Unicorn Store

Unicorn Store premiered just over four years ago on Netflix and is a passion project of actress and all around incredible individual, Brie Larson. Stepping out of her superhero boots to give us someone on her own hero's journey, in a less superhuman way.

Brie herself takes on the lead role of Kit, and Kit is kind of just flowing through life. She's not really quite sure HOW to adult, she merely knows her age and societal pressure dictate that she must live a more nine to five, colorless & structured life. Kit however, isn't quite like everyone else. She just wants to make art that doesn't fit into boxes, and honestly live in her own version of a rainbow. She's not trying to be like everyone else, she's just trying. Trying to stay afloat, trying to get a job and keep it, trying to keep her parents off her back and trying to make them proud in the process. She's just been kicked out of art school, and had no plan aside from art. She's forced to move back in with her parents, who run an outreach program for troubled teens. Kit comes off almost neurodivergent, she could be ADHD or even autistic, trying to navigate a world where she's wired a little differently. Kit shines in a dull world, but very few can see that shine. She herself sees something magical that no one else quite understands or can see for themselves, a unicorn store. A unicorn store where she is promised her very own unicorn if she can follow a handful of rules properly. She's been struggling with rules but also following her own throughout her life, it can't be that hard can it? Kit does have her struggles with following authority at times, something that many neurodivergent people can relate to.

This neurodivergent relatability is what has helped make this movie, character and performance continue to stand out for me. I myself am autistic, constantly trying to process what that means as an adult. Many people are aware of autistic children but don't realize that we grow up and become autistic adults, trying to navigate a very ableist world. Kit manages to land an office job through a temp agency, forces herself to enjoy black coffee, kale and small talk. She tries to fill her role in stereotypical society, but it only drains her light. She's also incredibly distracted by her dream of owning and caring for a unicorn, after all. However, the unicorn care becomes the forefront of her life, and she's struggling to keep up in work and in her home life. She's also forming a friendship with the hardware store employee who is helping her make the perfect unicorn shelter, even if Virgil isn't quite sure what exactly Kit is really up to. He's curious but also has an underlying trust in Kit, something she hasn't exactly felt before.

Kit's journey to balance her younger self and her adult responsibilities is something I can heavily relate to. Being autistic, I tend to act and appear younger than my peers, and my interests can often seem childish as well. I love bright colors, amusement parts, stuffed animals and I still love to swing on the swings at the park. I see a brighter, broader picture and hear things so much louder than others. I often feel like "normal" life is so dulled down and mundane compared to when I let myself be unapologetically autistic. I'm trying to navigate a world of responsibility with no map, there's not many characters I can fully relate to because I'm neurpdivergent. Even if Brie Larson & writer Samantha McIntyre never intended to make Kit a role model for those of use who are a bit neurospicy, they exceeded. My best friend and I are both autistic, I've been diagnosed since youth, but Elanor has only recently found out that she is as well. Since Unicorn Store premiered, she too found solace in the character of Kit. Six years later, we will randomly chat about Unicorn Store and how much the film still means to us. We live across the country from one another now, but we've always got a shared love of Unicorn Store, and yet each have our own relationship with it as well. Elanor is a wonderful, whimsical artist, so it only felt right for her to doodle one of her little characters for me to tattoo. A symbol of how special the film is to both of us.

The writing in my tattoo signifies a time in my late teens when I knew I had to start growing up. It's the handwriting of one of my closest school friends, who went missing in high school. I'm lucky enough to have journals with her writing in it, and when her body was found almost a year after she went misssing, it was all I had left of her. Losing her was one of those definining moments where no matter what color I painted the world, I couldn't change the hurt that sometimes comes with life, with living, with reality. It knocked the glitter from my skin and began my journey to find and tame my own unicorn in a world losing it's magic. With every invitation to the Unicorn store, with every interaction with the Salesman, Kit also grows in her life in other ways. She starts tipping the scales, trying to find the balance as she feels more confident in life but also as a unicorn caretaker, the right sort of girl as the Salesman states. She works through her requirements both as an stereotypical 9 to 5 career adult, and for her unicorn to have a worthy home.

Now, I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, so I'll talk about what I took from the ending myself. Sometimes we get a chance at magic, an opportunity to change our whole perspective just by adding a little color and chaos where there wasn't before. These moments aren't forever though, and when we've learned and grown we've got to pass it along. That's how fairytales have kept going, generation after generation, by sharing the magic when someone else needs that moment of hope and inspiration. Perhaps they need to find a way to balance their own magic but also their responsibilities. I myself have held on to a lot of things in my childhood because they felt like pure magic than, a solace in a scary time. Sometimes we've got to let go of some things in order to free our hands to climb higher. I share Unicorn Store with just about everyone I meet, as my own way to share the magic. It helps me open up and let people in, just as Kit is learning to do. There are people can and will love you for who you are. This film is my reminder to everyone that you can still believe in unicorns and pay taxes at the same time.

Someday I will get to meet Brie Larson, my own unicorn of sorts, and tell her I’m okay now.

Unicorn Store also stars THE Samuel L Jackson, Mamoudou Athie, Joan Cusack, Bradley Whitford, Hamish Linklater, Annaleigh Ashford & Karan Soni. It is currently streaming on Netflix.