What Singer Janis Ian Thought of ‘Mean Girls’ Character Named After Her
Mean Girls is a 2004 classic that defined a generation’s understanding of high school cliques, teen drama, and, of course, compiling your classmates’ shameful secrets on a “Burn Book.” But…
Mean Girls is a 2004 classic that defined a generation’s understanding of high school cliques, teen drama, and, of course, compiling your classmates’ shameful secrets on a “Burn Book.” But there’s one character in the film who has always stood out not just for her strong sense of self, but also for her unique name: Janis Ian.
Not everyone may know, but the name Janis Ian is based on a real person—the singer Janis Ian, whose beautiful songs like “At Seventeen” made her a staple of '70s pop culture. Ian recently shared in an interview what she thought about being immortalized in the critically and commercially successful (and so-fetch!) teen movie.
Janis Ian Has Mixed Feelings About Mean Girls Homage
In an interview with Page Six, Ian said, “I would’ve felt better about it [had she] asked me first. But I think it was well-intended.”
In the movie, Lizzy Caplan played a character named Janis Ian. She and Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese) were outcasts who befriended the new girl, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) and explained how the school’s cliques work, with the “Plastics” or the mean girls being on the top of the school’s clique hierarchy.
The singer and sci-fi author revealed that she talked to Tina Fey, who wrote the screenplay based on Queen Bees and Wannabes, a book by Rosalind Wiseman after the film’s release. “I can’t get into that except to say that there was some unauthorized merchandising. And so, we spoke about that, and they withdrew it.”
In a post by Bustle where the singer describes her song “At Seventeen” before performing, it's clear that she and the character have a lot in common. “This song was written about a time in my life when I was really weird-looking, and there were all these girls I was going to school with who were really terrific-looking, they were like cheerleaders and very tall, and long blonde hair...I was very short with curly black hair.”
Saturday Night Live Connection
Aside from being the inspiration for one of the characters, Grammy-winning singer Janis Ian has another connection to Mean Girls writer Tina Fey. Ian was the very first musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Fey, of course, went on to be a cast member and the head writer on the iconic sketch comedy show.
Additionally, Ian’s iconic song “At Seventeen” can be heard playing in the background during the movie, according to Biography.
In the end, Janis Ian’s name in Mean Girls serves as a perfect reminder that sometimes the outsiders make the biggest impact—and that’s something both the singer and her movie character can agree on.
