What’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s, favorite Girl Scout cookie?
“Isn’t everyone’s Thin Mints?” Meghan says over Zoom, her eyes glimmering conspiratorially as she adds: “I prefer them crumbled on top of vanilla ice cream.”
Indeed, Thin Mints are regularly among the top-selling flavors of the $800 million worth of cookies that Girl Scouts across America sell annually, followed by Samoas and Tagalongs. Director Alysa Nahmias chronicled the six-week selling spree for the documentary “Cookie Queens,” of which Meghan, a former scout, is an executive producer.
“You know what the sleeper hit was?” Nahmias chimes in from the other corner of the screen. “The Lemonade are amazing. It’s an iced lemon cookie, and it’s a really large cookie. You get your money’s worth with that one.”
Money, or rather, economics, is a key theme of “Cookie Queens,” which follows four Girl Scouts between ages 5 and 12 as they work to sell as many cookies as possible in that window. One seller, Olive, a 12-year-old from North Carolina, once moved more than 8,000 boxes in a season. Meanwhile, Ara, a 5-year-old from San Diego, has a more modest goal of 55 boxes. Eight-year-old Shannon Elizabeth of El Paso, TX hopes to sell enough boxes to go to cookie camp — an expense that would otherwise be out of her family’s reach. Nikki, a 9-year-old from Chino, CA is following in her older sisters’ footsteps to be named the “cookie queen,” a colloquial term for the top seller in the area, that season.
To craft the 91-minute observational documentary, Nahmias’ crew crisscrossed the country to shoot some 300 hours of footage of the girls and their families as they canvassed their local neighborhoods to make sales.
“What’s so fantastic about the experience of being a Girl Scout — and my mom was my troop leader as well — is I don’t think you understand just how impactful all of those tools that you’re learning are going to carry through in your life later on outside of the community building,” Meghan says.
“What I love about what Alysa did in bringing this film to life is it gives such an objective point of view about girlhood, humanity, but also how they’re leveraging technology, how they’re learning micro-finance, financial independence,” she explains. “All of these elements that are baked in — dare I say — to the tradition of the Girl Scouts’ cookie season.”
Meghan and Nahmias chatted with Variety ahead of the documentary’s Sundance premiere on Sunday, where the film’s young stars joined them on the red carpet with Prince Harry.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Alysa Nahmias and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex pose with the cast and crew at the “Cookie Queens” premiere in Park City, Utah.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Your subjects were able to join you for the premiere. Was this the first time they’d seen the film?
Alysa Nahmias: They’ve seen it and they’re very pleased. One of the wonderful things about having them see it was that they got to see each other’s stories and see themselves reflected in each other, which is such a big part of the experience of watching “Cookie Queens.” People can see themselves reflected in each other and remind ourselves that we do have at least as much in common as we have that makes us different.
That’s something that young people understand, oftentimes so innocently and so powerfully that we somehow sometimes forget, but it’s expressed in the ways that these kids share themselves with the world. I’m really very grateful and honored to be entrusted with that and to have such a marvelous team that understands the responsibility and the honor that that is as storytellers. I hope that people will watch this with multi-generational audiences, where you can tell your mom, your grandma and your kids and watch it together.
Alysa, you’ve said “Cookie Queens” is your most personal project yet. How did you get the idea to make this documentary?
Nahmias: I had just made a film, “Art & Krimes by Krimes,” which was a look at art and artists who make work while incarcerated and the community that they built when they came home, and a film called “Wildcat,” that I produced about mental health and conversation. One night at dinner, my kids, who were 8 and 11 at the time, said, “Mom, can you make a film that we really want to watch and share with our friends?” So, I had that in my heart as an intention for a next project.
I ended up talking with my friends, producers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, and Michael brought up that he had been sold an ungodly amount of cookies from a Girl Scout who told him her goals were off the charts. I said, “If you guys want to make that movie, I’m 100% in. I can relate to that girl. I feel like there’s a whole world of girlhood and capitalism and the ways that girls are engaging with the economy at young ages, learning what their value is, and building their identity.” That was a way in that could also become this wonderful, vivid world of primary colors and plucky kids and eccentric customers, and be very observational and immersive. The vision was instantaneous.
How did you get the idea to reach out to Meghan to join the project as an executive producer?
Nahmias: We looked at who in the world has been a Girl Scout — women we admire, who are doing interesting things and that we respect. Meghan was on that short list early. When we first got to show her footage, the connection was really clear and meaningful. She got that this is about Girl Scout cookies, and it’s about so much more. An observational documentary is not something that everyone is willing to take a risk on — you don’t know how it’s going to end — and I really appreciated that.
Meghan: We first saw that footage almost two years ago, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And in really wanting to support independent filmmakers through Archewell Productions, it felt like something where I knew where the hook was. So, as it started to expand and grow, I could see Alysa’s vision really coming to life. I just thought, “Oh my gosh, it would be such a privilege to uplift and support this, so that people, even if they aren’t Girl Scouts and don’t understand the tradition, can have this glimpse into the families and what adolescence looks like for young girls in this day and age.” I just find the messaging that she’s put together to be incredibly inspiring and brave, because it could just be cookie cutter and sweet, and it’s not. It goes a lot deeper than that and that nuance makes it incredibly special.
Nahmias: One of the first scenes we showed you was of [5-year-old] Ara selling cookies at the waterfront.
Meghan: Yes, just the tutorial of what was happening – that you could use Venmo [to pay for cookies]. Obviously, we didn’t have that as young girls. It was such an interesting glimpse. The character-driven storytelling is what makes this film so meaningful.
“Cookie Queens”
I didn’t realize how much money these cookie sales produce each year. Alysa, how did you go about finding your subjects?
Nahmias: The numbers are staggering. They outsell Chips Ahoy and Oreo.
There’s 50 million Girl Scouts alive and 20 million current participants or so. I wanted to find girls and families who had both interesting sales goals and prizes that they were looking to go for, and also different motivations, different backgrounds, different geographical contexts and communities. I always knew from the beginning that it would be an ensemble. I worked with a casting producers and we got a lot of interest from the Girl Scout community. We got hundreds of inquiries; I did a lot of Zoom interviews, and when I narrowed it down, I went and spent time getting to know these families without filming. I wanted to know that they understood what it meant to participate and that it would be done with a lot of conscious desire to collaborate, that these kids were going to be willing to take risks, and that we’d be able to see them go through changes and make choices while filming.
With two of the subjects being from California, Meghan, did watching them make you nostalgic?
Meghan: Yes, without question. Especially now, as a mother of a daughter, there’s a very different lens that you’re witnessing it through. And, of course, being reminiscent of my own experience of having been a Girl Scout and in California. But I love how varied and diverse the casting is. I love that you see some of these families and what they’re sacrificing to give their daughters these opportunities. And, on the flip side, some daughters were pushing themselves more than their parents would ever push them, and how that’s ingrained so early on.
What was your go to method for getting that sale? Did you have a good strategy?
Meghan: In many ways, the cookies can sell themselves, because they’re so good. But back then wasn’t the same. There was no social media to try to sell cookies. So, it was just smiling and being kind and knowing that you had entrepreneurial goals. I think targets and goals and learning metrics like that at a young age are really helpful for young girls who are oftentimes scared to talk about finance, math and economics in that way. The empowerment that happens early on is really key.
Nahmias: One of the things that we saw on camera is that it’s about the sales, but it’s also about the interactions they’re having with the adult world and the economy and the things that are said to them, and how they navigate people’s perceptions of them. [Or] how you deal with failure or rejection.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, introduces the premiere screening of “Cookie Queens” at Eccles Center Theater in Park City, Utah.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
This is the next Archewell Productions following your Netflix series “With Love, Meghan.” How does this documentary fit into the vision you have for the company moving forward?
Meghan: It’s been key to focus on stories that resonate with people; things that are not necessarily the most topical and end up becoming something that is more topical. It’s not dissimilar to saying “Hide the vegetables.” When you see this film, you might not know what you’re going in to find, but, ultimately, you come out of it with so much more to talk about, to dissect and to really better understand each other. Everything, for us, is intertwined with community. So, when I saw the first few cuts of what Alyssa put together, I knew that really hit the nail on the head. This is such a prime example of the direction and the types of projects we want to support on the nonfiction side.
What did you learn from producing that series in terms of audiences’ appetite for lifestyle programming?
Meghan: “Suits” was seven years for me, and then doing “With Love, Meghan” was 17 episodes of television in a year, with pre- and post-production. It is such an undertaking, and it makes me have even more respect for creatives who are throwing themselves into this every single day. From my standpoint, it’s an industry that I grew up in and that I know really well. And at the same time, it is such an exciting opportunity as an adult to find something that piques curiosity at every turn, and to continue to remind each other how we can be creative, how we can work as a team, how dedicated a crew is, building trust with the subjects of the film and their families. It’s multifaceted, but I’m just excited to continue to explore and play and have fun.
Speaking of fun, you just returned to acting with a cameo in the Amazon movie, “Close Personal Friends,” with Lily Collins and Brie Larson. How much fun was that?
Meghan: It was great! It was a lot of fun. But that’s just the point, right? We continue to explore different ways to uplift and celebrate the entertainment industry and all the incredible pieces of work that are out there that people work so hard on — “Cookie Queens” being one of them. This is such an important piece of cinema to be able to share with people and I just know people are going to love it the same way you and I do.
