There’s something eternally captivating about American high schools. The unparalleled level of drama, the personalized lockers, the crushes and the enemies, the cheerleaders and football players, the good teachers and the bad ones, and of course, the highly anticipated prom night that is the quintessential moment marking the end of an era known as American adolescence.
But have you ever wondered how much exactly this cliche picture of American sophomore year is true? What if in reality, Mean Girls, Juno, and Superbad were nothing more than Hollywood fiction that masterfully manipulated our sense of nostalgia?
In order to find the answers, it’s best to ask people who have been there and done that. So when someone asked Americans “How true are ‘American high school movies’ compared to real-life high school?” people immediately took the opportunity to share their experiences.
This post may include affiliate links.
I remember one time in school, I was walking down the hall with my books in my arms. A random bully ran down the hall and slapped them down, hard, sending all my stuff flying everywhere.
In a movie, everyone would point and laugh. In movies, that sort of obvious bullying of a nerd would be treated as funny and normal.
In reality, the other kids gasped, and a few random kids stopped and helped me gather up my things. I remember one girl saying, "That was so mean."
Bullying didn't happen much at our school because no one just stood there and took it. I saw a kid get slapped on the back of the head and called a f****t, and he ran up to the bully and headbutted him on the nose. Blood everywhere as he kicked the bully in the goolies repeatedly, screaming "WHO'S THE F****T NOW?" It was that sort of thing that put a stop to bullying because it was too easy to have your head handed back to you on a silver platter.
IRL there are far fewer 35 y.o. HS students.
Not all popular people are mean, I was friends with a popular girl in my sophomore year and she was super kind/sweet to everybdoy
Bored Panda reached out to the Redditor The_Nomadic_Nerd who is originally from New York but currently lives in New Jersey. He shared this post in response to the thread: “Friend groups are more porous than they make. For instance, there were football players that also acted in school plays, or wrestlers also in the math club. The bullying is less dramatic. Nobody is actually getting locked in a locker. We did actually use those red cups at parties that you always see in movies, my non-American friends were always shocked when I told them that.”
When asked if there is anything that Hollywood gets right about American high schools, the Redditor said that they did actually use those red solo cups at parties. “Foreigners I know are always shocked by that. What did they think we use? They’re not fragile like glass and if you lose it, it wasn’t a problem. Plus, you could easily just throw them away when you’re cleaning up after the party.”
The cheerleaders didn’t wear their uniforms 24/7.
I’m gonna take a guess that people don’t settle disputes with dance-offs
A weird thing is how they seemingly show it as if kids just have time to talk and chat in the middle of the day in the hallway by their lockers when in reality you're booking it across the building because you have 5 minutes to go from the first floor, get to your locker on the second floor, and then run all the way across the 3rd floor to your 3rd period class.
Also dunno about y'all but I got only 25 minutes for lunch in HS, so nobody was milling about during lunch either in the halls.
we would not be chatting between classes for sure, but we got 20 minutes recess and an hour for lunch in High School in Australia
Recess in high school? Wow that’s cool. In the states it stops after 6th grade.
Load More Replies...
Once again this is something that's changed. In the 90's we had a lot more hallways time. Of course we also had our own smoking area too...
My highschool was only two stories. But it was a half kilometer long. It took about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other, if the hallways were clear. But it was a school designed for 3000 kids, but actually serviced just under 6000. So the hallways were never clear.
Load More Replies...
We all had to have lunch in the cafeteria, and were only allowed out if we took the bathroom pass. Movie lunches always amaze me at the liberties they get.
That seems crazy to me. We don't even have cafeterias in Australian schools usually, just a canteen/tuckshop which doesn't have tables and chairs and is usually in a separate building and you order though a window. Lunch and recess you have to stay outside, unless the rain is heavy, then you have a 'wet day timetable' and the library and 2 or so classrooms are open and you can borrow chess sets, uno, magazines, or play games on the computer etc.
Load More Replies...
Talk about booking it.... my HS had 6 floors and a basement with classrooms. My English class was in the basement followed by my next class of History. Guess where THAT classroom was? Yup on the 6th floor. 5 mins to hike my a*s up 7 flights of stairs. Talk about winded! Even for a 16 year old athletic type, it was a beast! They had an elevator but it was for faculty & wheelchair bound students only (and the occasional busted ankle or leg, which I discovered after powdering my right ankle playing ice hockey!)
What i find insane is... schools with stairs... I couldn't imagine going to a school that big.
I hated that. Especially when your just finished a shops class and you have to pack up your stuff and the next class is way, way on the other end of the school and there's still a crowd to get through. My class complained to our teachers about giving us some leniency. Running is not allowed and would still make us late. Any socializing would be during free periods, and that's if you and your friends have the same time slots.
All the schools in my area are single-story in the interests of fire safety
In Australia at least at my high school, we have like 5 mins to get between classes and we have 2 breaks, which you can use for eating or playing. Usually it's 45 minutes each
In Australia we don't have middle school, just primary which is prep/kindy to yr 6 and high which is yr 7 to yr 12
Load More Replies...
I'm about to tell ya'll how Old I am... We had an outdoor area for students to smoke. A smoking 🚬 court area. Lol
Yeah those people chatting are the ones always late for class, my school has 35 minutes for lunch but the lunch lines are so long a lot of people end up bringing food to eat in their next class anyway
Yeah, having to get all the way to your locker after a class to get the books you'll need for the next classes and make it across campus in 5 minutes was the real life Maze Runner. lol
This person must have gone to a small school. In an average school you get 1hr for lunch. It's the only way to allow the larger student body time to que, get their food, and have time to eat it. If you were first in line then you may even have time to both eat and socialize with friends.
My kids had four minutes between classes. They just carried their books around in their backpacks. My favorite thing is that the school played music during "pass time," and they got creative - different show tunes from a musical, all rap, etc. This is in Minnesota, so when Prince died, they played his songs for a week.
You got lunch time? We had a 20minute brake after the first two classes at like 9.25. and then only 5 minute brakes that weren't even enough for bathroom breaks since there was always a line (girls & boys WC). We finished classes at three pm the latest. Oh and once you took a step in the building itself you weren't allowed to leave without a parent (even those 18yo seniors). After the last class we weren't really allowed to hang around (no classes? Go home. Now!)
We had 3 minutes between classes. 20 minutes for lunch. No recess. Our high school had three separate buildings, and this was in Maine (the Northeast corner of the US) so a good part of the year the ground was covered with snow and ice. People were always late to class. But the adults didn't want to give us any time to talk together between classes........no time for trouble making. This was in the 1970s.
Giggling, of course you did Sasy! You weren't in the US. I'm Not bragging 😏.
I had a 45 min lunch break in school it was great. But otherwise pretty spot on for my high school
My two granddaughters wanted lockers because al all the movies but then discovered they were too far away and impractical.
Where the heck are you meant to store your books and things? Did they finally just make everything digital?
Load More Replies... 
I don't remember exactly how long we had between classes but we had like 50 minutes for lunch hour. It was in same room as the auditorium. We could get up and hang outside that room or hallway when were done. Classes were upstairs with locker pits downstairs so, we usually carried books for multiple classes to save time. We also had a smoking section outside.
My highschools 2nd floor wings didnt connect and there was only 1 tiny hallway on the first floor that connected the 2 sides of the school (one part was an addition) so if I had a second floor class on the underclassmen wing before a class on the 2nd floor of the senior wing, I had to run down the stairs, get stuck in the only connecting hallway, run across the school, and back upstairs
My first HS gave us about 5 minutes to grab books and get to the next class. It was a smaller school, so generally doable. If the school had been any larger, absolutely not. My 2nd HS did the 4 classes a semester thing (8 classes a school year), so we had ~2 hour classes with 15 minutes between classes 1/2 and 3/4. Lunch was between 2/3, for the entire school (roughly 1500 students) and was only 45 mins. If you didn’t bring a lunch with you, there was rarely enough time to stand in line, get lunch, and then eat it. The lunchroom also could only hold about 300, so the rest of the students were left out in a courtyard that was frequently too hot, or crammed in the covered walkways when raining. Most kids chose to eat a light lunch during one of the 15 minute breaks. I hid in the library a lot, and just skipped food.
Canada here. We had 7 minutes between classes and the lockers were in huge common room for each grade. Those common rooms were locked when classes began, so he had to take all the necessary materials for the morning classes beforehand. We could only go back to the common rooms for lunch (1 hour) and repeat. Not a lot of time to talk between classes, but ample times at lunch. I'm aware it varied from school to school. My younger brother always had access to the common rooms between classes in case a student forget something.
I went to a large HS in the 70s. We had an hour for lunch and if you drove you could eat lunch elsewhere. Our dress code was no bare feet. Since some classes were in another building top floor the bell between classes was long enough to grab a quick smoke, allowed on campus. shout out to Grimsley HS.
My lunch is about an 1 hour and 15 minutes and we have 20min. between each class.. I wouldn't survive if it were less
We had a little time to chat. That being said, my graduating class had 18 people, and the school wasn't multiple stories; barely one story. We also had open campus for lunch, though unless you went home, there was a little burger drive in place about a block away who had daily lunch specials we would get... for $2.50, because I'm old.
Moreover, The_Nomadic_Nerd confirmed that in some cases sports are very important. “All those TV shows about high school football in Texas are absolutely correct. Not uncommon at some high schools for the football coach to get paid more than the principal, or the Friday night game being what the whole town goes to. Other regions or specific schools also have their own sports, like Iowa and high school wrestling. Usually, if a school has a history of a good team, then the town starts to revolve around that,” he explained.
Another thing movies get right, Redditor argues, is that feeling of getting a driver’s license. “Once you get it and if you’re one of the first to get theirs, your social status automatically climbed. I was one of the older kids in my class so I got my license before most, and all of a sudden more people wanted to be my friend. Weird how that works…”
The Redditor also said that there is this notion of when you’re in high school, it defines the rest of your life. That may be particularly challenging for students. “You don’t have a girlfriend in high school? When then you’re going to be lonely the rest of your life. You didn’t get into honors math? Well, then you just have a permanent tattoo that says ‘IDIOT’ on your forehead.”
No one cares that much about the "popular" group of students, most people just mind their own business if they aren't with their friends.
In real life, the popular kids are popular because they're likable. The mean girls and bully jocks are not popular.
No family eats breakfast together before school/work.
Another user added:
And nobody goes out for a big sit down breakfast before school, either.
I remember laughing because The OC always showed the characters going out for a nice breakfast in a restaurant before class, as if teenagers get up that early.
Most high school students don’t arrive to school early enough to tailgate in the parking lot
Also in my school, and I assume others, once they park they are to get out and head to the building. We teachers even walk around the parking lot to flush them out.
Everyone is tired all the time because we have to wake up at like 6:30am to get to school on time.
most are also not in their mid 20's and driving BMW's and Range Rovers, etc.
Kid arrived at school in a Ford fiesta and about 30 minutes later his mom arrived, screamed at him telling him next time he stole the car she would call the police, and then she rove away in it. He was given epic status at school for 2 weeks
Friend groups are more porous than they make. For instance, there were football players that also acted in school plays, or wrestlers also in the math club.
The bullying is less dramatic. Nobody is actually getting locked in a locker.
We did actually use those red cups at parties that you always see in movies, my non-American friends were always shocked when I told them that.
Only California and other warm states have campuses where you walk outdoors between classes. In most US schools, you don't leave the building.
My high school in SoCal took up an entire large city block. All the classrooms were ground floor, with two entrances. There was a large parking lot. The gym had indoor and outdoor pools, as well as the basketball court, and the cafeteria, assembly room, and theatre were in separate buildings. Seniors could get a lunch pass to eat off campus. We also had designated smoking areas—-and this was in 1978. I graduated in a class of 828 students. Multiply that by 3, and you have an approximate number of students in the school (back then we didn’t have middle school, we had junior high, which was grades 7, 8, and 9, so high school was just grades 10, 11, and 12).
The fact that Superbad spent a whole movie trying to obtain alcohol is totally realistic. We absolutely had whole evening adventures trying to get booze. The Hawaii driver's license was definitely a thing in the mid 1990s. California IDs had holograms earlier and couldn't be faked anymore. Several people at school at fake Hawaii IDs back then. I'm sure one of the writers must be my age from CA.
I watched this movie with an ex (South American) and he was confused because they all just bought booze from the tiendas when they were like 13.
Prom is way less of a big deal in real life. Kids look forward to it and get dressed up, a few might do the limo thing. But it’s not the end-all be-all of the high school student’s year. And really no one cares who wins prom queen.
I can't even remember who was prom queen/king at either of my proms. We could go junior and senior years, sophomores and freshmen could come as a date
I went to high school (obviously) and teach at a high school, all in the United States. I went to a suburban school in California and teach at a small town school also in California. Here are my observations.
Things foreigners often think are fake that are real:
-sports are connected to school. There are people who wear uniforms on game days, there are rallies, and there are school rivalries. They aren’t usually as serious as depicted on shows, but they are real.
-cheerleaders do exist. They wear uniforms on game days as well (not everyday.)
-yellow school buses exist (where I teach they bring students in who live in the country. Kids who live in town walk, drive, or get dropped off.) (Red and other color plastic cups also exist, as a side note.)
-some kids really do have cars at that age. Most probably can at least drive.
-“student government” or “student body president” is often a real thing, but it has little power. Basically just a student committee to rubber-stamp whatever the administration is going to do anyway.
Things foreigners often think are common that are fake or exaggerated:
-being a cheerleader or an athlete are not nearly as exclusive as depicted, nor do they automatically equate to popularity.
-cliques are far more fluid than depicted. Rarely do they automatically center around one activity (like football or band or chess club.) It’s not at all uncommon for people to do a lot of different activities that blend stereotypes (like a football player who is a chess club officer and in student government.)
-bullying is rarely anything like it’s depicted. It’s rarely done in front of everyone with bystanders not caring. It’s more common to be done in secret, and to focus on emotional rather than physical bullying (although physical bullying does happen.) I think movies and shows are trying to capture what it *feels* like (that no one is there to help you) and missing what it actually looks like in reality.
-everything is way more boring and less dramatic than depicted. Fiction requires conflict and so tv shows and movies create it even where it probably wouldn’t actually happen.
I went to high school with a nationally ranked cheerleading team, and not once ever, in the history of the school did one of the cheerleader put on their uniform unless it was a game. Even at the very few pep rallies held for our champion basketball team, they would wear matching sweat suits.
if the school is supposed to be in a major city, hardly anyone in HS has a car
Speaking just for my school, not even close. Bullying is never as obvious as it is in movies (nobody dumps their tray on anyone or purposefully trips the new kid, actually most people are pretty friendly), most of the teachers and the principal are well- liked, there aren't well- defined cliques (nerdy group, jocks, cheerleaders, etc.) but there are large friend groups that intertwine and overlap and there is definitely drama. They do get active shooter drills and the amount of drugs/ smoking/ vaping right, though. Also, crazy, entitled parents.
The lockers are huge on tv and they’re all at eye level.
I remember getting to high school and being disappointed we had these cubby-sized lockers stacked on top of each other, and they were in the most inconvenient places around the school.
So there was no leisurely chatting with your best pal whose locker was right next to yours. And not nearly enough space to decorate your locker with photos and mirrors like a bedroom.
My middle and high school had pretty big lockers. If you were really skinny, you could squeeze in but barely. Some kids had to fight to put their thick coats in but that's about it. Pretty accurate for my school
Different enough to warp the expectations of certain people. Someone upthread said that movies are designed by Hollywood execs to fill story niches and archetypes, which is pretty accurate. We're watching a story that has to be carefully crafted to fill the expectations of all the audience members, and the audience expects Reese Witherspoon as prom queen, Bill Gates as captain of the chess team, Jack Black's the clown, and Brad Pitt's the quarterback...even though *that doesn't actually happen*.
There's more truth in *Napoleon Dynamite* than there is in *Bring It On* or *Mean Girls*.
Football players were pretty cool and treated me well. The a******s and bullies were the baseball and golf players.
If you’ve seen the show Euphoria, it’s basically exactly not like that at all
Also if you've seen the movie 'Armageddon' it's exactly unlike that movie as well ;)
You've seen the "actual" vs "advertised" for fast food burgers, right? America knows how to make a commercial.
I went to high school in the early 90s, at a huge school where I was in a class of 400 something. There were cliques and a popularity ladder, but it wasn't super rigid.
I was fairly uncool but my little group of girlfriends were cool (Homecoming Queen, which mattered back then) and cool-adjacent. I just didn't always go do their Cool People Stuff with them because it wasn't my thing.
And by senior year the cliques and ladder had broken down nearly completely. Everyone was focused on what came next, nobody cared about popularity c**p anymore.
So I'd be sitting around with all sorts of kids, swapping tips on different colleges, proofing each other's essays, different other kids would be telling me why they were interested in the military, I'd let the Cosmetology voc ed friends of friends put my hair in updos during lunch (it was elbow length, so loads of fun), etc.
We didn't have the paddling or any of that (and it was decades later) but the vibe of Dazed & Confused was pretty true of my experience - cliques were not really that well-defined, 'nerds' and 'stoners' and 'jocks' all crossing over and mixing together in various ways.
Not very true. Life is more boring day in and day out. Poeple are also definetely more serious about school if you live in a well populated area
Especially if it’s an area with lots of company headquarters and an abundance of highly educated professionals in residence. If it’s the middle of nowhere with no industry, no higher education, and no local prospects for your future unless you inherit or marry into the family farm or business, then many kids would just think school’s a waste of time—-an attitude learned from their parents.
We had 2:30 in between class periods. We did not have time to lean against the lockers and talk. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows, sometimes the wind blows; we had to go to school then too.
In the winter it was very cold, in the summer it was unbearably hot. I bet they've fixed that because the expensive electronics would cook themselves. A school didn't need anything like that when they built the building.
Usually there was some construction crew outside banging and hammering on something. There was no restaurant that we all hung out in. We did mob a pizza place a few times after the dances.
They got mad because their employees were too busy, they didn't make enough money off of us and because the old people buying expensive food couldn't get through us. We caused numerous major traffic jams because we kept crossing the street.
The cops showed up to direct traffic. The pizza place complained. The police went to the school and they told our parents that we had to stop. They let kept the rec center open later for us instead. They actually did put on a really good after party for the middle school dances after that. They just herded us all into there and told us we'd need to go home if we left or we'd get into trouble.
Well Done 👏 to the parents & rec center for giving these kids an alternative.
My comment to my HS students, "look I've never walked into the cafeteria and seen you guys break into song and dance number. I'm so dissapointed."
I graduated from HS in 1970, so I'm sure some things that were true about school then aren't true now and vice versa, but one thing that will never change is that for many of us, both then and now, school was a tedious, boring affair that we have few good memories of.
I graduated in 2014. The only fond memory I have of that place is my graduation. (And also when we had off campus lunch and my friend who worked at little Caesars walked in, cut and boxed a pizza in 15 seconds and left. It was impressive.)
Load More Replies...
So, HS in the US is not different. Got it. Hormonal Death Match. Sounds right.
I stopped at 13 because I know how sh*tty my school years were. We hardly trusted each other, were at war with another local high school to the point where we would meet up during lunch hour and after school to try and put as many of the other school in hospital until the police arrive. Our school was like a badly organized prison with an open door policy
I really don't get the education system in the USA, the kids are expected to start far yo early and they are expected to cram to much into each school day. Kids need sleep, the need time to breath between classes, and most of all the need fresh air... this not leaving the building during school hours is not healthy, no wonder kids flip their lids and do stupid things. You are expecting far too much from your young people
High school was one of the biggest nightmares for me. I was violently bullied by most people or just treating despised by the rest. I had no friends at all, even teachers would mock me. I was so busy trying to just barely fit in that my studies suffered, and even when I would focus on my studies, I could never get a good grade. The only thing I miss about school are the school dances, and the structure of school, of knowing what each day was supposed to be. My school is now a better place than it was more than 20 years ago but I still have damage from my time there.
i always thought the popular kids were a bit unrealistic and the cheerleaders and stuff were just overdone. as well as the bullying
My comment to my HS students, "look I've never walked into the cafeteria and seen you guys break into song and dance number. I'm so dissapointed."
I graduated from HS in 1970, so I'm sure some things that were true about school then aren't true now and vice versa, but one thing that will never change is that for many of us, both then and now, school was a tedious, boring affair that we have few good memories of.
I graduated in 2014. The only fond memory I have of that place is my graduation. (And also when we had off campus lunch and my friend who worked at little Caesars walked in, cut and boxed a pizza in 15 seconds and left. It was impressive.)
Load More Replies... So, HS in the US is not different. Got it. Hormonal Death Match. Sounds right.
I stopped at 13 because I know how sh*tty my school years were. We hardly trusted each other, were at war with another local high school to the point where we would meet up during lunch hour and after school to try and put as many of the other school in hospital until the police arrive. Our school was like a badly organized prison with an open door policy
I really don't get the education system in the USA, the kids are expected to start far yo early and they are expected to cram to much into each school day. Kids need sleep, the need time to breath between classes, and most of all the need fresh air... this not leaving the building during school hours is not healthy, no wonder kids flip their lids and do stupid things. You are expecting far too much from your young people
High school was one of the biggest nightmares for me. I was violently bullied by most people or just treating despised by the rest. I had no friends at all, even teachers would mock me. I was so busy trying to just barely fit in that my studies suffered, and even when I would focus on my studies, I could never get a good grade. The only thing I miss about school are the school dances, and the structure of school, of knowing what each day was supposed to be. My school is now a better place than it was more than 20 years ago but I still have damage from my time there.
i always thought the popular kids were a bit unrealistic and the cheerleaders and stuff were just overdone. as well as the bullying
