MOVIE OF THE WEEK August 7, 2026: COOKIE QUEENS

Does the sight of a girl in a brown sash (or blue or green vest) immediately make you crave Thin Mints? If so, you’re definitely not alone. But chances are you haven’t spent too much time thinking about how those cookies got into the girl’s hands — or just how many boxes of them she has to sell if she wants to go to camp next summer. Alysa Nahmias aims to change that with her engaging documentary Cookie Queens.

It’s been more than 100 years since Girl Scouts first started selling cookies in the United States and almost 90 since the model that’s still used today — licensing commercial bakeries to produce the cookies, which the scouts then sell — got rolling. Throughout the program’s history, the scouts have always emphasized the leadership and entrepreneurship skills that girls learn from participating: goal setting, customer relations, money management, marketing, and more. Which is great, but it’s also about leaning on cute kids to sell truckloads of cookies for $5-$7 per box to fund a large national nonprofit organization, leaving the troops with about a buck per box.

Cookie Queens introduces viewers to several of those cute kids during the six-week 2024 cookie-selling season, ranging from super seller Olive, age 12, whose annual goals run into the thousands, to 5-year-old Ara, whose stretch goal is 60 boxes. All of the affectionately profiled scouts are supported in their sales efforts by family members (a required aspect of participating in the program, since caregivers are ultimately financially responsible for the inventory their scouts agree to sell), but some parents get pretty “stage mom” about it all (Olive’s mom claims not to care whether her daughter sells cookies or not but also suggests that she could probably get to 8,000 boxes…) and others are left terrified about how they’re going to pay for the stacks of cases dominating their living rooms.

Luckily (spoiler alert?), none of the scouts that Nahmias profiles fails to hit her goal for the season. And the cameras capture delightful moments more often than disappointing ones — Ara’s determination to supply a diabetic customer with special, sugar-free cookies is about as sweet as it gets — but it’s hard not to come away from Cookie Queens a little bit frustrated by how the whole process works. No tween should be left feeling like her troop’s ability to pay for activities rests entirely on her vest-clad shoulders, no matter how good she is at sales pitch videos. And no teen should think that her ability to sell is shot now that she’s no longer a cute little kid. Guaranteed that those aren’t the business lessons Girl Scouts USA wants scouts to take away from slinging cookies — but they’re definitely the kind that can linger. — Betsy Bozdech

Team #MOTW’s comments:

Nell Minow: It’s rare to find a movie that is both adorable and insightful, but Cookie Queens is an all-star delight that gives us four irrresistible heroines, their wonderful parents, and a thoughtful look at issues from finding a balance between empowerment and exploitation to issues of race, class, and disability. As a former Girl Scout who sold cookies and mother of a former Brownie who sold cookies, this made me laugh and brought me to tears. It’s a great film!

Loren King This charming film has surprising texture and grit. It’s anchored by four young Girl Scouts, ranging in age from 5 to 12, each with her own delightful personality. Director Alysa Nahmias’s film is strictly observational, yet what emerges is a nuanced look at the longstanding fundraising tradition of selling girl scout cookies through these four well-chosen subjects and their families. As each pursues the hard-selling of cookies over the six-week timeframe to win prizes and gain personal satisfaction, Cookie Queens subtly presents an inherent contradiction. On the one hand, the girls’ excitement, drive and ambition is genuine and admirable; one the other, the pressure to sell, and the need for family to pitch in even if they don’t have the time or the means, is problematic. Read full review

Leslie Combemale For anyone who wonders about girls and girl power, Cookie Queens affirms how driven girls of any age can be. It’s hard not to judge how much pressure these pre-teens are being put under by both themselves (good?) and the Girl Scout “MACHINE” (uhh, maybe not so good?). Of the 800 million dollars of yearly sales, generally only one dollar goes to girl scout programs. That becomes an issue to more than one of the salesgirls profiled. In fact, filmmaker Alysa Nahmias shows that one of the four Scouts we get to know has made over $200,000 for the organization. Gratefully, preteen entrepreneur Olive is, herself, aware of the imbalance. What makes Cookie Queens so entertaining is the four girls, who live very different lives but all have very engaged and committed parents as well as their own gumption. I can’t say I appreciate that the film is making me, a celiac who can’t eat most cookies, more willing to buy some next time a uniformed moppet approaches me. That’s the price I have to pay to see girls like these reaching for their goals, however dubious they may be.