Be Longing 

Let it Snow in a nutshell, is a warmhearted coming of age teen Christmas movie. It doesn’t have too much going for it, but it has its few charms that make it a decent holiday flick.

An adaptation of esteemed YA author John Green’s novel of the same name, Let it Snow is basically a collection of individual sub-plots that all intertwine at various points. It has what you would typically expect from the YA genre: with a dash of romance, drama, and quirky comedy.

The movie begins with a main group of teenagers, and then introduces us to their individual struggles and antics they become entangled in during the holiday season. In addition, Let it Snow features a rather notable cast — with actors such as Shameik Moore, Jacob Batalon, and Mitchell Hope being on board.

When Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald), the plus-sized daughter of beauty pageant extraordinaire and ex-pageant queen Rosie Dickinson (Jennifer Aniston) decides to enroll in this year’s Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pagent, we follow her on a journey of self-acceptance and confidence tied up in a huge Texas bow ofDolly Partonmusic. With themes of loss and romance, this film will put you in your feels while also deeply ingraining important messages that I have never been exposed to in film prior toDumplin’.TV shows and films that I was exposed to growing up such asToddlers & Tiaras made me believe in the toxic femininity that can come with competing for standardized beauty. While toxic femininity is not as talked about as its masculine counterpart, I think it is essential to recognize where women fall flat in uplifting each other by setting negative beauty standards in settings such as beauty pageants. Size, race, sexuality, and gender expectations are all general factors that pageants consider without meaning to be “un-feminist.”Dumplin’breaks down these expectations and gives us lovable characters to follow on a journey towards self-acceptance.