Through this “How To” we follow three sisters as they substitute societal double standards, media and peers to educate themselves on what it means to be female because their bipolar, absent mother has better things to do. It’s SHAMELESS meets LADYBIRD.

SYNOPSIS:

Girl's Guide: To Growing up without Mommy (Girl's Guide for short) is an empowering story of sisterhood and how three daughters have to learn to operate without their mother as a role model in their lives. It is both hilarious and heartbreaking as they document how to be a woman, while dealing with their mother’s bi polar disorder. Mental health and the feeling of unworthiness in women in general, is a huge factor that sets this family story apart. Also, it focuses on girl issues, and unlike Barbie and other women’s films, where the focus is on the patriarchy and what it's done to women, this film’s heart is in the subtle nuances of the female experience (like not knowing how to put a tampon in because you didn’t have a mom to show you, or how to have self respect when dealing with boys, why do we count calories or even how to be a good friend).

A character portrait dramedy, fueled by their ideas of what is acceptable as women, (sometimes right and sometimes not right at all) as we know influences by media and peers can often steer us in the wrong direction. Their ideals like “This is how you tell someone you love them” is shown as an oxymoron with them pushing away the people they actually love. Which mirrors real life, sometimes we don’t understand everything and have to learn through bad decision making and experience. These numerical beats touch on all aspects of girlhood and are the driving force for the story as our characters grow.