The importance of Disney adding 'anxiety' to Inside Out 2

Growing up I wish my parents could have watched a film like this to understand my mind

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll know that I consider myself on the cusp of becoming a Disney adult. Luckily for you though, you don’t need to have a lanyard full of push pins to enjoy the original Inside Out film as a grownup.

The coming of age film follows an 11-year-old girl called Riley who moves across the country due to her dad’s job. Inside Out is all about her mind and how her emotions dictate her behaviour.

These emotions are joy, sadness, fear, disgust and anger, who are all given life with animated characters who genuinely made me laugh and cry when I watched it with my nephew Callum… and subsequently again on my own.

Trigger warning, there is a scene which shows where all of Riley’s forgotten memories go and I guarantee you will sob.

Unsurprisingly, the Pixar film was so successful that Disney announced a sequel, due next summer. Featuring a brand new emotion that Riley experiences as she turns 13: Anxiety.

Just watching the teaser trailer and seeing the frazzled appearance of the character makes me hard relate. Plus, anxiety is voiced by one of my favourite new generation actors: Maya Hawke.

As an adult who wasn’t prescribed medication for anxiety until their thirties, I look back on my childhood and recognise how it’s something I’ve always struggled with.

Yet, back then it didn’t have a name.

Despite having a terrible memory, these anxious moments are full on 4d in my mind. Not only can I picture the scene, but I can still feel the emotion.

Whether it was being looked after by my mum’s friend - who I was a bit scared of - at their house, being driven to a sleepover I didn’t want to go to (I can still hear Robson & Jerome on the radio), getting ready for bed on a Sunday night or the worst of them all - the end of summer panic.

To have been able to have someone articulate to me why I was crying in the shower the night before that September school return, would have given me some much-needed reassurance. Without it, my fears felt justified and very real.

Truthfully, I learnt about anxiety from Zoe Sugg’s YouTube videos - I will be forever grateful to her for that.

Initially, it helped me understand my health anxiety - which was a new addition in my twenties - but with hindsight, I was then able to understand a lot of my childhood emotions.

Growing up I was always considered shy. Every single school report would say I need to speak up more in class. I think I was just seen as overly sensitive, but how I wish I could have watched a film like Inside Out 2 for my parents to help see what was happening in my mind.

Although I didn’t have that support because anxiety wasn’t a ‘thing’ then, it makes me genuinely happy to see my family recognise these kind of emotions in my niece and nephew now and treat them with so much understanding.

A few weeks back, Callum and Lyra were sleeping over at Nanny and Grandad’s but Callum had a bit of a wobble in the evening about wanting to sleep at home. While I felt I had to deal with all of that internally growing up, my mum Facetimed his parents so Cal could talk to them.

Listening to him explain how he was feeling to his mum and dad at just 6 years old, made me so proud of both him and my sister and brother-in-law. They didn’t make him feel silly or overly sensitive, they just listened to him.

As did my mum and dad who drove him and Lyra back home again. To be able to have such an understanding Nanzo and Granzo (one of their many nicknames), who grew up in a completely different generation where children should be seen and not heard, is something I hope when Callum and Lyra are older, they will recognise.

Here’s hoping Inside Out 2 helps more of us and our families understand why we are the way that we are.