8 unexpected and inspirational coming-of-age films

We all love coming-of-age movies—these wonderfully inspirational, often heartwarming yet gut-wrenching, growth-centered movies. That’s likely why there are so many lists that cover this genre.

So, for our list, we purposefully leave out some obvious picks, like Stand By Me (1986), SuperBad (2007), and Mean Girls (2004), because we know you know them. Instead, we’re refreshing the category with some stand-out coming-of-age movies that most lists miss.  

We’ve got movies about growing up queer...