Juno Notes

The fact that 'Juno' is female fronted coming of age film is significant because there are very few coming of age films that include a female protagonist. Juno is a strong independent character, just like the female characters in coming of age films such as 'Perks Of Being A Wallflower' and 'Submarine'. 'Juno' is about a high school girl which links to conventions of a coming of age film, as they're stereotypically about high school students, the story "takes a turn for the edgy" when Juno becomes pregnant after having sex with her best friend, Bleeker. Coming Of Age films like 'Juno' don't try to attract massive audiences and made a profit from their films so they're able to look at more controversial films that wouldn't appeal to a wide audience, this is shown through 'Juno' which deals with teen pregnancy and adoption, 'Perks Of Being A Wallflower' which deals with sexual abuse, 'Submarine' which deals with divorce and infidelity, 'Its Kind Of A Funny Story' which tackles mental illness and upcoming film 'The Fault In Our Stars' which is about cancer patients.
The director of 'Juno' is Jason Reitman, which was the director's second feature, however, at the time of 'Juno' his first film 'Thank You For Smoking' had not yet been released so he was a bit of a wildcard, however it links to the genre of unknown directors. A lot of coming of age films are based on books, such as 'Perks Of Being A Wallflower' so the writer of the book is the director of the film. 'Submarine' was directed by Richard Ayoade, who was known as an actor but it was his first time as a director.
Independent films don't have the budget for big Hollywood filmstars so usually draw on television actors who will be recognisable for a mainstream audience, such as Michael Cera who plays Bleeker in this film, who was popular at the time of release due to 'Superbad' and so would add a teen appeal to 'Juno'.