Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Hey, besties. Today, on the bright Side, the Future is Female,
Speaker 2: we dive into the world the new Apple TV doc
Speaker 2: Girls State. We'll be joined by co director Amanda McBain
Speaker 2: and a young woman from the film who might just
Speaker 2: run for president one day. It's Tuesday, April ninth. I'm
Speaker 2: Simone Boyce.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine. Okay, Simone, before we talk about anything else today,
Speaker 1: please tell me about your Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Speaker 1: Tell me about your trip.
Speaker 2: Well, it's true. Scientific name is a total eclipse of
Speaker 2: the Sun. I mean, I've never seen something like it before.
Speaker 2: The sky goes totally dark and then it comes back.
Speaker 2: And being able to see it up close and in
Speaker 2: person like I've seen I've seen it from far away,
Speaker 2: but to see it this close, it was just remarkable.
Speaker 1: Your dad's been planning this trip for like four years.
Speaker 1: Do you think that it was all he wanted it
Speaker 1: to be?
Speaker 3: I hope so.
Speaker 2: I hope it was everything that my dad wanted a
Speaker 2: lot of his cousins and brothers and sisters there, so
Speaker 2: it was a really special time. Okay, Danielle, you know
Speaker 2: I'm a space nerd. You know, I would go to
Speaker 2: space tomorrow if Jeff Bezos called me and asked me
Speaker 2: to go totally nuts. But I think he should call you.
Speaker 2: But I think I'm not the only space nerd out there.
Speaker 2: So for all y'all who are interested, here's a little
Speaker 2: bit about solar eclipses. It happens when the Moon is
Speaker 2: positioned between the Earth and the Sun. And there are
Speaker 2: other types of eclipses. You've probably heard about these, like
Speaker 2: a partial eclipse where the Moon blocks out a chunk
Speaker 2: of the Sun. A solar eclipse like the one I
Speaker 2: saw is actually pretty rare, and it can only happen
Speaker 2: if the Moon aligns perfectly between the Earth and the Sun,
Speaker 2: making them appear the same size. Fun fact, they take
Speaker 2: place about every eighteen months, but the location changes, so
Speaker 2: that's why in North America we haven't seen one in
Speaker 2: seven years.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if you were speaking English or not
Speaker 1: for the last sixty.
Speaker 3: Seconds, Danielle. It wasn't even that complicated.
Speaker 1: It really is. You lost me at moon and Sun
Speaker 1: and stars and location.
Speaker 3: And yet when Channy's here, you're all ears.
Speaker 1: And she has something to say about what that means.
Speaker 1: I don't know but if you didn't make the trip
Speaker 1: like me, Apparently you can still see a solar eclipse eventually.
Speaker 1: The next one is in twenty twenty six. I read
Speaker 1: and you can see it in Iceland, in Portugal and Spain,
Speaker 1: or you can wait until two thousand and thirty three,
Speaker 1: so like nine years from now and you can see
Speaker 1: it in Alaska. That would be cool. Maybe we should
Speaker 1: plan on doing that in nine years?
Speaker 2: Do you want to go to Alaska? I heard Portugal,
Speaker 2: and then I didn't hear anything else after that.
Speaker 1: Well, apparently if you want to see it in the
Speaker 1: lower forty eight states, you'll have to wait until twenty
Speaker 1: forty four. So you're right, this is a pretty rare occurrence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know that I'll get to
Speaker 2: see another one in my lifetime.
Speaker 3: Feels like a bucket list moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah kay, I'm about to shift to something that's totally unrelated.
Speaker 3: Here we go.
Speaker 1: There is all of these videos on social media of
Speaker 1: women sharing their IUD insertion stories, and it's basically this
Speaker 1: trend where women record themselves getting their IUD insertain and
Speaker 1: I have to tell you, at first glance, I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: this is very personal to see watch here, and then
Speaker 1: I felt differently.
Speaker 3: Wait, they're showing what are they showing exactly? Because I
Speaker 3: haven't seen these videos.
Speaker 1: They're covered by the rope, But the girls that are
Speaker 1: sharing these are saying that they felt really unprepared for
Speaker 1: the pain that they felt when it was inserted, and
Speaker 1: they wanted to share with other women.
Speaker 2: So I've always been afraid of getting an IUD, largely
Speaker 2: because one of my really good friends got it, and
Speaker 2: she has had a horrible experience with it, truly a
Speaker 2: saga to where it was problematic from the time that
Speaker 2: it was inserted and then she had to get surgery
Speaker 2: to get it taken out. And the thing is, I
Speaker 2: want to be careful here because I know that that's anecdotal,
Speaker 2: and I know that there are lots of women who
Speaker 2: have great experiences with IUDs and it can offer them
Speaker 2: freedom and liberation from other forms of birth control.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: So, I didn't grow up taking birth control pills. I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to limit any exposure to hormones, and in hindsight,
Speaker 1: I'm actually really glad I didn't do that. But a
Speaker 1: few years ago, I think it was the summer of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, I had an abortion, and because of
Speaker 1: that experience, I had an IUD inserted because I felt
Speaker 1: like the risk that I was taking was too great.
Speaker 1: It felt like I didn't want to have that experience again,
Speaker 1: and I'd rather have an IUD. I like having it.
Speaker 1: It's given me peace of mind and freedom, as you said,
Speaker 1: but I don't love the idea of having something foreign
Speaker 1: inside of me, or having anything hormonal inside of me.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have nothing, But at this point in my life,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's better than nothing.
Speaker 3: Do you feel it?
Speaker 1: I don't feel it. When I first got it, I
Speaker 1: felt a little anxious for like a month or two,
Speaker 1: and my doctor said there's no actual proof that that's
Speaker 1: the case, but he has had other women say that.
Speaker 1: But the anxiety dissipated, so I don't feel it. I
Speaker 1: don't feel effects from it. I'm grateful for it, but
Speaker 1: I think every women nowadays are much more thoughtful about
Speaker 1: what they're taking in terms of birth control. I think
Speaker 1: before it was kind of like just pushed on everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't taken birth control in the years because
Speaker 2: it just does a number on my body.
Speaker 3: I don't like it.
Speaker 1: When you say a number, what do you mean just.
Speaker 2: Not feeling like myself. So I think that you do
Speaker 2: have to take everything that you read on TikTok with
Speaker 2: a grain of salt. But the mere fact that we're
Speaker 2: having these discussions that might prompt some of us to
Speaker 2: go have the conversations with the experts, with the doctors
Speaker 2: to get to the truth.
Speaker 1: Up next, we're talking to the director and one of
Speaker 1: the subjects of the new documentary, Girls State. The film
Speaker 1: looks at the annual leadership event for girls and let
Speaker 1: me tell you, the future looks bright.
Speaker 2: Danielle, I have been so excited about this segment because
Speaker 2: the idea of young women becoming empowered to be leaders
Speaker 2: is something that just gets me so fired up. And
Speaker 2: that's what Girls State is all about. It's a week
Speaker 2: long program for young women interested in politics, and every year,
Speaker 2: hundreds of teenage girls gather in cities across the country
Speaker 2: to create a mock government. At this summer camp, they
Speaker 2: run for office, they debate their peers, and they even
Speaker 2: pass mock legislation.
Speaker 1: It's so cool and at its core, Girls State encourages
Speaker 1: young women to engage politically and potentially to run for office.
Speaker 1: And now there's a whole documentary about it called Girls State,
Speaker 1: which you can catch on Apple TV.
Speaker 3: Here's what went down behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, in the summer of twenty twenty two, just
Speaker 2: days before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, filmmaker
Speaker 2: Amanda McBain traveled to Missouri to attend Girls State and
Speaker 2: to meet the incredible young women who were participating in
Speaker 2: that year's program. Now, one of them was nineteen year
Speaker 2: old Emily Worthmore. Both Amanda and Emily are here with
Speaker 2: us today. Welcome to the bright Side ladies.
Speaker 5: Welcome, Hi, Danielle and Simone.
Speaker 4: Hi. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2: Emily, I'd love to hear more about why you were
Speaker 2: drawn to Girls State and politics in general.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so, I since the fourth grade, kind of before
Speaker 6: I knew what politics really meant. I had ran for
Speaker 6: mayor of my fourth grade classroom and I had won,
Speaker 6: and that was kind of my introduction to public office,
Speaker 6: I guess, and I decided at a very young age
Speaker 6: that I wanted to be the president one day. That
Speaker 6: was like my dream jobs from fourth grade forward. So
Speaker 6: I had had time to look into the program, see
Speaker 6: what it was about, and gain a lot of interest
Speaker 6: in it. And then summer after my junior year, it
Speaker 6: was time to go, and I was so ready and
Speaker 6: excited for it.
Speaker 1: You mentioned wanting to be president since fourth grade. I
Speaker 1: used to dress up like Hillary Clinton for every book
Speaker 1: report in like third and fourth grade.
Speaker 4: Not Hillary Clinton, but I used to dress to placate
Speaker 4: a president too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I was wondering who, because that for me
Speaker 1: was a visible political figure that I looked up to.
Speaker 1: But for you, who was it? Who did you look to?
Speaker 6: Interestingly enough, I really liked Trump's press secretary. Her name's
Speaker 6: Kaylee mcindinney, and I really liked her because I think
Speaker 6: that she was really good at defending somebody who isn't
Speaker 6: necessarily the easiest to defend a lot of times, but
Speaker 6: she was always very well educated. She attended Harvard, She
Speaker 6: always had a million facts of her sleeve ready to
Speaker 6: go in her binder. And I also liked that she
Speaker 6: kind of looked like Barbie, and she was like this
Speaker 6: girl who was like not only like very feminine and
Speaker 6: beautiful that I just like admired when I was growing up,
Speaker 6: but also she was very powerful. I thought that was
Speaker 6: really impressive and someone that I still look up to
Speaker 6: in politics.
Speaker 1: Amanda, you and your husband Jesse Moss directed and produced
Speaker 1: a prior documentary called Boys State, which followed thousands of
Speaker 1: teen boys attending Boys State in Texas. So what drew
Speaker 1: you to these programs? I feel like when documentarians get
Speaker 1: into things, it's usually because of a real passion.
Speaker 5: Great question, I think for Jesse and I.
Speaker 7: Trump's election actually and the division of our country in
Speaker 7: twenty sixteen was so top of mind that we were
Speaker 7: looking for some project we could get into that would
Speaker 7: help us kind of make sense of things. And that's
Speaker 7: when we read an article in the Washington Post that
Speaker 7: was coverage of Texas Boys State that year had their
Speaker 7: legislature had voted to secede.
Speaker 5: From the Union.
Speaker 7: And we thought that was funny but also kind of
Speaker 7: indicative of sort of the weather vein of our country.
Speaker 7: And a light bulb went off in our head, like, oh,
Speaker 7: here's what we need to do. This is we want
Speaker 7: to check out how young people are coming of age
Speaker 7: in this moment in our country politically. And we didn't
Speaker 7: know about the program before that, honestly, either Boys State
Speaker 7: or Girls State, which has been around for eighty years
Speaker 7: and in California too, in every state, so we called
Speaker 7: up Texas Boy State and made that film. We always
Speaker 7: knew we wanted to make State too, and in fact,
Speaker 7: we're talking to Texas Girls State at the time, but
Speaker 7: it didn't work out that session twoenty eighteen, So then
Speaker 7: we had to spend some time figuring out where we
Speaker 7: were going to go, when we're going to go, how
Speaker 7: we're going to go to a girl State somewhere in
Speaker 7: another state.
Speaker 5: But it was never a matter of why. For us.
Speaker 7: It was really then the question of do girls do
Speaker 7: politics differently and what their take on the challenges of
Speaker 7: representational democracy might be. And there are similarities and there
Speaker 7: are differences.
Speaker 1: Amanda, as you were making the film, I'm so curious
Speaker 1: as to what you learn from the younger generation about
Speaker 1: politics and the political climate right now.
Speaker 5: I'd say learning still not learned.
Speaker 7: Part of it for me is a refresher on my patriotism, frankly,
Speaker 7: because I think I'm so kind of traumatized by the
Speaker 7: chaos of national politics. So these spaces are so special
Speaker 7: because they are a place where people whose politics are
Speaker 7: so different. Emily and I do not share the same politics,
Speaker 7: but we can all come together in real life, right
Speaker 7: not online, and have conversations about very very tricky subjects
Speaker 7: if we respect one another and.
Speaker 5: Look at each other as human beings.
Speaker 7: When we talked to hundreds of kids before deciding who
Speaker 7: we were going to follow, in the four or five
Speaker 7: months before the session starts, we talked to hundreds of
Speaker 7: kids over in Missouri, and I got a real sense
Speaker 7: from them that they don't buy into the binaries of
Speaker 7: Democrat and Republican. They're very all acarte with their politics,
Speaker 7: which is really interesting. They don't identify as those parties
Speaker 7: that they haven't had to right, they haven't had to
Speaker 7: go to a ballot box and do this or that,
Speaker 7: and so their flexibility, their elasticity, those are all things
Speaker 7: that are really interesting about that age group. They're also
Speaker 7: not naive, like they've watched unhealthy politics being played out
Speaker 7: in Congress and in the adult state for a long time,
Speaker 7: and I feel the optimism is married with realism and
Speaker 7: they're not naive, which is good.
Speaker 1: Emily, do you feel like any of your political beliefs
Speaker 1: shifted by being friends with these girls who have opposing
Speaker 1: political beliefs than you.
Speaker 6: I would not say that any of my political beliefs
Speaker 6: shifted so much, but I do think.
Speaker 4: That I have a lot of empathy.
Speaker 6: And I think now, you know, as years go on,
Speaker 6: we become more educated about things, and I'd say I'm
Speaker 6: still politically pretty similar to where I'm at, but I'm
Speaker 6: thinking of ways to make liberals conservatives alike more happy
Speaker 6: with the situation that we have, like things with guns
Speaker 6: and abortion and things like that. I think that there's
Speaker 6: a lot of compromise that could be done. And having
Speaker 6: these conversations and these friends, hearing those stories really humanizes
Speaker 6: people and makes me realize it's not as black and
Speaker 6: white as you know, we'd like to think of it,
Speaker 6: you know, proble life approach, like, there's so many in
Speaker 6: between swow and I think that I'm more open to that,
Speaker 6: and I continue to think about ways that we could
Speaker 6: solve problems without necessarily changing morals.
Speaker 7: I think exposure matters, and that's part of the promise
Speaker 7: of these programs is some kids who had lived in
Speaker 7: small towns of three hundred people had never met somebody
Speaker 7: from a big city and vice versa. And I think
Speaker 7: that that interface actually may not change politics, but it
Speaker 7: certainly makes you understand there's a human being who's on
Speaker 7: the other side of that political position. And that's something
Speaker 7: we can't do very much in other spaces because either
Speaker 7: we're online and we don't bother to get to know them,
Speaker 7: or I also want to say, there are no go
Speaker 7: zones for me anyway. Election denying and certain like fact
Speaker 7: distortion is not something I actually want to have a
Speaker 7: conversation about.
Speaker 5: So maybe that's.
Speaker 7: Something that But there's common cause, you know, between Emily
Speaker 7: and I about that, right, And there's common cause about
Speaker 7: the lack of female representation in politics. That's something we
Speaker 7: have common cause. And she has a giant, giant, giant
Speaker 7: heart and I have a you know, a good sized heart.
Speaker 7: So those are the things you lean into.
Speaker 2: You said that so well, Amanda. I think it's absolutely
Speaker 2: about exposure. Emily, you are going through this mock government
Speaker 2: process in the film and you decide to run for governor.
Speaker 2: And there's a moment in the film when another citizen
Speaker 2: of Girls State tells you don't feel like you have
Speaker 2: to be so perfect, and it brings tears to your eyes.
Speaker 2: Do you put that pressure on yourself or do you
Speaker 2: feel like you have something to prove to everyone else?
Speaker 4: I think that I.
Speaker 6: Think it might be an internal pressure just and don't
Speaker 6: I don't I wouldn't consider myself a perfectionist, and I
Speaker 6: think that internally now I want to succeed. I think
Speaker 6: that's a pretty natural reaction. But I think since then
Speaker 6: I've learned to be a little less perfectionistic and more messy.
Speaker 4: And I think that it's really good.
Speaker 6: But the moment that her name's Charity, the girl that
Speaker 6: had that conversation with me in the hallway, I think
Speaker 6: that moment right before you're about to cry, when you're
Speaker 6: holding in tears and then somebody says something nice to you,
Speaker 6: like it's okay, and then you're just like.
Speaker 4: Oh, and I'm really gonna cry. Yes, that was one
Speaker 4: of those moments. So I think it's so funny that
Speaker 4: it was.
Speaker 6: You know, captured on camera because it's like that choking
Speaker 6: feeling in your throat when you're like trying not to
Speaker 6: cry and it burns and then like you like really
Speaker 6: are trying to hold it in. That was like one
Speaker 6: of probably the highlights of the film for me is
Speaker 6: seeing like just somebody who was actually running against me
Speaker 6: feeling be so kind.
Speaker 4: I just it's so beautiful to me.
Speaker 2: Big girls do cry, right, Danielle, Yeah, I like I'd
Speaker 2: say at least once a week at work.
Speaker 1: I agree, you know, at least once to at least
Speaker 1: if you're not crying, do you really have feelings?
Speaker 3: That's how you know you're human.
Speaker 1: Amanda Is, you were making this film and observing these
Speaker 1: kids govern them, were there any moments that struck you
Speaker 1: as particularly powerful?
Speaker 7: I think to watch all the girls that have been
Speaker 7: finally made it through the very long, arduous task of
Speaker 7: even getting a position on the Supreme Court and girls state.
Speaker 7: So those seven girls they hold hands and they give
Speaker 7: each other affirmations before they head on stage to hear
Speaker 7: the privacy case. And then to watch them listen to
Speaker 7: this privacy case, which had a lot of resonance at
Speaker 7: the time because it was a week after this leaked
Speaker 7: Dobb's opinion had come out. It was, you know, abortion
Speaker 7: politics was top of mind for a lot of kids,
Speaker 7: regardless of where you landed on the spectrum of pro
Speaker 7: choice pro life. To have that case be argued by
Speaker 7: two women in front of an audience of women.
Speaker 5: Was very, very powerful because I was watching.
Speaker 7: Young women in the state of Missouri, where there's a
Speaker 7: trigger law that they all know is going to go
Speaker 7: to and go into effect in a week. Making abortioning
Speaker 7: legal to watch them take ownership of that conversation in
Speaker 7: a really smart way too. This is not a moral conversation,
Speaker 7: This is not do you believe in this? It was
Speaker 7: a legal conversation. It was a constitutional conversation. To watch
Speaker 7: them take ownership of that, if only for a brief moment,
Speaker 7: was very powerful for me to witness.
Speaker 2: Spoiler alert ahead, turnback if you don't want to understand
Speaker 2: the ending of this film, Emily, your journey inspires me
Speaker 2: so much because you're going through this mock government process.
Speaker 2: After you lost that governor's race. That was a really
Speaker 2: tough setback, but you make the most of the week
Speaker 2: and end up winning a full scholarship to Lyndenwood University.
Speaker 2: Looking back, how did that rejection motivate you?
Speaker 6: I mean, I had been one of those front runners
Speaker 6: for every election of my high school. Then you go
Speaker 6: into a place where nobody knows you and you have
Speaker 6: less than a week to make an impression.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 6: And then to lose, which wasn't the end of the world,
Speaker 6: and I knew that going in, but it still stings
Speaker 6: a little bit. And then the scholarship was really like
Speaker 6: the cherry on top, because now my life.
Speaker 4: Is so different than it could have been.
Speaker 6: So overall, I owe a lot to Girls State, and
Speaker 6: I'm just so thankful for that.
Speaker 1: Emily, after you lost the governor's race, you didn't give
Speaker 1: up on Girls State. Instead, you switched to your other passion, journalism,
Speaker 1: and you were able to uncover a major story that
Speaker 1: ultimately led to your scholarship. What did you write about?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So the reason I actually went into writing the article,
Speaker 6: I throughout the week everybody was talking about dress code
Speaker 6: and about you know, the boys have time for athletics
Speaker 6: and we don't, and just some different disparities. And for
Speaker 6: me personally, I wasn't necessarily too interested in the they
Speaker 6: get to wear whatever they want and we don't. That
Speaker 6: wasn't just the top of my list because it made
Speaker 6: sense to me, Okay, we're at a professional camp. It
Speaker 6: makes sense we're going to dress professional. Like I love craptops.
Speaker 6: I'm wearing crop top right now. But that wasn't my
Speaker 6: big concern during the week. I was more annoyed with
Speaker 6: how it felt like they were having a less sugar
Speaker 6: coated political experience than we.
Speaker 4: Were, and I really wanted that.
Speaker 6: So that's what I was looking for when I first
Speaker 6: started writing it, but I covered everything just for the
Speaker 6: sake of being fair and balanced. I wanted, you know,
Speaker 6: dress code, I wanted the gym things. And then I
Speaker 6: was curious about the money that goes into both programs,
Speaker 6: because that's like an interesting you know, that's the way
Speaker 6: you start something necessarily is look at how much funding.
Speaker 6: And so I went online and basically what I found
Speaker 6: out is they're funded by two different organizations. One's the
Speaker 6: American Legion and then Girls State is the American Legion Auxiliary.
Speaker 6: So that limits kind of where Girls State can pull
Speaker 6: funding from versus Boys State.
Speaker 4: And obviously there's not a ton.
Speaker 6: That we can do about that because they do are
Speaker 6: funded by separate organizations. But if anybody would like to
Speaker 6: help or contribute, anybody can donate to the American Legion Auxiliary
Speaker 6: for Girls Missouri Girls State and have that directly impact
Speaker 6: our program.
Speaker 4: But it was just so I mean, I thought, at first,
Speaker 4: while we're being ripped.
Speaker 6: Off, and it just felt very wrong. But now I
Speaker 6: understand why it's happening. But it still is an ideal obviously.
Speaker 7: To watch Emily's pivot to leaning into her journalistic talents Frankly,
Speaker 7: she's a great listener, which is what made her a
Speaker 7: good candidate, but makes her a great journalist. And when
Speaker 7: she's investigating the funding disparities between the two programs, she
Speaker 7: knows that it could potentially jeopardize her getting this scholarship
Speaker 7: because she is writing an article that's critical and who's
Speaker 7: that going to rub the wrong way? And she does
Speaker 7: it anyway, and I think that that kind of risk,
Speaker 7: high risk, high reward is a testament to her. But
Speaker 7: to then have her publish this article, but then also
Speaker 7: when the scholarship was just a great surprise but also
Speaker 7: not a surprise, It's exactly what should have happened.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. We're back with Amanda McBain and Emily worthmore
Speaker 1: from the New Girl State documentary, which you can catch
Speaker 1: on Apple TV. Amanda, you have two teenage daughters. How
Speaker 1: did they shape the way that you and your husband
Speaker 1: thought about this film and how did it compare to
Speaker 1: your prior film Boys Date.
Speaker 7: I think we are sensitive to how coming of age
Speaker 7: during this moment is particularly challenging because the world feels
Speaker 7: very binary. You're there in this camp or that you're
Speaker 7: either in this gender or that gender. I mean, there's
Speaker 7: just so many like make a choice, pick a side,
Speaker 7: and I don't think that's a good place to be
Speaker 7: when you're young, because you should be trying on all
Speaker 7: the things.
Speaker 5: I think we're also particularly sensitive to.
Speaker 7: How girls are very hard on themselves in a way
Speaker 7: that I was not surprised to see. At Girls State,
Speaker 7: girls give amazing speeches and then walk off stage and
Speaker 7: itemize how they had not done everything they wanted to
Speaker 7: do on stage and criticize their own performance. I had
Speaker 7: not seen that. At Boy State. I'd seen Wow, I'd
Speaker 7: seen a lot of okay speeches. I mean, I'm a mom,
Speaker 7: so I believe in everybody's speeches, but some of them
Speaker 7: were okay and not great. And then a guy would
Speaker 7: get off stage and he'd go nailed it, and I
Speaker 7: was like, that's awesome that you have that much confidence.
Speaker 7: I kind of love it, But I'm also like, where
Speaker 7: can I get some of that?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean? I would love some of.
Speaker 1: That, Amanda, how are girls responding to the movie?
Speaker 7: In sharing this film on stage, We've sometimes had very
Speaker 7: young kids in the audiences, like Emily, I don't even
Speaker 7: remember there was a ten year old in the audience
Speaker 7: in Missouri who came up to the mic afterwards to
Speaker 7: make a statement that she just loved seeing all these
Speaker 7: seventeen year olds kicking butt and doing amazing things in
Speaker 7: leadership roles, but also that they'd shared how afraid they were,
Speaker 7: or how much how sad they were, or how hard
Speaker 7: it was to do that, and that she felt seen
Speaker 7: and that she saw herself in these girls. And I
Speaker 7: think even just that as a storyteller, I'm like, I
Speaker 7: have done here if we just connected with this ten
Speaker 7: year old and she saw something that inspired her in
Speaker 7: that way and felt better about herself for that moment,
Speaker 7: I was like, great.
Speaker 6: That's my favorite part too, is hiring little like young
Speaker 6: people in the audience, and like, I think everybody young
Speaker 6: is like that really makes me happy to see younger
Speaker 6: people seeing this just if anything to be like an
Speaker 6: encouragement of like, you can fail, you can go for
Speaker 6: big things, especially like little girls like I'm just like,
Speaker 6: oh my goodness.
Speaker 4: You know, it's the sweetest thing ever.
Speaker 6: And I just hope that a lot of young, young
Speaker 6: girls and young people get to see the film.
Speaker 1: You know, there's so much rhetoric around the things that
Speaker 1: are facing us that feel so imminent. There's climate change,
Speaker 1: there's reproductive rights, there's gun laws, and so often I
Speaker 1: hear adults talking about how well, hopefully the younger generation
Speaker 1: will fix this mess. Do you feel inspired by that
Speaker 1: or do you feel frustrated by that?
Speaker 4: I think that's frustrating, because I mean, even though I
Speaker 4: do it to.
Speaker 6: Myself a lot, where I procrastinate issues that are maybe smaller,
Speaker 6: like homework, and I'll say this is for tomorrow me
Speaker 6: to handle, I think that it's a whole different ballpark
Speaker 6: when we're talking about climate change and things like that
Speaker 6: that are very big, and it's not necessarily fair to
Speaker 6: push it onto your children. So obviously it'd be great
Speaker 6: if we could find solutions now to work towards, because
Speaker 6: things only get worse as they get put off and
Speaker 6: for procrastinated. But I do think that my generation, I
Speaker 6: think that they are very active in politics, regardless of
Speaker 6: the side of the aisle, So I do think that
Speaker 6: if worst comes to worse, it does get pushed onto us.
Speaker 6: We're more likely to find a solution then perhaps older
Speaker 6: generations are. But I think it'd be better if we
Speaker 6: could all kind of start now and work together and
Speaker 6: maybe have those mentors guide us while we're so young.
Speaker 2: I think everyone should watch this movie because it gave
Speaker 2: me a lot of hope for the future. The fervor
Speaker 2: and the determination in these women. It really inspired me
Speaker 2: and moved to me. Emily, you've got aspirations in politics
Speaker 2: and journalism. You're a college student right now. What's next
Speaker 2: for you after Girls' State?
Speaker 6: Well, currently, I'm a freshman majoring in broadcast, so I'm
Speaker 6: focusing on that journalism side. I would love, ideally to
Speaker 6: go into political journalism and then run for maybe Missouri
Speaker 6: House of Representatives or wherever I end up living.
Speaker 4: That'd be the dream.
Speaker 6: I don't know if that'll be what happens, just because
Speaker 6: everything's very unpredictable and so whatever doors open for me,
Speaker 6: I'll jump down them and see I'll see what's there.
Speaker 6: So if you guys ever need a third podcast host,
Speaker 6: let me know.
Speaker 3: She's hustling. She's hustling.
Speaker 7: I mean, I also want to say, just like, as
Speaker 7: an aside, Reese Witherspoon was all over this film on
Speaker 7: some level because Tracy Flick, because Elle Wood's because sort
Speaker 7: of female centered stories, Like she's someone I evoked in
Speaker 7: my head. So an inspiration obviously in all all ways.
Speaker 7: So it's extra special talking to you guys. And I
Speaker 7: love the work she's doing. You guys are doing, so
Speaker 7: go team.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that you brought that up, because there
Speaker 2: were several Legally Blonde mentions in the film. But also
Speaker 2: as I was watching, I saw the nods to election.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that was intentional or not, but
Speaker 2: hanging up the posters in the.
Speaker 3: Hallway, Emily hands are up in the air.
Speaker 2: Yes, and even the music that you used it it
Speaker 2: felt like an homage to election in a small way.
Speaker 4: I've never seen Election before.
Speaker 6: Fun fact, and I love Reese Witherspoon because I love
Speaker 6: Legally Blonde so much. Definitely one of my favorite movies
Speaker 6: growing up. Actually, you asked me who my political role
Speaker 6: model is, it's uh, legally Blonde, Ellwoods.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 6: But a lot of articles have been comparing me to
Speaker 6: Tracy Flick, and I read like every article that comes
Speaker 6: out about this movie, because I'm just that person. And
Speaker 6: so I googled like Tracy Flick Election and it says antagonists,
Speaker 6: but then it said Rees Witherspoon, and I'm like, if
Speaker 6: it's somebody played by Reese Witherspoon.
Speaker 4: How bad can they actually be?
Speaker 6: Like, I'm okay with being compared to an antagonist if
Speaker 6: it was played by Reese.
Speaker 2: Witherspoon, But I do wonder if Election came out today,
Speaker 2: if people would be viewing Tracy Flick as an antagonist.
Speaker 2: I don't think she's an antagonist. I just think she's
Speaker 2: a complex woman. And I also think that we weren't
Speaker 2: ready to handle an ambition woman like her back then.
Speaker 4: So I need to watch Election.
Speaker 5: You absolutely do. I want to watch it with you.
Speaker 7: But also, like, I love that Tracy Flick and el
Speaker 7: Woods very very different people, very different complicated female protagonists.
Speaker 7: And that's sort of the joy of Reese too, is
Speaker 7: that there's so many different ways to be a strong woman.
Speaker 4: Please tell her, I said, Hi, we will.
Speaker 1: Emily, Amanda, thank you so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: the show. We really appreciate your time.
Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much meeting you.
Speaker 2: If you haven't seen it yet, Girls State is available
Speaker 2: on Apple TV right now. Amanda McBain is the film's
Speaker 2: co director, and Emily Worthmore is currently a college student
Speaker 2: and who knows, maybe future president.
Speaker 1: Before we go. We want to leave you with a
Speaker 1: lesson that we learned today from Emily. Can't let the
Speaker 1: things that get you down take you down. We can
Speaker 1: always find a way to pivot from those defeating moments
Speaker 1: and walk away with a different kind of win. We've
Speaker 1: actually learned from so many of our interviews that there's
Speaker 1: no such thing as failure. It's only a pivot.
Speaker 3: That's all for today's show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow, same time, same place.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts so you
Speaker 2: never miss an episode.
Speaker 1: And if you're enjoying the show, please please show us
Speaker 1: some love in the reviews.
Speaker 3: I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 2: You can find me at Simone Voice, on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe and you can find me on Instagram
Speaker 1: and TikTok at Danielle Robe. That's ro Bay.
Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow with more culture conversation and inspiration.
Speaker 2: Keep looking on the bright side.