I’m Right on Top of That, Rose! An Ode to the '90s Working Girl
I know the ‘80s get all the glory, what with Melanie Griffith in Working Girl and Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, but I think the ‘90s deserves more credit for turning out some of romantic comedy’s greatest career heroines.
As a type A student coming of age in an era where the economic expansion of the ‘80s had given way to economic contraction in the ‘90s, I didn’t quite realize how much I was searching for career role models in popular culture. It’s only looking back on some of my rom-com favorites that I see just how much these leading ladies shaped what I believed a working woman could be capable of.
Are these examples a realistic depiction of what working in the real world is like? Of course not! But when you’re a pre-teen just trying to figure your way through life, an inspiring, slightly unrealistic role model is better than no role model at all.
So here’s to the (very) fictitious career girls who shaped my adult aspirations:
Sue Ellen Crandell in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991)
The ultimate FormerTeen (who’s actually still a teen), 17-year-old Sue Ellen Crandell is forced into the workforce after the family babysitter’s demise leaves her three siblings and herself sans food funds for an entire summer. Sue Ellen starts work in typical teen fashion, grilling burgers and scrubbing fat vats at a cheesy fast food joint. Desperate to escape this greasy fate, she applies for a receptionist position at a fashion company using a fake resume that’s so good she gets hired on the spot as an executive administrative assistant.
Side Note: To this day, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead is the only reason I have any frame of reference for what an administrative assistant does. Which is to say, I’m pretty sure the job consists of chatting with your brother on the phone, reciting “I’m right on top of that, Rose” for any job you clearly have no idea how to do, and eventually throwing a big fashion party at your mom’s house to redeem yourself. Hmmm…perhaps there’s a reason I was never hired for the many administrative assistant jobs I applied to over the years.
FormerTeen Takeaway: It’s totally okay to apply for a job you’re not qualified for as long as you have the gumption (and the fashion sense) to figure it out along the way. Sue Ellen really does rally. How else could she convince a group of lazy teens to carve massive ice sculptures and renovate an entire house for a work party?
Romy & Michele in Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
Sure, Romy and Michele think there’s some sort of business women’s special at truck stop diners and they spend the first half of the movie flailing from one job to the next in an attempt to impress their rather insignificant high school classmates, but by the last scene, they’ve put aside their phony personas, embraced their true style, and opened up their own colorful fashion boutique. I know it’s a comedy and everything’s supposed to wrap up in a pretty bow, but selling colorful clothing on Rodeo Drive (hello, Pretty Woman!) in a business they, as businesswomen, invented (unlike Post-its) is really all of their best interests and schemes rolled into one.
FormerTeen Takeaway: Leverage your connections! Romy & Michele’s store would never have happened without a loan from school geek turned multimillionaire, Sandy Frink.
Kate Mosley in Picture Perfect (1997)
Kate works in advertising. I know this because she is the only character on this list to be seen actually doing her job for more than 120 seconds. Kate’s job seems like the perfect mix between business and creative. It’s sort of like the female equivalent of the male architect trope in romantic comedies in that it bridges the gap between right and left brains to capture audience hearts on both sides.
Sure, Kate has her flaws, like sleeping with the office playboy, lying to her co-workers, and as her boss puts it, “still living like [she’s] in college” (me too, Kate, me too), but she’s also damn good at her job. In fact, she loves it so much that men, including an underwear model plastered across a Times Square billboard, come second to her aspirations.
FormerTeen Takeaway: You can be ambitious at your job and still find love, but more importantly, doing a job that you love means you’ll never be without love, even if you’re single.