Movies like Growing Up (2016)
The best movies like Growing Up (2016) are Real Women Have Curves (2002), Blinded by the Light (2019) and LOL (2012). If Growing Up hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Growing Up
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStargirl (2020)7.4/10 from 579 votes
- NewestThe Map That Leads to You (2025)Released 2025
Real Women Have Curves (2002)
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlinded by the Light (2019)
In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLOL (2012)
In a world connected by YouTube, iTunes, and Facebook, Lola and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. When Lola's mom, Anne, "accidentally" reads her teenage daughter's racy journal, she realizes just how wide their communication gap has grown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFitting In (2024)
A teenage girl gets diagnosed with a reproductive condition that upends her plans to have sex and propels her into exploring unusual methods to have a sex life, challenging her relationships with everyone in her life, but most importantly, herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThat's What I Am (2011)
A coming-of-age story that follows 12-year-old Andy Nichol, a bright student who, like most kids his age, will do anything to avoid conflict for fear of suffering overwhelming ridicule and punishment from his junior high school peers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPalm Trees and Power Lines (2023)
Seventeen-year-old Lea spends her summer break tanning in her backyard, and drifting between tiptoeing around her needy mother, and aimlessly trailing her best friend and boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom, a seductive man twice her age who promises an alternative to Lea's unsatisfying adolescent life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Education (2009)
Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Short History of the Long Road (2019)
Nola grew up living in a van with her father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past, and her new destination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoxie (2021)
Inspired by her mom's rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAngus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don't understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBloomington (2010)
A former child actress attends college in search of independence and ends up becoming romantically involved with a female professor. Their relationship thrives until an opportunity to return to acting forces her to make life-altering decisions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStargirl (2020)
An unassuming high schooler finds himself inexplicably drawn to the free-spirited new girl, whose unconventional ways change how they see themselves…and their world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Map That Leads to You (2025)
Heather is a young woman traveling Europe with friends before starting her perfectly planned life. A chance meeting with Jack sparks an unexpected romance that leads to deep emotional discovery. As secrets and life choices test their bond, her path changes forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Souvenir: Part II (2021)
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Half of It (2020)
Shy, straight-A student Ellie is hired by sweet but inarticulate jock Paul, who needs help wooing the most popular girl in school. But their new and unlikely friendship gets tricky when Ellie discovers she has feelings for the same girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOh, Ramona! (2019)
Oh, Ramona! seeks the transformation of Andrew from a teenager into an adult who lives candidly and selflessly his first love story, innocent and uninvolved, alternating with the second, intense and insane story, incapable of making a choice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Growing Up?
The closest matches to Growing Up are Real Women Have Curves (2002), Blinded by the Light (2019) and LOL (2012). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Growing Up?
Start with Real Women Have Curves (2002), the closest match to Growing Up.
What is the highest-rated movie like Growing Up?
Stargirl (2020), rated 7.4/10 by 579 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Growing Up?
The Map That Leads to You (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Growing Up?
Yes: Real Women Have Curves (2002), Blinded by the Light (2019) and LOL (2012).
How are movies similar to Growing Up chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Growing Up, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.