Disney Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is a coming-of-age story, narrated from the colourful and creative control room of protagonist Riley’s inner world. Her emotions of greatest influence (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear) are personified as endearing main characters, bringing to life abstract psychological concepts which evolve as Riley grows, and especially so after the “puberty alarm” sounds.
Inside Out 2 shows us that puberty is awkward, scary and messy. On the way to hockey camp try-outs, Riley finds out that her two best friends have a secret: Bree and Grace have been assigned to the same high school without her. This triggers Riley’s insecurity around being left out and becomes the catalyst by which new teenage emotions are introduced: Envy, Ennui, Embarrassment, and the new leader, Anxiety.
‘The Anxious Generation’ and Loneliness
Introducing Anxiety as the new leader is apt. Our youth may be more emotionally fluent than ever, but they aren’t happier. Despite greater emotional awareness, our nation’s youth are mentally unwell in record numbers. Social psychologist Jon Haidt has dubbed our youth the ‘Anxious Generation’. He attributes rapid mental health decline to the overuse of social media and a lack of real-life community connection.
Our youth are not only anxious, they are also desperately lonely. In 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared loneliness “a global public health concern”. In her essay, “Aren’t You Lonely?”, Gen Z writer, Freya India, attributes her generation’s loneliness to social media which turned teenage friendships into “another joyless thing to do on a screen”:
when phone-based social media platforms emerged in the early 2010s they did not just take time away from real-life friendships. They redefined friendship for an entire generation … They removed the requirements of effort, of loyalty, even of meeting up, and replaced them with following each other back, exchanging a #likeforlike, and posing for selfies together…They took teenage friendship—which used to be full of friction, thrills and adventure—and made it another joyless thing to do on a screen.
The Value of Real-Life Friendship in an Anxious World
In a social media world, Inside Out 2 shows us the benefits of navigating friendships in the real-world—even if it’s messy. Puberty comes with zits, braces, feeling left out, awkward silences, and teenage drama. Mess that can’t simply be filtered out with a single swipe. And that’s a good thing.
Riley, Bree and Grace may not be the coolest kids on the block, but they represent a friendship marked by vulnerability and dorky teen play. When Grace clumsily embarrasses herself in front of her classmates, both Riley and Bree refuse to laugh along with others and steps in to help. From that moment on, trust is built, and the three girls flourish as best friends—perhaps from the shared confidence that they truly have each other’s back and are not just using each other as popularity props ‘for the Gram’.
Friendship Is Messy Because the Human Heart Is Messy
Their friendship is tested when Anxiety convinces Riley that she will be a loner in high school unless she changes her personality to fit in. Riley’s self-belief, “I am a good friend” is replaced with a new self-belief, “If I’m good at hockey, I’ll have friends”. Suddenly Riley’s once selfless nature becomes self-preserving.
To befriend popular hockey player Val Ortiz, Riley distances herself from Bree and Grace, and reinvents herself with a pretend persona to fit in. From the outside, it may seem like Riley became ‘bad’ overnight, but Inside Out 2 gives us an honest view of the human heart. Before Riley stepped in to help Grace in the classroom, Disgust had tried to stop her from sinking her social life through association with Grace, ‘the social Titanic’—an inner thought which shows Riley’s capacity for being judgemental and unkind.
Messy Friendship Builds Trust, Love and Loyalty
Despite Riley’s efforts to become popular and successful, after a series of bad decisions, she ends up on the hockey field’s Penalty Box—ashamed and alone. Anxiety consumes her with a new self-belief, “I’m not good enough”, and she spirals into a panic attack.
When Bree and Grace spot Riley panicking, they move towards her with compassion. There was no cancellation or condemnation. Instead, Bree and Grace extend a countercultural love that’s unconditional and undeserved. Proverbs 17:17 emphasises the value of such love in friendship: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” In a sin-stained world where everyone is capable of hurting their loved ones, we need friends who will step into our messiest and most unloveable moments. We need to be this friend for others as well.
The Perfect Friend (and the Friend We Need to Be)
Inside Out 2 is a story about three teenagers navigating a small issue, but it addresses some of the larger issues facing our world today. Perhaps our capacity for loneliness and anxiety is evidence that we are dependent creatures, and why overthinking and over-feeling in isolation, only makes Anxiety grow stronger and louder.
Unlike my Creator, I am not self-sufficient or self-sustaining. I don’t have all the answers within myself… and that’s ok! Instead, when sadness or anxiety takes over, my heart needs a joy, wisdom, and sense of self that comes from outside of myself. When I’m struggling, I need people who will help me see old problems with new perspectives. I need a church family to spur me on in faith, love and hope. I need an inner circle who knows my flaws but commits to see me grow.
But most of all, I need Jesus—the perfect Friend—who left his throne to show up for me in person. I need a Love to pursue me, even when I don’t feel worthy of connection. I need a Saviour who empathises with my scars but refuses to enable selfishness or a victim mentality. I need a Confidant who knows the depths of my heart yet loves me the same.
On days when Anxiety screams that I’ll never be good enough, I need an external Truth to define who I am: “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). I am in Christ alone. Jesus is the faithful friend who loves at all times and sticks closer than a brother—and he calls the church and the Anxious Generation to step out and do the same.
