So technically Ellen Page's Juno isn't actually a mother until the last few minutes of Jason Reitman's film, but since she spends the rest of her screentime in various stages of teen pregnancy we can probably let that slide. The youngest (and snarkiest) mum on this list, it's a refreshing joy to witness a mother character that's simultaneously irreverent and (on the surface at least) at peace with her situation, much of which is obviously due to screenwriter Diablo Cody's infectiously quirky yet heartfelt script. In Juno there's a character who doesn't yet know what she wants but knows that any decision she makes about her foetus has to be hers, and Juno's autonomy and lack of reliance on anyone to take over her life for her holds a strong message for anyone who watches the film: no matter how badly you screw up your life, you can still have one and make the most of a bad situation. And make the most Juno does in giving her baby to the other central mother in the film, Jennifer Garner's eager yuppie Vanessa, who is another positive example of not letting negative events get the better of her and is just as capable of taking care of a child on her own as she was when Jason Bateman's Mark didn't have cold feet about the whole thing.
