She’s the Queen Bee, the epitome of teen girl perfection. Through a combination of charisma, force, money, looks, will, and social intelligence, this girl reigns supreme over the other girls…”
- Quote from Queen Bees & Wannabees by Rosalind Wiseman
Author Rosaline Wiseman is the first to apply the term Queen Bee to describe the most popular and manipulative teenage girl in a high school. Origins of this scientific term of Queen Bee can be found on Wikipedia that says, “When a young virgin queen emerges from a queen cell, she will generally seek out virgin queen rivals and attempt to kill them.” Every institution has a hierarchy with a person at the top. Whether it’s a CEO of a company, leader of a group, or for our purposes, the most popular girl in high school. Of course, not every girl at the top of her social status is mean, but if you introduce a Queen Bee into a teen comedy, it immediately sets her up as a villain for the main character to challenge.
And as the quote that opens this section suggests… there can be only one Queen Bee. A quintessential Queen Bee is represented by Regina in Mean Girls. Along with her two friends, they form a clique called the Plastics and are regarded as the meanest girls in school. At first, Regina accepts the main character, Cady, into her group to boost her popularity and make her one of the Plastics. However, when Cady takes a liking to Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron, her jealous nature arises and she’s influential enough to win back Aaron, not because she likes him, but because she doesn’t want anyone else to have him. As a result, Cady takes on the mantle of Queen Bee in order to destroy Regina’s reputation, thus kicking off the rivalry between the two and delivering on the title’s promise.
Queen Bee Traits
Pros
Cons
Excerpt from the book - Teenage Dreams: How to Make a Successful Teen Comedy Movie
- Quote from Queen Bees & Wannabees by Rosalind Wiseman
Author Rosaline Wiseman is the first to apply the term Queen Bee to describe the most popular and manipulative teenage girl in a high school. Origins of this scientific term of Queen Bee can be found on Wikipedia that says, “When a young virgin queen emerges from a queen cell, she will generally seek out virgin queen rivals and attempt to kill them.” Every institution has a hierarchy with a person at the top. Whether it’s a CEO of a company, leader of a group, or for our purposes, the most popular girl in high school. Of course, not every girl at the top of her social status is mean, but if you introduce a Queen Bee into a teen comedy, it immediately sets her up as a villain for the main character to challenge.
And as the quote that opens this section suggests… there can be only one Queen Bee. A quintessential Queen Bee is represented by Regina in Mean Girls. Along with her two friends, they form a clique called the Plastics and are regarded as the meanest girls in school. At first, Regina accepts the main character, Cady, into her group to boost her popularity and make her one of the Plastics. However, when Cady takes a liking to Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron, her jealous nature arises and she’s influential enough to win back Aaron, not because she likes him, but because she doesn’t want anyone else to have him. As a result, Cady takes on the mantle of Queen Bee in order to destroy Regina’s reputation, thus kicking off the rivalry between the two and delivering on the title’s promise.
Queen Bee Traits
Pros
- Highly Attractive
- Very Opinionated
- Leader of the group
- Effectively influences others toward her decisions
- Is the object of desire by many boys
- Is emulated by many girls
- An expert at arguing her position
Cons
- Needs constant attention
- Friends do not completely trust her
- Selects friends to increase her popularity
- Humiliates others to maintain superiority
- Manipulates friends by favoring one of the other to create jealousy
- Rarely takes responsibility for wrongdoing
- Has a controlling nature due to feelings of insecurity
Excerpt from the book - Teenage Dreams: How to Make a Successful Teen Comedy Movie
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