Gilmore, Growth, and Greatness

Exploring How Gilmore Girls Mirrors the Honors Student Experience

by Ellen Tews

With plummeting temperatures, people find warmth in all sorts of ways: homemade meals, classic literature, or a rewatch of a comfort show, such as “Gilmore Girls.”

The early 2000s American comedy-drama follows a mother-daughter focused plotline of Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter, Rory Gilmore.

Rory is a bright, book-loving aspiring journalist who retains her academic ambitions despite having limited resources. Rory and Lorelai’s hometown, Stars Hollow, cultivates an assorted support group for these girls as they learn the never-ending lessons of life.

“Gilmore Girls” is the definition of a comfort show with its humor, character development, and overall aesthetics. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has its highest streams from the beginning of September through the rest of the year on Netflix. With these consistent yearly streams, the show celebrated its 25^th anniversary on October 5, 2025. 

Rory flies through Stars Hollow High School with ease and works her way to Chilton, a prestigious private school, where she undergoes a lot of changes, socially and academically. She’s met with higher stakes and in-turn, more complex competition. 

Rory begins to feel growing internal pressure as her coursework demands more and more from her. As for her competition, Paris, an aggressively motivated student, designates herself as Rory’s rival. As Rory navigates Chilton, her growth is portrayed in a way that mirrors the universal experience of adapting to new environments and challenges.

College students consistently find themselves in a new environment as they take different classes with different people every semester, and just like Rory, they have to adapt to these changes. More specifically, students in honors share Rory’s academic ambition and curiosity for knowledge. 

Alyssa Gonnerman, a third-year honors student, also finds similarities to Rory through the pressure she faces. “Seeing her burnout at Yale was a reminder to not let school or ambition become your whole identity. It reminds me to aim high but also give myself grace when things don’t go as planned,” Gonnerman said. 

Gonnerman believes that the title of “honors” fosters recognition, but it certainly doesn’t come without its struggles. She emphasizes the importance of finding a life outside of those struggles, something to fall back on when times get overwhelming, “The show really gets across the importance of balance for not only schoolwork and extracurriculars but also relationships and mental health,” she said.

Gonnerman admires Rory for her ability to devote time to her academic lifestyle at Chilton and Yale while still maintaining her social relationships with the residents of Stars Hollow. 

Honors Program Associate Director Emily Hill is an avid fan of the show. First watching it as a way to spend time with her mother and sister, Hill connected with the show as she is only a year younger than the actor who plays Rory, Alexis Bledel. 

Hill could relate to Rory as they went through common high school and college milestones around the same time. As well as parallel ages, Hill connected through interests as well, “Seeing a smart girl on television too was just really nice, I was definitely more in the ‘smart girl nerdy’ category in high school, and at least at the time, that wasn't something that you saw very much,” she said.

She elaborated how Rory’s character may be applicable to honor students at Iowa, “In high school and college Rory just had this natural curiosity about her. To me, an ideal honors student expresses their multi-faceted interests and are hopefully lifelong learners,” she said.

With this curiosity and ambition comes an intense amount of pressure that becomes consistent over time. Hill teaches an honors course, Honors Students and Wellness, in which she works with students focusing on challenges like perfectionism, burnout, imposter syndrome, and other lifestyle habits. 

With this unique perspective, Hill noted that Rory is a perfectionist and was extremely hard on herself even though she had a forgiving support group in Stars Hollow. Rory’s friend Paris, by contrast, poured all her intensity into academics, largely driven by parents who left no space for softness or error. Rory managed to balance ambition with community, something Paris didn’t have the chance to learn.

Hill connected this back to getting involved on campus. She sees a lot of honors students that focus solely on their studies and leave little time for building a local support group they can fall back on, which Gonnerman had also mentioned.

In season four, Rory becomes a first generation student at Yale. According to Hill, the pressure of overall success and to get it right the first time is naturally felt by both first generation and honors students. 

“I often hear students say, ‘Okay, I should be able to pull myself up by my bootstraps, or I should be able to handle this.’ But sometimes it's okay to lean on somebody and maybe get some advice on how to cope with these pressures,” Hill said.

While “Gilmore Girls” is a witty and comedic show, it depicts larger issues that can be felt by viewers of varying demographics. Almost everyone has felt the same pressures Rory and Lorelai face as their lives complicate. Through these connections, the show provides messages on issues that viewers may not be aware of in their own lives.