Knightley, and Barbra Streisand all have the gamine body type. They all tend to be casted in the MPDG role. They are all, “not like the other girls.” This body type is integral to playing the role of the manic pixie dream girl—the look feeds into the character's whimsical, almost cartoonish mystique.

Evolution of the MPDG

With the rise of social media, we are constantly trying to prove that we’re living interesting lives. We’re encouraged to show off our trips, our outfits, our friends when we receive external validation through likes on social media. This desire for uniqueness is how the manic pixie dream girl thrived and evolved over the past 20 years. We don’t want to be “basic” in our style, our hobbies, or our lives.

At some point, the MPDG became a trope. It seemed shallow to have women dancing in the rain or writing thoughts on their hands in pen—where was the depth to these characters? Why were they just props for the boring men in the story? Rabin, seven years after coining the term, shared that he regretted reducing women to this overplayed stereotype. However, just because the term became cliche doesn’t mean the idea disappeared.

The MPDG evolved into the 2010s hipster: large glasses, colorful tights, ukuleles. This persona was popularized by Tumblr, where individuals crafted their own identities. The “core-ification” of women took off—Dark Academia, Disney Adult, Cottagecore—each subculture a way to stand out and build a personal brand. We saw the need for labels to match our style and social media presence, furthering the idea that, yes I am unique, I am not like other girls you see on social media!

However, even the word “hipster” became distasteful. It became basic, and if everyone was a hipster, who was unique? I would argue that an entire generation (cough, Millennials) adopted quirky as a personality, making “hipster” a label that quickly became oversaturated.

This brings us to the Greta Gerwig era. Frances Ha! is obsessed with being different, with “not being like other girls”—a sentiment that I initially found nauseating to watch. But I now see that Gerwig was subverting the MPDG trope. Lady Bird, for example, wants to be someone’s manic pixie dream girl—but just isn’t. Interestingly enough, Saoirse Roanan is not a gamine body type, which further supports the idea in the movie that she is constantly attempting to be someone she is not, desperate to fit the stereotype as she may be (dawning the brightly colored hair, quirky, actress). This film discusses how challenging it is to live up to the image we are told to portray. Women can't just fit into boxes like Marilyn, Grace, or Audrey. These are personas.

Little Women, another Greta Gerwig film, ushers us into our current era of “I’m not like the other girls.” While Jo March is a character from 1868, she checks all the boxes of an “Audrey” character: adventurous, childlike imagination, a dreamer, beats to her own drum, wears men’s clothing, reads books (gasp!). In a society that values online time, enjoying physical books and being well-read has become the new MPDG trait. We see this in Jo and Eloise from Bridgerton, both bookish characters who don’t conform to the typical interests of women, like clothing or marriage.

Another iteration of the MPDG these days is the wild child. Some may argue that this could be its own fourth category of woman but I’d argue this fits into the “outsider” category of the MPDG. These characters, like Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad or Nellie LaRoy in Babylon, go to the beat of their own drum, characterized by wild outfits and a “don’t care what others think” attitude. Even this trope has become somewhat satirical, as seen with Emma Stone’s portrayal in Poor Things. These women are often too smart or too wild to be happy with a man. They’re not sexy (Marilyn) or put together (Grace)—just whimsical. Cute. Manic. Pixie. Dream. Girl.

While I can’t see Audrey playing a Nellie LaRoy or a bookish Jo, I do think her essence paved the way for actresses like Margot Robbie, playing naive, youthful types like Barbie, or Saoirse Ronan, playing Agatha in The Grand Budapest Hotel. These characters, despite the reductive MPDG stereotype, continue to be some of my favorites. Likely because being unique is so highly valued in society today, I think many women strive to be an Audrey over a Marilyn or Grace nowadays. But if we are all “not like the other girls,” aren’t we all the same?