Pixar wanted Turning Red to be ‘unapologetic’ about puberty — including periods

polygon.com:

Pixar’s new movie Turning Red centers on a girl who uncontrollably morphs into a giant red panda, and the metaphorical connections to other big red turning point in a girl’s life do not go overlooked. But director and co-writer Domee Shi doesn’t see the topic as taboo, even for a movie geared toward young audiences. In fact, the movie openly talks about periods, and doesn’t shy away from the nitty-gritty of puberty. No one discusses the anatomical machinations of uteri and blood flow, but after plucky protagonist Mei first changes shape and hides in the bathroom, her mother mistakenly believes she’s gotten her period, and brings her supplies and advice about how her body is changing. (Mei, meanwhile, hides in the shower, more concerned about suddenly having fur).

“The red panda is a metaphor not just for puberty, but also what we inherit from our moms, and how we deal with the things that we inherit from them,” Shi tells Polygon.

Turning Red is Shi’s feature debut, a coming-of-age story following a Chinese-Canadian protagonist in the early 2000s. Her previous Pixar project, the short film Bao, also deals with a complicated first-generation-immigrant mother-child relationship, but she sawTurning Red as a chance to dive into those themes from the child’s perspective.

“[Mei is] growing up caught between two worlds, East and West, but [she’s] also at this time in her life where she’s blossoming into adulthood,” explains Shi. “And all of these changes are happening not just to her body, but to her relationship with her mom and her friends.”

Mei learns that she transforms every time she experiences extreme emotion, and must navigate this new physical quirk while dealing with her rapidly changing relationship with her