Last week, we took our 6-year old son for the first time ever to the movies to see Frozen. He hated it unfortunately, a combination of a bit too much princess stuff and the frightening experience of a scary snow monster on a big screen.

Frozen_castposter

But the title song ‘Let it go’ stuck. He kept humming it, singing it. He didn’t know the words of the song, except the punch line of the chorus: ‘let it go’. So we had ‘Let it go’ on repeat for days.

The song stuck in my head as well. It’s a brilliant song when it comes to stickiness, you just can’t seem to get rid of it. In that sense, letting go of ‘Let it go’ isn’t so easy 🙂

But that can’t be the only reason the song is doing so well in the charts. I think the lyrics are resonating with people as well, especially teens.

In Frozen, ‘Let it go’ is sung by Elsa, the young and lonely Queen of Arendelle who has the power to transform anything and everything into snow and ice. Her parents teach her to hide her powers, but when they die and Elsa becomes Queen, there’s no hiding the truth anymore.

‘Let is go’ is about the moment Elsa decides she’s done hiding (‘conceal, don’t feel’ she sings) and done pretending (‘don’t let them in, don’t let them see’). She wants to be herself (‘it’s time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break though’).

This is a feeling teens know well. They are in a phase where they are finding out who they are, while at the same time getting (conflicting) advice on who they’re supposed to be. Their friends encourage them to be one thing, their parents something else entirely. It takes courage to break through all these expectations and be yourself.

That’s why I think ‘Let it go’ rings true. It’s the heartfelt emotion of a girl who tried to be who her parents wanted to be all her life, but never fit in. She’s lonely, desperate to be who she really is. And the song catches that moment perfectly:

Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door

I don’t care
What they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway

If you’re looking for something fun to do with the girls in your youth group, take them to see Frozen. They’re even releasing a sing-along version now, which would be a ball with a group of teen girls.

And afterwards, talk about how the movie made them feel and what they recognized in both Elsa and her sister Anna, who has some issues being herself as well.

Frozen isn’t the best Disney movie ever (for me, that’s still The Lion King by the way), but it’s definitely one that you can use as a discussion starter with teen girls. Not with 6-year old boys, so I’ve discovered…