Then & Now

Molly Ringwald, actor and writer

WHENEVER PEOPLE are having a “where are they now” discussion, inevitably someone will mention Molly Ringwald. The rest of the so-called Brat Pack might have fallen into a manhole, been abducted by aliens or re-emerged as a transsexual life coach, but all anyone wants to know is: “Whatever happened to that nice girl from Pretty in Pink?”

For an entire generation, Ringwald embodied the hopes and fears of teenagers as they teetered over the abyss of adulthood. She was the ultimate 1980s teen icon, starring in hit movies Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, all directed by the late, great John Hughes. She was the perpetual prom queen every girl wanted to be and every boy wanted to date. She acknowledges it herself in her recently set up Twitter account, announcing herself as “your former teenage crush”. Former? There are grown men (and women) out there still nursing that teenage crush.

Even before her teenage years, Molly was showing precocious talent, singing in her dad’s jazz band aged five and recording an album entitled I Wanna be Loved by You. When she made her movie debut in Sixteen Candles at 16, she was well on her way to becoming America’s sweetheart. Pretty in Pink solidified her status, but it also condemned her to be forever associated with that girly colour. It’s something she’s had to live with – in a recent interview in the Observer, Ringwald, now 44, says: “I’ve kind of had enough pink in my life.”

She starred in a couple more Brat Pack films in the 1980s, but she never equalled the impact of her Hughes-directed hat-trick. She has popped up sporadically on television over the past 20 years; her most high-profile role is as the lesbian mom in The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

So what’s keeping Ringwald in the pink these days? She’s now a mother, with three small children, and she has just published her first work of fiction, When it Happens to You: A Novel in Stories. She has always had a passion for literature – her ex-husband and current husband are both writers. Ringwald’s first book, Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick, was a slightly whimsical look at turning 40, but her new book features darker tales of betrayal and deceit.

It’s a long way from Pretty in Pink – and that’s just where she wants to be.