teenage protagonists

She crafts nuanced coming-of-age narratives that authentically capture teenage female perspectives and anxieties, from *Lady Bird* to *Barbie*.

Her films like *Girlhood* and *Portrait of a Lady on Fire* explore teenage identity, desire, and self-discovery with poetic intensity and emotional depth.

He subverts the teenage protagonist archetype through psychological horror in films like *Hereditary*, examining trauma and adolescent vulnerability in deeply unsettling ways.