Exploring 'Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.': A Powerful Narrative

TIR Screens Presents

Welcome Back Realmies, in week 2 we looked at Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., a Coming-of-age film, an independent film directed by Leslie Harris and initially premiered in Toronto in 1992 and later released in the United States in 1993.

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (Interborough Rapid Transit, New York City’s early subway system) centers on Chantel Mitchell, a Brooklyn teenager navigating school, family responsibility, sex, pregnancy, and her desire to build a life different from the one she sees around her. At times Chantel speaks directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, similar to an after-school specials or public service announcements of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which were designed to reach young people and address difficult, real-world issues. PSAs and After-School Specials focused on delivering information in a more palatable easy to receive way, this film carries that same intention of message delivery but in a more serious narrative.

Forced Maturity

Chantel is a strong student who is primarily concerned with clothes, parties, and boys, but also responsible. She works a part-time job and offers to help her parents who are living paycheck to paycheck. Her mother works all day and comes home to care for the kids with little to no help from her husband and was passed over for a promotion. Chantel helps with housework and caring for her younger brothers. Her parents argue about money and utilities adding stress to the teenager.

Chantel seeks independence and a life different from her parents. She is mainly focused on getting out of the projects. Only a high school junior, Chantel wants to graduate early aspiring to escape to college followed by medical school. She receives a rude awakening when her principal tells her she is not ready for college due to her attitude and urges her to wait a year to mature and be more “ladylike”.

Institutional Barriers

In history class, Chantel is outspoken and wants to discuss the state of affairs in the Black community. Her teacher repeatedly shuts her down, saying it is the wrong venue. She is sent to the principal’s office for cursing at the teacher. The principal warns her about her mouth and attitude and urges her to be more of a lady.

Later in the film, Chantel is given the opportunity to teach the history class and presents Black history facts that do not align with the curriculum further upsetting the teacher. This scene presents a progressive moment for the time.

When Chantel later discovers she is pregnant from a home pregnancy test, she goes to a clinic to confirm pregnancy, which is confirmed. She seeks information about an abortion. Paula, the counselor, initially is reluctant to provide information saying there are legalities. She later informs Chantel abortion is illegal after 25 weeks advising her of the limited window to make her decision. She is also advised to sign up for public assistance while she waits to decide; however, Chantel later discovers she does not qualify for welfare due to two working parents and household income.

Information Gaps

Throughout the film there are many moments of peer misinformation. Chantel, best friend Natete and Veronica, discuss sex and protection. They spout off facts that are wrong about STDs, AIDS, and pregnancy. Later when Chantel gets pregnant it is due to not using a condom and improper use of the pill.

The film uses issue-based storytelling in an after-school special tone, providing information by the teens in a manner that points out the misinformation which is later corrected by information from the counselor or by showing it fail when after taking multiple home pregnancy tests taken with Natete, Chantel ends up pregnant. It even highlights the unreliability of home tests in the era by having Chantel confirm her results at the clinic.

Autonomy vs. Reality

Chantel is initially in a relationship with Gerard, who does not have a job nor car. She ditches him for Ty who does have a car and enough money to take her on dates. When she becomes pregnant, he urges her to get an abortion while she still wavers on making a decision. He pressures her by offering $500 he gets from his uncle and says there is a place in New Jersey where they can get it done, his uncle told him. It points to shady, non-medical operation that would likely do more harm than good.

Chantel repeatedly stands her ground saying he does not control her, and it is her body and she will decide. Ty’s (also a teenager) initial response to the pregnancy was anger and denial, accusing her of sleeping with someone else, questioning if the baby is his, saying it is not his problem, accusing Chantel of trying to pressure him into marriage then finally pressuring her to have an abortion. Ty insists, pressuring her to take the money to get the abortion, even minimizing the situation saying other girls get pregnant in high school and she should stop moping. Instead, Chantel uses the money to go shopping with Natete. While bodily autonomy is suggested in theory it is in an early stage in practice.

Secrecy & Isolation

When Chantel gets pregnant, she distances herself socially and emotionally. There is a lot of lying on Chantel’s part with her relationship with Ty and her pregnancy. Chantel tells her mother she is sleeping over at Natete’s several times using her as an alibi. She lies to Natete after she is pregnant telling her that it was a false alarm, claiming to have gotten her period. She spends less time with her friends, triggering arguments with Natete. She refuses to tell her friends or parents about the pregnancy. She instead buys loose clothing and some in two sizes as a decoy for the laundry her mother does. She physically conceals the pregnancy, wearing a girdle and throwing away portions of food in the middle of the night so her mother would think she was overeating if any weight gain became obvious. Choosing withdrawal she deals with the changes, physical and emotional in isolation.

Crisis & Context

Chantel makes it her third trimester without telling anyone or seeing a doctor. She admits not knowing exactly how far along she is but estimates it at 30 weeks. While spending the night with Ty, who has no restrictions or supervision from his mother, she goes into premature labor. Ty and Chantel are frantic and uninformed about anything. Chantel refuses to go to the hospital and restricts Ty from calling 911. As the labor is progressing, she calls the counselor, Paula, who attempts to provide assistance over the phone. When Ty refuses to call 911, Paula hangs up and does it herself, only to be told it would be nearly an hour before an ambulance can arrive in that neighborhood.

Ty and Chantel deliver the baby on their own and Chantel immediately refuses to see the baby instructing Ty to get rid of it. Ty takes a garbage bag and the newborn girl and leaves her on a curb near a garbage can. A neighborhood child playing hears the baby and alerts adults who call the police.

Paula arrives at Ty’s while he is out and Chantel has a change of heart telling Paula to help her find Ty and the baby. They go out to the area where Ty placed the baby which is surrounded by cops who do not find the baby and take it as a false report. They head back to the house to find Ty also had a change of heart bring the newborn back home.

The final scene is a cut to the future, Chantel graduated early and is attending community college. She and Ty are not together but co-parenting their daughter and dating other people.

There were some Real-World 1990s events that provide some context to the films events. Though some occurred after the film, they still offer insight to the realism presenting in the film. In 1996 in Brooklyn, a teen gave birth at the prom held at the Grand Prospect Hall, leaving the baby in the bathroom trash can; thankfully, the baby survived after being discovered by a maintenance worker. In 1997, there was another case where the baby did not make it, a high-profile tragedy that dominated national headlines and sparked intense debate over the lack of support for young mothers. Safe Haven laws were not yet established or widely known and have since evolved as a result, specifically leading to New York’s Abandoned Infant Protection Act of 2000, which finally gave desperate parents a safe, legal way to surrender newborns without fear of prosecution.

Critic’s Take

Writer and director Leslie Harris won the Special Jury Prize for Outstanding First Feature at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, boosting Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.’s position in the independent film genre. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers called it “explosively funny, deeply moving” and praised Harris as “a bracing new voice,” keeping the film “brimming with the pleasures of the unexpected.” (Read Article)

In a later reassessment, The New Yorker’s Richard Brody described the film as an outward expression of a young Black woman’s interior life, emphasizing how social and institutional forces shape Chantel’s experience
(Read Article).

While some early critiques pointed to tonal unevenness, the film’s reputation has strengthened over time. Today, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. is widely regarded as a pioneering coming-of-age film, notable for centering Black teen girlhood, bodily autonomy, and systemic failure with honesty and restraint.

Rotten Tomatoes: 67-69%

IMDB: 6.4-6.7

Your Take

Over three decades later, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. still invites viewers to explore adolescence. There is so much more that can be said about Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. not included here, but we can continue that conversation in the comments:

What are your thoughts about Just Another Girl on the I.R.T?
What other major themes stood out to you?
Was this your first viewing, or a rewatch? If it was a rewatch, did your perspective shift?
How did the film’s treatment of education, relationships, adolescence, access and escape land for you?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Next in the Series

Week 3 will focus on Crooklyn, Spike Lee’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film centered on Troy Carmichael, a young girl growing up in a working-class Black family in 1970s Brooklyn. Crooklyn explores childhood, discipline, sibling dynamics, memory, and neighborhood life, capturing the joys and constraints of growing up Black before adolescence hardens into adulthood.

Crooklyn is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

For many 1990s films depicting earlier decades, original promotional materials were not always widely preserved. This uploaded trailer offers a glimpse into how it was marketed at the time.