A List Of Every Manic Pixie Dream Girl To Convince You That We Really Don’t Need Any More Of Them

Oh look, a quirky girl with unnaturally colored hair! A free spirit who lives life by her own rules! Watch her lead sad, incomplete men to a higher plane of existence. She can teach them to seize the day and accept the love they don’t believe they deserve with a single kiss.

Meet the manic pixie dream girl, a movie trope so ingrained in film culture that we take her presence for granted. I think it’s time for her to retire. Let’s make way for some fully developed female characters, shall we? Keep reading for every adorkable reason we need to leave this trope in the past where it belongs. Let’s give Zooey Deschanel some characters with depth and a backstory.

Sam From Garden State

Photo Credit: @whoremond / Twitter

Natalie Portman plays Sam in Zach Braff’s 2004 film Garden State. Sam is an adorable pathological liar. She’s also epileptic and pretty introspective.

Sam doesn’t really grow or change in any way over the course of the film. She helps Braff’s character realize some truths about himself though.