a mall taking selfies while alone; he believed she was concerned about her appearance. Given his career started with producing YouTube videos, he also wanted to explore the life of a character whose videos have very small audiences. Work on the screenplay began in March 2014. Kayla was not the sole protagonist in an initial draft of the screenplay, but Burnham decided to focus on her because her voice felt the most true of the characters. He decided his protagonist would be female after watching YouTube, saying, "the boys talk about Minecraft and the girls talk about their souls ... probably half because girls are just actually maturing more quickly and half because culture asks way deeper questions of young women earlier than men". He also liked the idea of a female protagonist to avoid "projecting" his personal memories of eighth grade as a male. The film's working title was The Coolest Girl in the World. To write dialogue representing Generation Z, Burnham watched YouTube. Burnham's personal views on the differences between Generation Z and its predecessors inspired a scene where the character Trevor theorizes access to social media at an early age molded the generation's minds. Kayla and Mark's relationship is based on Burnham's relationship with his mother. Burnham viewed a teenager's relationship with their parent as a stage where "You want independence, and you also want affirmation". Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, and A24 would go on to produce the movie with a budget of $2 million. A24 executive Nicolette Aizenberg remarked Eighth Grade was "personal" to her. Burnham spent years seeking financing, confident he was marketable with his success as a comedian. Although he had not directed a feature before, Burnham was adamant to be allowed to direct, and spent eight months before principal photography reading books such as Sidney Lumet's Making Movies. Casting Fifty teenagers auditioned for the role of Kayla. Burnham discovered Elsie Fisher on YouTube and had her audition three times. Fisher, then 13, said she had struggled to find a part realistically depicting a teenager before auditioning for Eighth Grade. Burnham cast Fisher because, "She was the only one who felt like a shy kid pretending to be confident – everyone else felt like a confident kid pretending to be shy". Fisher said one reason she was apprehensive at the first audition was that she was a fan of Burnham's comedy. She was drawn