In the movie “Juno” by Jason Reitman, shows a sixteen-year-old girl that is a tomboy, a free spirit and has a love for music. She lives with her father, step-mother and step-sister and seems to not have a problem with it. Her mother left her when she was younger and that had caused some emotional effects. She finds out she is pregnant with her crush Paulie and has to decide on whether to keep or abort the baby. Juno chooses a middle option of having the baby but giving it up for adoption. The child’s adopted parents are Mark and Vanessa, which plays an important role in Juno’s life knowing that her baby will grow up with loving parents. In Juno’s early adolescence this has become a dramatic, emotional romance story that forces her to be more mature and make hard decisions for herself and the baby.
Emotional development in adolescent, Juno has gone through a lot of emotions with being pregnant at such a young age. Knowing that she is young and unequipped to take care of a baby, her first impulse was to have an abortion. One of her fellow classmates was protesting to stop abortion and it got to Juno’s head. She left the clinic all frustrated and could not go through with knowing that she could harm a child. This causes her to have an idea of adoption and that it could help a nice couple who doesn’t have a child. “I could have this baby and give it to someone that like totally needs it” (20:13). This quote shows that Juno is considering other emotions of how others can’t have kids who would love to have her baby, which shows her emotional progress of thinking for others. This will make both sides happy because she won’t have to raise the child and she will give him/her to a nice family of her choice that would love to have a child.
Physical development in adolescent, teens tend to know their sexuality. In the beginning of the movie, Juno has a sexual relationship with Paulie and that is what causes her to be pregnant. After leaving the clinic, her friend Leah said “Dude, you gotta keep your voice down, my mom is inside, and she doesn’t know that we are sexually active” (20:06). This quote shows that both girls are in the beginning stage of adolescence. Juno’s body starts going through the changes of pregnancy and secondary sexual characteristics appear more.
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Social development in adolescent, teens tend to keep to themselves and only talk about things to their close friends. Juno has a close friend named Leah and that is the first person she comes to after finding out she is pregnant. After telling Leah, she then tells her father and step-mother, their reactions were part of her Juno’s fear. Her parent’s calm reaction and support makes her be able to open up to them more. Also, when getting her sonogram her step-mother stood up to the technician’s judgement saying “Well, I’m a nail technician and I think we both ought to just stick to what we know” (41:01). This type of social support has Juno feeling love from her friends and family about decisions in her life, making her feel more comfortable to open up.
Cognitive development in adolescent, Juno’s mother left her at a young age which made her believe that it’s difficult to raise a child alone. This experience shows that she knows the importance of family. Now having her old child, she wants to be able to provide the baby with two parents that are in love. Which those two parents were Mark and Vanessa until mark tells her “I’m leaving Vanessa” (1:08:41), Juno freaks out and says, “If you are in love once you can be in love again” (1:10:02). She says, “Stay with Vanessa” (1:10:18) as she thinks about the sake of her baby. Later on, she gives a note saying that “Vanessa If you are still in, I am still in Juno” (1:29:04). This shows that she has grew from the believe that a single parent cannot take care of her child and that her mindset has developed.
All the examples that was mentioned above show that the environment in Juno’s life became a great influencer. Being sixteen, Juno is in between the middle and the last part of adolescence. She experiences difficult situations that some teens don’t go through. It’s true when people say we learn from our mistakes and that is exactly what Juno did. Going through so many emotional events throughout the movie she had been more responsible in her decisions. The decisions she makes with her friends and family has helped her become more mature for going into adulthood.
