The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) is set in San Francisco in 1976. The big news story of the day referenced repeatedly in the film is the story of Patty Hearst.

On February 4th, 1974, nineteen year old Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a group of armed radicals intent on sparking a war against the U.S. government. They kidnapped Patty Hearst because she was a lily-white girl from a wealthy family and they knew the story would garner front-page national attention, and it did. The SLA abused and brainwashed Patty. They sought to turn Patty into the poster child for their revolution. On April 15th, 1974, wielding a machine gun, Patty helped the SLA rob a bank. The FBI found Patty on September 18, 1975. She was sentenced to seven years in prison, but only served two.

Patty Hearst is not mentioned in the novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl is based on. Writer/director Marielle Heller’s decision to include Patty Hearst’s story in the film is clearly purposeful. Each of the primary characters in the film comment on the Patty Hearst trial. When fifteen year old Minnie (Bel Powley) first comments on the Patty Hearst story, she says, “What kind of person falls in love with the people that kidnap them?” But Minnie falls in love with her mother’s boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård) after he initiates a sexual relationship with her. Perhaps Marielle Heller uses the story of Patty Hearst to parallel Patty’s kidnapping with Minnie’s sexual relationship with Monroe. I s Minnie a victim in the same way Patty Hearst was a victim? In the film, Minnie’s mother Charlotte (Kristen Wiig) talks about the Patty Hearst trial with Monroe. Charlotte says, “Kidnapped, raped; she’s a victim” to which Monroe responds in disagreement “I don’t know.” Monroe does not kidnap Minnie, but his sexual relationship and subsequent actions confuse and hurt fifteen year-old Minnie, who is unable to emotionally process Monroe’s actions.