What Inside Out 2 Gets Right About Anxiety and Growing Up
There’s a reason why therapists love the movie Inside Out 2 - and so do your kids/preteens. How Inside Out 2 portrays anxiety in kids and teens just makes sense.
The movie adds new emotions that speak to the human experience. But really what it adds is context around growing up that allows children and preteens to feel understood. It’s about starting to build the internal story of who you are, what makes you valuable, what makes you safe, and what makes you belong.
Here are four ways Inside Out 2 gets it right:
Puberty is messy, not bad.
The flashing “Puberty” alarm is exaggerated for humor, but in reality, that’s exactly how it feels, sudden, fast, and full of panic.
When your child hits puberty, it truly feels like a whole new world. Self-awareness and self-consciousness increases. Peer relationships start to matter more than they ever have before. Emotions feel louder and more urgent, maybe even extreme.
Puberty is the biggest time of development for your child, since the first three years of life.
New emotions feel disruptive, but they have their place.
My absolute favorite thing about the Inside Out franchise is that they truly showcase every emotion as important. In the first movie, we learned that joy and sadness need each other, but in Inside Out 2, the focus is on anxiety (and the other new feelings, envy, embarrassment, ennui).
When the new feelings enter Riley’s (the main character) console, they feel intrusive. That’s often how it feels in real life too.
When anxiety intensifies and makes itself known, it doesn’t always feel wise or helpful. It often feels inconvenient and overbearing.
However, Inside Out 2 does an incredible job of painting the picture of how anxiety truly is protective in nature. She scans for risk and danger. She protects from rejection, and she has a beautiful imagination that sometimes gets carried away.
The problem isn’t that anxiety shows up - it’s just not her job to take over the entire emotional system.
Anxiety influences your belief systems.
Throughout the movie, we see Riley struggle with anxiety and insecurity that makes her forget her value system, the things that she truly loves. While, value-based work is a great way to approach therapy, for adolescents, they are still trying to figure out their belief systems and their values.
Anxiety often creates rules that inform their belief systems. For example, “If I act this way, then I’ll fit in.” Over time, those rules can start to feel like identity.
Anxiety can camouflage your sense of self.
Friendship becomes the most important.
Do you remember in Inside Out 2 when “Friendship Island” grows larger than “Family Island”? Well, that’s accurate.
As kids move into adolescence, peers naturally become more central to their sense of belonging, and ultimately become the most “important” to them.
Your child may start asking for more input from their friends, and less input from you. Family still matters, but your child’s identity is expanding to hold more experiences.
Emotions don’t get to choose who we are.
One of the biggest takeaways in the film is that emotions may influence us, but they do not define us. Emotions do not get to choose who we are.
In essence, it’s all about duality and acknowledging that all emotions play a role. For example, you can feel anxious and still be brave. You can feel embarrassed and still belong.
When we teach children and teens to regulate their emotions, it’s not about avoiding emotions, it’s about giving the emotions the space they need. It’s helping emotions take turns at the console instead of letting one drive indefinitely.
Anxiety was never “bad” in Inside Out 2, she just needed some support.
A Note to Parents
If you watched this movie and thought, “This feels a little too accurate,” you’re not alone.
Adolescence can look sudden from the outside. Your child may seem more self-conscious, more reactive, more unsure. Friendships may feel more intense than you remember.
That doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong. Often, it means their internal world is expanding.
What helps most during this stage isn’t removing anxiety or fixing every uncomfortable feeling. It’s helping your child understand what their emotions are trying to do — and reminding them that feelings are information, not identity.
If you’re not sure where to start with finding support for your child, this page breaks down what therapy for kids in New York looks like and what to expect.
If your child is struggling with anxiety, perfectionism, or emotional ups and downs therapy can help. I offer virtual therapy for children, preteens, and teens across New York, helping families build emotional regulation skills and strengthen connection at home. Contact me here for more information.
