Welcome to the Witching Hour Part 5: Teen Witch Craze

I recently started watching the Netflix show Worst Witch. It’s about preteen girls learning how to become witches at a magical boarding school. Within the first episode there are magical potions, flying on broom sticks, and a battle between a good witch and a bad witch. So far, I’ve really enjoyed the show.

This isn’t the first incarnation of Worst Witch. Originally a book series, Worst Witch has had a total of four TV iterations (one being a spin off) with the fist being the 1985 TV movie. It’s clear that the story of Mildred Hubble is popular and has resonated with a lot of people.

Worst Witch is just one example of the trope that a young child discovers they have magical powers and must now learn how to control them all while avoiding evil witches and wizards. Harry Potter is another well known example of this trope.

However, it isn’t the only story line out there featuring witches. Tales of sisterhood and coming of age are also popular tropes to show up in Witch related media. At least the witch related media aimed at young women and children tend to have these story lines. Harry Potter is the odd one out as it is generally considered for all people.

That’s not to say that men and boys can’t like women driven story lines, especially of the magical variety. These stories just aren’t targeted to them the same way they are targeted to women. The 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s saw a lot of witch media hit the big and small screen that was almost explicitly for young women.

In 1989, the movie Teen Witch hit theaters. It was trying to capitalize on the genre of teen flicks with a supernatural or paranormal undertone that became popular with the release of Teen Wolf in 1985. The same year that Teen Witch hit theaters, Studio Ghibli released the animated movie Kiki's Delivery Service in Japan. Kiki's Delivery Service also featured a young witch teenage witch (Kiki is 13 in the movie) trying to make her way in the world. The Craft and Sabrina the Teenage Witch both became cultural icons in 1996 and were quickly followed by the movie Practical Magic (1998) and the TV series Charmed (1998 - 2006).

The look so cool and powerful!

Disney Channel took notice of the rising popularity in witches, especially for young girls, to create several made for TV movies including: The Halloweentown series and the Twitches movies.

It would be silly of me to not include the rise in popularity of Harry Potter in the 1990s that has lasted all the way to today. We now have two popular movie franchises, an official play, multiple unofficial plays, and more books than my bookshelf at home can hold. More importantly, we have the characters of Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, and Tonks who were pivotal in shaping the confidence of many young girls looking for literary role models.

Of course we still had the movies and TV shows featuring evil witches. Hocus Pocus (1993) is still one of the most iconic Halloween movies for kids who grew up in the 90s. The Witches of Eastwick (1987) had an all star cast with plenty of nasty shenanigans and still ended with the ladies taking on the big bad guy in a show of sisterhood. Then there’s the 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book The Witches which gave young me many a nightmare. At least the movie ends a lot happier than the book where the children are stuck as mice instead being turned back into children by a nice witch.

My point is that there has been a lot more media in the past 4 decades featuring witches in a positive light than a negative one. Sure we had the Bewitched series from 1964 to 1972 which I think helped spring board the “good witch” stories we eventually got. However, the horror industry of that era continuously used the “bad witch” trope in their sploitation movies (most of which are hilariously bad).

Now “bad witch” movies aren’t the norm.

Occasionally we’ll see a Blair Witch (1999 and 2016) or The Witch: A New England Folktale (2015), but these types of scary movies are now few and far between. Most Witch media now is fun, happy, and how to be a good witch. Witches are seen as teachers of empowerment instead of a people to be feared.

Is it any wonder that some girls went through a witch phase in middle or high school? Having magical powers isn’t just about solving your problems or getting revenge against the mean girl at school. In fact, the petty, mean, or dangerous spells usually resulted in an important lesson on not misusing magic and the consequences of selfish acts. Magic in these shows is about finding a sense of self empowerment and feeling good about your own abilities. At least that’s what I got out of the books, movies, and TV shows I consumed.

It’s also why I love idea of being a witch.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week!