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Teen Idle

As one should know, "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" by Alice Sola Kim is a story that revolves around the lives of three of adopted Korean girls - Caroline, Mini, and Ronnie. Each girl feels out of place, that they don't really belong in their adopted families. When they meet the Mom entity, they finally find a sense of belonging and ignore the fact that the Mom entity is really scary and possessive until it's too late. While "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" is a really good title, "Teen Idle" could also work as a title, in my opinion.

The proposed alternate title comes from Marina and the Diamonds song of the same name - you can listen to it here. The title itself is a play on "teen idol," referencing how there is this idealized version of being a teenager, as well as "teen idle"/"idle teen" where a teen is just letting their life play out, not doing much. The song title is obviously fitting for the song, as the song is about one's teenage years and how there's just a lot of emotions during that time period, especially frustration, desperation, and sadness. I think the song encapsulates "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters"'s aspect of the girls' frustrations with their situations. Caroline has to live up to her parents' expectations, Mini's dealing with her parents' divorce, and Ronnie has romantic feelings for her adopted brother. Caroline and Mini are angry at their parents, and Ronnie simply has a turbulence of emotions (fear, confusion, self-hatred, etc.) from her feelings for her adopted brother. In other words, the girls are going some personal rough times before they met Mom and the song captures their feelings about their situations.

There's also a want for something more that's presented in the song. If you search up the lyrics, the song is essentially a list of things the singer wants to be, to do, and to have. The girls of "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters" have that same desperate want - all three of them just want to belong somewhere, to feel loved and cared for, to be paid attention to. The song isn't quite a perfect match, as the singer is already out of their teenage years and cannot achieve those things, and the girls meet the Mom entity who does give them what they want, but the song still showcases that desire Caroline, Mini, and Ronnie have for something more.

I also think the aesthetic of the song fits the aesthetic of the story - a juxtaposition of dark themes with a sense of "being okay"/peppiness - and I would love to talk about that, but I think it's hard to put into words exactly how the aesthetics of the song and the story line up, especially since aesthetic is more of a sensory thing that can't really be put into words, in my opinion.

Because the song fits well with the three girls' feelings about their situations before they met Mom, the general aesthetic of the story, and the fact that it's quite shorter of a title, I propose "Teen Idle" as an alternate title for "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying."

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