10 TV Episodes That Broke All The Rules
7. Between A Rock And A Bra Place - Lizzie McGuire
Hilary Duff rose to fame as the part-animated teen idol, Lizzie McGuire. Alongside her family and friends, Lizzie would navigate the various issues that came with being an teenager, such as school, boys, and what it means to be a woman.
That last point played a huge part in the 2001 episode Between a Rock and a Bra Place. Lizzie and her friend Miranda notice that all the girls at school seem to change after they start wearing bras. Joined by overbearing mother Jo, the two teens go to the mall to get their own.
The episode becomes more about Lizzie's relationship with her mum towards the end, but the fact that it began with two young women shopping for underwear is extremely important.
This sort of thing wasn't seen on TV at the time and it certainly wasn't seen from a female perspective. Female undergarments were almost always the stuff of ridicule or titillation, but here it was presented as a necessary and essential part of growing up as a girl.
Full of important life lessons, hopefully this episode of the show inspired a few conversations about between mothers and daughters in the real world.