he could never be sad about her, prompting her to hug him tightly. At graduation, Kayla rebukes Kennedy for ignoring her and acting indifferent toward Kayla's attempts to be nice. She later has dinner at Gabe's house and they enjoy their time together. Kayla makes a new time capsule that she and Mark bury in the backyard, and she leaves a video message for her future high school self which encourages her to persevere through tough times. Cast The cast includes: Elsie Fisher as Kayla Day Josh Hamilton as Mark Day Emily Robinson as Olivia Catherine Oliviere as Kennedy Graves Jake Ryan as Gabe Luke Prael as Aiden Wilson Daniel Zolghadri as Riley Fred Hechinger as Trevor Imani Lewis as Aniyah Themes The film explores anxiety. Professor Julianna W. Miner, writing in 2018 about Eighth Grade, reflects that 22% of teenagers were struggling with depression and anxiety, and teenage girls were dying by suicide at higher rates in 2015 than they were in the previous 40 years. The anxiety depicted is typical in middle school, but according to reporter Valerie Strauss, also reflects life in 2018 where people of all ages see a "cacophony of indifference and downright meanness". The words "um" and "like" in the screenplay also reflect "the process of struggling", rather than the characters' lack of intelligence. Critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that Eighth Grade was a trailblazer in examining youth who never knew a world without the Internet, touching on sexting as well. CBS News also commented that besides "the usual teen angst and acne", Eighth Grade depicts how Kayla spends a great deal of time online and engaging in text messaging. This reflects general trends in "iGen" (post-millennials), where 94% of youth have used smartphones by age 14. A 2018 U.S. poll found 45% of teenagers reported "almost constantly" online. 24% called its effects "mostly negative", while 45% characterized it as "neither negative nor positive". According to Elsie Fisher, "for Kayla, social media is almost religious". Burnham explained, "social media has made me think differently as a person. It's made me more anxious, I think". Professor Jean Twenge also connected an increase in Internet usage to a decline in juvenile mental health. Gleiberman called the depiction an examination of "overwhelming — and, I would argue, unprecedented — woe that teenagers today can feel". Author Robert Barker contrasted Eighth Grade to earlier coming-of-age films such as Fast