When I was a teenager, there were moments when I behaved like a princess or a criminal. (An athlete? Never.) But most of the time, I fell somewhere between "brain" and "basket case."

I'd say that's still true today.

Twenty-five years ago, The Breakfast Club was released in theaters. It impacted a generation -- maybe more, because I didn't see it until a few years later -- and was one of the first films that treated teens like adults instead of simple-minded, super-pretty hormone machines. Although John Hughes had earned young fans' trust a year earlier with Sixteen Candles, this is the movie that began to turn him into a pop-culture icon.

In terms of films I quote on a regular basis, Breakfast Club is right up there with Lebowski and Star Wars. ("Answer the question, Claire!" "Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns!" "It was a banner f---ing year at the Bender household ...") I've seen it a hundred times, and yet if I stumble upon it on cable, I'll stop and watch again -- all the way until Bender thrusts his fist into the air.

I don't even want to say it, but today, I have this feeling teens don't feel the same way about The Breakfast Club as I did. Claire's lipstick scene probably seems crazy-tame in 2010. I was reading some YouTube comments about the dancing sequence, and some viewers were honestly confused about "how Molly Ringwald could dance like that" ... because the dancing looks so antiquated and strange now. Yikes.

But no matter how many years pass, I can't imagine going a week without quoting Brian or Principal Vernon or one of the gang. I can't picture seeing Cap'n Crunch or Pixie Stix and not thinking of Ally Sheedy, or hearing that whistling song from Bridge on the River Kwai without imagining our misfit friends in detention.

One of the last things we hear in The Breakfast Club is Simple Minds singing Don't You Forget About Me over the credits. Twenty-five years later, I haven't forgotten the movie -- and I'm pretty sure I never will.

What are your favorite moments from The Breakfast Club? Feel free to share in the comments.