The 2012 movie release “Perks of Being a Wallflower” was based on the 1999 best selling book that is banned in many school districts around the United States. This was one of the greatest movies ever made because it brought up the hard, but necessary topics of sex, drugs, suicide and alcohol. I think that teens need to learn about these hard topics for when they come up in our lives.
The 2012 movie, “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” was adapted from the book that was published in 1999. It features an incoming freshman student, Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, learning the ropes of high school, while dealing with his own trauma that no one really understands. Yet. Along the way, he is befriended by two seniors who quickly become his best friends, Sam, played by Emma Watson, and Patrick, played by Ezra Miller. The one person that he trusts the most, however, is his Aunt Helen, played by Melanie Lynskey. Charlie loves his aunt, but by the end of the movie, we find out that she is the main reason for most of his misfortune.

This movie is beneficial because it brings up the hard topics that many people do not like to talk about, but need to. Topics such as suicide, sex and drugs need to be brought up and shown to teens not hidden from them because if we know that this goes on, then we are more likely to know how to approach these issues when they come up in our everyday lives. Examples that the movie shows is teens getting high and drunk at a party. That is something that happens in everyday life, but teens do not know how to deal with the aftermath of this happening. Another example is sexual assaults. This movie shows how something like that can affect a person mentally without even knowing that it is. Charlie’s experience with sexual assult does not really come out until the end, but is inserted in many places throughout the movie, to show what can happen to someone who has experienced sexual assault at a young age. As you can see, without movies like this, most teens will not know these issues. I think that teens nowadays base most things off of the internet and technology. Movies that address these topics provide an opportunity for more teens to learn about these issues, and it could prepare them to deal with those issues if they appear in their own lives.
Overall, “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” has changed my outlook on life, because it allowed me to learn about hard topics that many adults do not talk about. Either they are scared, or they do not think teens can handle it, but I think that is a mistake because then we will not know how to solve such problems. Although “Perks of Being a Wallflower” was frequently challenged as a book, I think that it is an important movie for teens to take in, for they are going to go through almost all of these issues at some point in their lives, and it will be up to them, most of the time, to get themselves or someone they know out.