Who's this movie about anyway?

Amelie:

Name inspiration/backstory: 

The song "Amelie" by Gracie Abrams describes a girl who was everything Gracie could have wanted. She wanted to spend all of her days with her and give all of her time to her, but she left and doesn't even know Gracie's name anymore and she wonders if she was all just a dream.

What drives her?:
Her ardent longing to leave her town and explore life outside of it.

Personality/Story:

    Amelie is a Type A, neurotic student. She works her butt off every day to follow her dreams of going away to the college of her dreams and leaving her hometown. She works a job, takes all AP classes, and runs multiple clubs at her school. She is what many would see and describe as perfect. But Amelie is stuck in her own head, constantly feeling like she isn't good enough, smart enough, or pretty enough. She suffers from the thoughts that plague her mind day in and day out. She turns to music, movies, and books to silence her own thoughts. She is a total bookworm and obsessed with listening to music.

    Amelie's home life is also what many would consider the stuff of dreams. She has a beautiful home, lavishly decorated. Her parents are happily married and in love. They provide for her and her older sister who is in college. Amelie has all the material possessions she could want, but her home feels empty with her workaholic parents never being around. Everything appears perfect from the outside, but Amelie craves the love and attention other kids get. Her parents constantly compare her to her sister, who is going to an Ivy League college and was in the top 1% of her class. Her sister was perfect. She was everything Amelie wanted to be, but she constantly lived in her shadow, never able to break free from it.

    Amelie didn't have many close friends, she was popular but those people weren't her friends, they were just people she could say "Hi" to in the hallways and chat with in class. She didn't have a best friend to whom she could talk to about anything and everything. She longed for it, but she liked to keep it out of her mind, focusing only on her goal. She would be out of this town in no time anyway, who needed friends when you'd be leaving soon?

James: (James is a girl)

Name inspiration/backstory: 

The song "betty" by Taylor Swift is about a boy who feels like he knows nothing and doesn't have his life figured out. He feels like he's constantly making mistakes and constantly trying to make up for them.

What drives her?: 

She wants to feel useful and do what makes her happy so she doesn't spend her whole life miserable.

Personality/Story:

    James is not perfect in any way, shape, or form. Her home life is a disaster, with two parents who, to put it nicely, despised each other, but wouldn't divorce because they "could never split up the family". James used art and music as a form of escape. When she wasn't working her job at the library, she was painting and making music. Those were her passions in life. Those were what got her through the long days and the long nights of shouts coming from down the hall. 

    James worked hard to help support her family since her parents' paychecks could barely hold on each month. She used part of her money to help out, but another part she kept just for herself, it was one of the few things she did for herself. She used that money to fund her art and her music, and also to help take care of her little sister. She usually did this in secret, in a private closet in the storage room of the library. Her boss let her have it since she was one of only two employees and she worked most of the shifts. She was dependable and bright, she simply hadn't been handed many opportunities in life.

    With all of this going on in her life, James didn't quite care about her grades. She kept them up enough to make sure she passed and graduated, but she didn't waste her time and energy on something she didn't feel was necessary to her plans for the future.

    James kept to herself, sort of a lone wolf. This was mostly by choice since she didn't find it easy to interact with other people, and caring about others was only a way to be disappointed when they inevitably hurt you. Her parents had done it countless times. It was easier not to care than to be hurt over and over again.

    She came off as abrasive and cold, but that was how she liked it. If no one wanted to talk to her, it was only that much easier to not have friends. 

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By meeting and falling in love, these girls learn that letting their walls down and opening themselves up to new experiences is what makes life worth living.