The Problematic (Im)Persistence of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in Popular Culture and YA Fiction

The year is January 2007. The verb ‘to Google’ made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary a mere six months ago, social media platform MySpace is at the height of its popularity while Facebook and Twitter are in their infancy, and video rental stores such as Blockbuster and Xtra-Vision are still going strong. As the dust settles from Western Christmas and New Year celebrations, film critic Nathan Rabin publishes a review of Cameron Crowe’s film Elizabethtown (2005) in which he coins the term ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ (MPDG), citing Kirsten Dunst’s role as quirky flight attendant Clare Colburn in Crowe’s film and Natalie Portman’s as Sam in Zach Braff’s Garden State (2004) as “prime examples” of the trope (“Bataan March”). Though the term gained traction after the publication of Rabin’s review, between 2012 and 2013 pop culture writers such as Kat Stoeffel and Aisha Harris were claiming the Pixie was dead. Fast-forward to 2021. Facebook and Twitter now have millions of users and have been joined by TikTok, Instagram, BeReal and more. MySpace is now all but defunct and streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime made brick-and-mortar video rentals obsolete long ago, their place in everyday life cemented by various Coronavirus pandemic lockdowns. On the 19 October, TikTok user @allcakenocheese posted a seven-second video. In it, her make-up consists of stylized winged eyeliner to create a doe-like effect; heavy doll-like blusher that is also lightly blended across the bridge of her nose to create an illusion of slight sunburn; and a small, glittery golden star drawn on her left cheek. Dressed in a sage green jumper accessorized with layered amethyst crystal necklaces, she talks directly to the camera: “Listen, I can’t disclose too much information at this time, however, I fear I may have . . . ” she pauses, angling her phone upwards to emphasize her bright purple hair and wispy bangs, “Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girled a bit too close to the sun.” By