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Eighth Grade
Eighth grader Kayla Day is in her final week at Miles Grove Middle School, a public middle school in a small New York town. She posts motivational vlogs on YouTube about confidence and self-image that receive few to no views. Timid and struggling to make friends at school, she is voted "Most Quiet" by her classmates. Meanwhile, her single father Mark struggles to connect with her and break her reliance on social media. Kayla is invited to popular classmate Kennedy's pool party by Kennedy's mother. At the party, she has a panic attack in the bathroom but eventually goes outside to swim, where she meets Kennedy's nerdy cousin Gabe. After trying to leave early, she has an awkward encounter with her crush Aiden, who encourages her to stay. She overcomes her anxiety and volunteers to partake in karaoke.
After hearing that Aiden broke up with his last girlfriend because she refused to send him nude photos of herself, Kayla lies to Aiden and tells him that she has a folder of explicit photos of herself on her phone, piquing his interest. He asks if she gives blowjobs and she says yes, despite not knowing what he means. She later looks up instructions online and is disgusted by what she finds.
During a high school shadow program, Kayla meets a friendly senior named Olivia who shows her around the school before exchanging phone numbers and inviting her to the mall with some friends. At the mall, Kayla is mortified to see her father spying on the group from afar and orders him to leave.
While giving Kayla a ride home, Olivia's friend Riley initiates an awkward and invasive game of truth or dare, culminating in him removing his shirt and encouraging her to do the same. When she refuses, he becomes angry and claims he was just trying to help her gain some sexual experience. At home, Kayla breaks down and is comforted by Mark. She makes another vlog announcing that she intends to stop making videos, as she is not the confident person she pretends to be and feels unfit to give advice. She opens a time capsule she created for herself in sixth grade and watches a video in which her past self asks about her current friends and love life. After enlisting Mark's help in burning the time capsule, she asks him if she makes him sad. He tells her that she fills him with pride and could never make him sad, prompting her to hug him.
Shortly before graduation, Kayla finally calls out Kennedy for acting indifferent and dismissive toward Kayla's attempts at befriending her. She later has dinner at Gabe's house and they enjoy their time together. Kayla makes a new time capsule that she and Mark bury in the backyard, and leaves a video message for her future high school senior self, encouraging her to persevere through tough times.