started getting my hair cut by her mother, which is similar to the film, so I saw them every few months" she continues to say, "when [Nikki] turned thirteen, I started noticing she had completely changed to becoming quite angry with her family, her mother, and herself. I started seeing all these changes and difficulties she was going through, so I thought, along with her parents, that if she could hang out with me, things would get better". Throughout the time they spent together, Reed had revealed to Hardwicke that she was interested in acting which was the spark that ignited Thirteen. They completed the script in six days during Christmas break. When asked why there was an urgency to make the film, Hardwicke replied with "I felt it was almost like a snapshot of a particular time. I really wanted Nikki to be in it, because her energy was so inspiring to it, and I don't like the movies where the person is eighteen years old playing a thirteen-year-old, so I said, 'We're going to shoot it even if it's with a digital camera and me as the whole crew."' Evan Rachel Wood was contracted to star in the movie alongside Reed. The film tackles difficulties of contemporary teenagers. A young teen loses her innocence in a rapid spiral of events, with disturbing portrayals of drug, sex, theft, and dropping out of school. Capturing a range in high impact emotions, the film encapsulates the realness and authenticity of teen angst, that which includes mood changes and forming identities. "Instead of The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Hardwicke and Reed create an eye-opening portal into the life of teenagers growing up at an alarmingly young age; the anarchic friendship between Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Evie (Reed) leads to a chaotic chain of events that include drugs, sexual encounters with a guy twice their age, and self-mutilation." Reed and Hardwicke wrote the script from the point of view of Tracy, a "normal" 13-year-old who begins at a new middle school. There she meets Evie, who she thinks of as more advanced and whom she wants to impress. She hopes Evie will give her entrance to what she thinks is an exciting "crowd." The film actively interacts with the theme of conformity in the teenage years. Eager to become friends with Evie, Tracy loses her "normal" self and enters a world completely opposite