Watch Harriet the Spy

Based on a popular children's book, Harriet the Spy relates the story of the title character, the wealthy eleven-year-old Harriet M. Welsch. Harriet is curious about the world and wants to be a writer, so she investigates and keeps a constant record of her life and the people in it. The observations Harriet writes in her notebook are honest and sometimes cruel, and she keeps it a secret from those she cares about. The only person who knows the extent of her investigations is her beloved nanny, Golly. Golly encourages Harriet to explore new things and be a free spirit. Content with her life and her friends, Harriet's adventures continue until Golly is forced to leave her. After Golly is fired and then rehired by Harriet's mother, she refuses to return to the job since Harriet is getting too old for a nanny. Once Golly is gone, Harriet's spirits and adventures take a downward spiral. Already reeling from the loss of Golly, Harriet suffers another when her friends turn against her after her enemy reads finds her notebook and reveals some of the terrible observations she's made about her classmates. The students band together to bully her. Her parents finally learn of her secret investigations after a police officer catches her, and they forbid her from "spying" and writing in her notebook. As the bullying worsens, Harriet retaliates against the other students and is sent to a therapist by her parents. The therapist helps Harriet through her problems and proves to her parents that Harriet is normal. Harriet takes interest in school again and tries to make up with her friends. Her schoolmates make her an editor on a school paper, and she uses that as a platform to apologize to everyone and finally make amends with the knowledge that there is more to the world and people around her than what she writes down in her notebooks.