If the first Inside Out taught us that sadness was also important, Inside Out 2 comes to remind us of something harder to accept: growing up hurts. And not because it’s tragic, but because it involves losing versions of oneself, living with new emotions, and experiencing—for the first time—an emotional turmoil that can’t be explained with emojis.
Riley is now 13 years old. And what seems like a small leap in age is, from the perspective of developmental psychology, a hormonal, neurological, and social earthquake. Adolescence begins, and with it, a complete reconfiguration of the emotional brain. More complex emotions appear: Anxiety, Envy, Shame, and Ennui (that teenage boredom with a French accent that we didn’t know had a name). These are emotions that don’t replace Joy, Sadness, or Anger, but rather disorganize the entire system… because growing up is about reordering from chaos.
From Erik Erikson’s perspective, this stage of development is called the search for identity vs. role confusion. Riley is no longer just a happy girl who plays hockey. Now she’s starting to wonder who she is, who she wants to be, who her friends see as her, what people think, how to fit in without ceasing to be herself. It’s the beginning of the adolescent whirlwind, where the construction of the «self» is a puzzle that changes shape every day.
In this context, anxiety appears as the emotional protagonist. And it’s no coincidence. From neuroscience, we know that the amygdala (the fear center) becomes especially active in adolescence. Everything becomes more intense, more personal, more dangerous. What was once a mistake is now a social catastrophe. What was once a passing emotion is now an internal roller coaster. Anxiety, in the film, is not the villain. It’s an emotion that wants to help, that tries to anticipate dangers, but ends up overcontrolling everything. Exactly as it happens in real life.
Inside Out 2 also presents another fascinating change: the deconstruction of the «self.» In the first film, Joy showed us the Personality Islands. In this one, we discover the Sense of Self, which isn’t something solid but a crystal under construction, filled with internal beliefs that are activated by emotions. Riley is no longer defined only by what she does, but by what she believes about herself. «I’m a good friend,» «I’m a good player,» «I’m someone you can count on»… Until anxiety begins to question each one.
This connects directly to the concept of self-schemas: the beliefs we have about who we are. When these self-schemas are threatened (because we lose a game, because we fight with a friend, because we’re rejected), we feel our entire identity shaken. Riley experiences this crisis. And like many teenagers, she tries to fit in. She hides behind what she thinks others want to see. She distances herself from who she was. She «betrays» herself in order to belong.
But the film, with the emotional sweetness that only Pixar achieves, reminds us of something vital: we can’t build a healthy identity if we exclude our uncomfortable emotions. Joy realizes she can’t bury difficult emotions. Literally. She had pushed them to the back of her mind. But without them, Riley’s self becomes fragile, false, anxious.
The solution? Integrate. Let them all speak. Let sadness have a voice. Let shame emerge. Let anxiety not take control, but not be expelled either. Because forming a healthy identity means learning to live with all that we are. Not just the pretty things.
Inside Out 2 isn’t just a sequel. It’s an emotional lesson. It teaches us that growing up isn’t about ceasing to be who we were, but rather integrating new versions of ourselves, embracing new emotions, and understanding that the self isn’t defined by control, but by connection.
And yes: sometimes, to grow, you first have to fall apart a little inside.
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