When she was 9 years old, Desiree Akhavan, dressed up in a mini-backpack and short skirt to do her "best impression of a normal teenage girl." It was all part of an audition to join an elementary school role-playing game modeled after the popular movie Clueless. Soon after the performance, classmates from the New York City elite private school she attended with her older brother sent her a form rejection letter that read simply, "Unfortunately, we will not be able to admit you into the Clueless recess game." Uncomfortable memories like these inspired some of the most cringeworthy moments in Akhavan's debut feature-length film Appropriate Behavior, which she wrote, directed, and stars in. There is a scene that is both funny and eyes-closed embarrassing where her character, Shirin, attempts to get back into her ex-girlfriend's food co-op by seducing the female shift manager. Both writer and character share the same philosophy on making bold moves: "You really have to own it. Whatever you do." So, when she decided to write a movie about how the bisexual youngest child of Iranian immigrants deals with the dissolution of her half-secret relationship, her main goal was to do just that: Own it.

It was important for Akhavan to create a character who could show the litany of transgressions one makes against oneself and others in the process of being human. Shirin is both depressed over splitting up with Maxine [Rebecca Henderson], her sardonic ex, and emboldened to explore how far she can take this self-destructive thing. She manages to be in both places at once, falling in and out of bisexual stereotypes (threesomes, indecisiveness, etc.), and yet never seems put upon. This is, of course, a credit to Akhavan, who identifies as bisexual, as a writer and director, who said this wasn't strategic. "I never think, How complex is this person going to be? Maybe moving forward, if I get to continue this work, I should be thinking that way, but not with this project. We knew what her struggle was and how we wanted to depict her falling down the rabbit hole of it."

It was also never Akhavan's intention to avoid stereotypes, and she doesn't shy away from them. In one scene, in the midst of an argument, Maxine coldly tells Shirin, "I know you and the more I think about this, it was probably just a phase. What a waste." Later, after the couple breaks up, both women end up at the same bar with new love interests; Shirin is with a man, and Maxine is with another woman. Even though both attempt to use their dates to make the other jealous, in the wake of Maxine's acidic comment, Shirin being with a man seems especially satisfying for Maxine. For Shirin, her new lover is just another bad decision in a string of the ones she's made in the midst of heartbreak. Still, for Akhavan it was important that we see the character struggle with that moment. "In life you make choices, and you follow your instincts, and it's you, but it's not you. You have this almost out-of-body experience knowing I am making all the wrong choices in this moment, and yet, I feel compelled to do so. It's absurd to to look at that and think, there are so few depictions of bisexuals, so I don't want to make her look bad."