The DUFF Is Your Back-to-School Reality Check

Being a teenager is going perfectly fine until somebody tells you something about yourself that you were much happier not knowing. Suddenly you're analyzing your clothes, your friend group, where you sit at lunch and that one interaction with your crush from three weeks ago. Cool. Great. Love this for us.

The DUFF drops Bianca Piper directly into that nightmare when she discovers her classmates have labeled her the “Designated Ugly Fat Friend” of her friend group. Her solution? Recruit Wesley, the annoyingly charming jock next door, for a makeover and social-status crash course. Obviously, there are rules. Obviously, feelings get involved. We have seen a rom-com before.

What keeps the movie ridiculously relatable is that underneath all the jokes, Bianca is dealing with something almost every teenager knows: the moment you become painfully aware of how other people see you. The DUFF just lets her spiral, flirt, fight back and eventually realize that maybe high school's imaginary ranking system deserves considerably less power than everyone gives it.