There is that strange age when one is no longer a child but has not quite become a woman. A fragile transition, fraught with so many contradictions: one searches for one’s identity, clothing becomes almost a language, and one oscillates between the desire to belong to the group and the desire to break away from it. It is precisely this in-between stage that the Grand Palais has chosen to explore with the exhibition *Girls: Adolescence, Fashion, and Rebellion*, running from December 9, 2026, to March 21, 2027 .
What does a young girl dream of?
Through fashion, photography, film, and contemporary art, the exhibition examines the construction of adolescent female identity and the representations that accompany it. Louise Bourgeois, Martin Margiela, Simone Rocha… and Sofia Coppola: so many perspectives on this age when everything still seems possible, and yet is already so strictly codified. And in an effort to capture all its nuances, the exhibition brings together fragments of this experience: clothing and accessories, photographs, works of art, film clips, archival materials, and everyday objects all interplay across five sections.
It’s hard not to think of the Lisbon sisters from *Virgin Suicides*. Five teenage girls trapped in a suffocating family environment, observed and fantasized about by the boys around them, yet whose inner worlds remain elusive to them. The girls are looked at, but rarely seem to be—truly—heard.
The Teenage Girl, Cinema’s Eternal Heroine
From *La Boum* to *LOL*, from the unsettling intensity of *Thirteen* to the delicacy of *L’Effrontée*, cinema has chronicled this age from the inside. Other works, such as *Lolita* or *Virgin Suicides*, also explore the way teenage girls are viewed—a mix of fascination, fantasy, and projection. Ultimately, one question remains: who tells the stories of young girls? And what if the very ambiguity of female adolescence lies precisely there? In this disconnect between what others see, what we let on, and what’s going on inside…
Boredom, that strange place where it all begins… between dreams, expectations, and desires
More unexpectedly, *Girls* also devotes part of its exhibition to boredom—not the kind that contains nothing. On the contrary: behind the stillness lie daydreaming, anticipation, and the desire for change. Here again, images from *Virgin Suicides* come to mind almost instinctively: teenage girls’ bedrooms, music, magazines, clothes, bodies lying around that seem to be doing nothing… while inwardly, everything is in the process of transforming.
When magazines were still a part of adolescence
Teen magazines, in fact, have all but disappeared. In the 1990s and 2000s, this specialized press accompanied, in its own way, that very special transition from childhood to adulthood: readers sought answers, role models, and sometimes simply the feeling of being understood. Social media has since taken their place, but it has also somewhat disrupted this essential and fragile transformation: today, we move almost seamlessly from childhood to a femininity that is constantly on display, commented on, and staged. In this respect, the exhibition *Girls* resonates strangely with our times.
For perhaps that is ultimately what it means to be 15: quietly shaping oneself under the gaze of others. Trying on identities as one tries on clothes. Wanting to be seen while at the same time dreaming of disappearing. Yes, in film as in life, female adolescence may fascinate as much as it eludes those who try to define it. But what if, for the duration of an exhibition, we finally let the girls tell their own stories about what goes on behind their bedroom doors?
Practical Information
Exhibition: Girls. Adolescence, Fashion, and Rebellion
December 9, 2026–March 21, 2027
Grand Palais, 7 Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008 Paris
*Tickets go on sale October 6, 2026