odd girl out

Lisa Vidal

Leah Pipes

Shari Dyon Perry

Elizabeth Rice

Alicia Morton

Rhoda Griffis

Odd Girl Out is a 2005 drama telefilm starring Alexa Vega, Lisa Vidal, Elizabeth Rice, Alicia Morton, Leah Pipes, Shari Dyon Perry, Joey Nappo and Chad Biagini. The movie was first aired on April 4, 2005 on Lifetime. It is the story about the struggles of teenage Vanessa Snyder, who must deal with the brutality and peer pressure of the students at her middle school.

This film is based on the advice book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons. It sheds light into the topic of girls' hostility and bullying which is usually non-physical, indirect and unnoticeable. Simmons tells the reader that this problem is harmful, destructive and usually ignored, leaving victims to suffer in silence.

Plot

Vanessa Snyder is an adored eighth-grader in her school. She has a loving single mother, Barbara, who is proud of her well-placed daughter. Vanessa is also "in" with a popular clique, led by her best friend Stacy Larson, the queen bee, and Nikki Rodriguez, who is secretly jealous of Stacy and Vanessa's friendship. On the outside of this exclusive friendship circle is the recluse, Emily, and blonde wannabe, Tiffany, who's dying to make it into the pack.

The terrible nightmare starts when Nikki tricks Vanessa into getting close to Tony, a boy whom Stacy (and somewhat Vanessa) has a crush on. A web of lies, nasty rumors and manipulation ensues, and Vanessa is ostracized by the clique for "backstabbing" Stacy. Helpless, Vanessa soon faces the non-physical conflict and verbal violence from her former friends, Nikki and the others. Making the clique stronger is Tiffany, who has been accepted into the group and poisoning the others against Vanessa. Although Nikki is the main girl who is tormenting Vanessa, Stacy plays her part by pretending she's still Vanessa's best friend and not stopping the verbal attacks on her. She has shown being uncomfortable in some of the situations, hinting she might regret this happening, and that "The Pack" is going too far. Vanessa is slowly pushed out of class activities, called names, socially isolated and the worst, her tormentors create a hate site about her on which they put embarrassing pictures of Vanessa.

Emily tries to convince Vanessa not to go running back to the clique, but Vanessa keeps attempting to seek reconciliation with Stacy, to disastrous results. The bullying escalates, with Stacy, Nikki, Tiffany and others cornering Vanessa inside a bathroom and brutalizing her verbally, including degrading every aspect of her and revealing her embarrassing secrets. Vanessa ends up chopping all her hair off while in a nervous breakdown. Then she starts cutting school, fearing the agony in the hallways. Stacy offers several fake "truces" for her to help her in schoolwork,