‘Mean Girls’ Star Lindsay Lohan Celebrates Film’s 20th Anniversary

Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey first blessed the world with the now cult-classic film Mean Girls in the early aughts. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the iconic teen comedy, which premiered in theaters on April 30, 2004.

Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan made sure to acknowledge the special day in her Instagram Stories timeline on Tuesday. Lohan reshared a photo that captured her and Mean Girls co-writer Mark Waters behind-the-scenes on the movie set from his Instagram account since he also honored the anniversary on his page.

“20 years! #meangirls,” the Parent Trap alum captioned, adding a few Mean Girls-themed GIFs to it.

Lohan’s Mean Girls co-star, Lacey Chabert, acknowledged the film being around for 20 years more subtly on Tuesday. Instead of personalizing her post, the Black Christmas notable just shared a standout scene clipped from Mean Girls on her Instagram Stories in recognition of the anniversary.

On X, fka Twitter, fans have come together to rave over the ingeniousness of Mean Girls.

“Mean Girls 2004 has stood the test of time,” one X user wrote in celebration of the Mean Girls anniversary.

Another cosigned: “Still a universal movie til this day.”

The success of Mean Girls led to ABC dropping the made-for-TV Mean Girls sequel Mean Girls 2, albeit it had an entirely new and younger cast, in 2011. Mean Girls was then adapted into a Broadway musical in 2017 before the musical play was turned into a Mean Girls movie-musical in 2024. No matter how good the following Mean Girls renditions are, most folks are partial to the 2004 version.

Actresses Rachel McAdams, Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, and Chabert each had a hand in making the satirical flick based on the catty drama that saturates high-school girl cliques legendary. Pop culture was never the same after McAdams seamlessly embodied the conniving yet lovable Regina George, whose shade was unmatched and confidence unshakeable.

While Regina was the quintessential Queen Bey, she “wouldn’t have been anything” without her “army of skanks,” as Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) –Regina’s vengeful former friend — put it. Janis’ ultimate goal was to knock Regina off of her pedestal as payback for the school-favorite spreading a nasty rumor about her that forced her into obscurity. Implementing the help of her fellow outcast buddies Damian (Daniel Franzese) and Cady Heron (Lohan), her co-conspirators, to do so. Cady served as Janis’ mole, initially pretending to be Regina’s friend after the blonde beauty decided to take her under her wing, and invited her into her clique that Janis dubbed “The Plastics.”

Fellow members of “The Plastics” were Gretchen Wieners (Chabert) and Karen Smith (Seyfried). Seyfried effortlessly pulling off her role as the ditzy buxom blonde Karen, and Chabert perfectly executing her role as Gretchen, the high-strung motormouth rich girl who often spilled Regina’s secrets to Cady, greatly contributed to Mean Girls being a masterpiece.

Mean Girls had so many core moments, like when Karen said her “breasts could always tell when it was going to rain.”Well, when it’s raining. Or when Cady told her school crush Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), Regina’s ex whom she began dating again to spite Cady, that the date was October 3rd when he asked her the date in math class.

That one line from Lohan’s character Cady is why October 3 of each year is officially known as Mean Girls Day. Oh, and let’s not forget about how Gretchen tried so hard to popularize the non-American slang word “fetch.” Gretchen complimented everything she deemed cool or interesting as being “so fetch” until Regina shot her down, demanding she stopped trying to make fetch a thing because “it wasn’t going to happen.”

The original Mean Girls has been the source of countless memes, the inspiration behind Halloween costumes, and brand campaign themes. Mean Girls even influenced the intro of Mariah Carey’s hit song Obsessed. Carey saying, “And I was like, ‘Why are you so obsessed with me?'” at the beginning of her 2009 single was a direct quote from Regina George, the head mean girl in charge.

Ariana Grande also drew inspiration from the movie for her Thank U, Next music video in 2019. Like Carey and Grande, many of us have a deep affection for the movie. Over the years, the early 2000s motion picture has tried to recreate the magic of its initial release. However, it seems to be to no avail, as people like myself are begging for a sequel to Mean Girls that includes all of the earliest actors reprising their respective roles—not just a cameo appearance like Lohan had in Mean Girls (2024).

With both Lohan and McAdams willing to reassume their respective Mean Girls roles, there is a strong chance we might get our wish.

“[Lohan] wants to do another [Mean Girls] and has a good relationship with her former cast members,” a source close to Lohan told People on April 30.

“They are her friends and have been. Another film would be great for her and for audiences who loved the original.”

The same insider told People on the same day that McAdams, “would likely do a Mean Girls sequel if everything presented to her made sense.”