New Trier—the high school that is the inspiration for movies such as “Mean Girls,” and “The Breakfast Club,” right? Wrong.

Many of the movies that we pride ourselves on actually had little connection to New Trier.
On Oct. 3, New Trier celebrated the movie “Mean Girls” with a Snapchat filter that was specifically for New Trier High School, but Tina Fey, the woman who wrote mean girls, went to school at, and based the movie on Evanston Township High School (ETHS).

So if New Trier was not the real basis for “Mean Girls,”how did we get the impression that New Trier was the basis for North Shore High (the fictional high school used in the movie)? The theory may have originated from Evanston itself. Some of the students who attend ETHS argue that the movie, although it is based on Evanston, seems more like New Trier.

“Are North Shore high schools ruled by ruthless queen bees who crush the spirits of their classmates under the toes of $150 shearling Ugg boots? Kids at Evanston Township High School, where the movie was set, say no and point their fingers north,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

New Trier isn’t actually the inspiration for “Mean Girls,” and we also aren’t the basis of so many of the John Hughes movies. Sorry to burst your bubble.

While parts of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” were filmed in the New Trier Township, the movie is actually based on Glenbrook North High School since Hughes grew up in Northbrook and went to school at GBN.

“16 Candles” was filmed around the North Shore, but it was primarily filmed in and around Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park.

Other than the name (which is based on the nickname New Trier had for morning detention), “The Breakfast Club” really doesn’t have much to do with New Trier either.

The fictional town of Shermer, which is featured in a few of John Hughes’ movies, is based on Shermer Road in Northbrook.

“Glenbrook North, on Shermer Road is the inspiration for the fictional Chicago suburb where so many of his movies took place: Shermer, IL,” said the New York Times.

Brace yourselves, “The Breakfast Club” isn’t filmed at New Trier either. “The Breakfast Club” was filmed at both Maine North (which closed in 1981), and GBN.

Even the fist bump scene (where Judd Nelson raises his fist on the football field at the end of “The Breakfast Club”) that we pride ourselves on is actually filmed at Maine North.

Students were surprised that the movies were not based upon New Trier.
Senior Tyler Gilley said, “I’m a little bit surprised because I’ve heard from so many people that Mean Girls is based off New Trier.”

This, however, did not change students’ opinions on the movies. Senior Mina Seals added that “I guess it makes them a little less relevant to me, but it doesn’t really change my perception of the movies.”