However, before the election, Mitchell gives a speech to the students, claiming that he has been hounded by Moxie, and warns others that they can be next. Vivian even shows up with a bottle of champagne on the announcement day. The girls know that most students dislike Mitchell, and they are pretty much assured of their victory. The girls put forth Kiera (Sydney Park), the captain of the girl’s soccer team, as a nominee for the Student-Athlete Ambassador against Mitchell. Although no one finds out until the end of the film that she is the publisher, Moxie becomes a self-sustaining movement, bringing her close to other female students at her school, including Lucy. In the first issue, she goes after the most deserving and obvious target, Mitchell. Her initial doubts about how successful she will be are quickly erased when Moxie receives an overwhelmingly positive response.
Vivian started publishing Moxie to change this status quo and bring about a feminist revolution. Shelly’s constant attempts to suppress any voices of dissent have only emboldened their behavior. This has given these boys the idea that they will not face any repercussions, no matter what they do. Vivian correctly feels that the school’s policies are unfairly tilted in favor of male athletes like Mitchell. At first, she sets up the zine to unload her own disappointment at the system with which Shelly runs the school. Yes, by the end of the film, Vivian is revealed to be Moxie’s creator and publisher. Moxie Ending: Is Vivian Revealed as the Creator and Publisher of Moxie? However, Vivian’s relationship with Claudia begins to suffer, as both of them start to feel that they increasingly have fewer things in common with each other.
She also starts a relationship with Seth (Nico Hiraga), a proud ally and initially the only person to know the truth about Moxie. Likely for the first time in her school life, Vivian finds herself as part of a social circle comprised of Moxie admirers. Published anonymously, Moxie soon comes to represent the anger and frustration that female students feel toward a considerable portion of their male counterparts.
Inspired by her mother’s (Poehler) past as the 1990s’ punk rock Riot Grrrl, she sets up a feminist zine, calling it Moxie after the archaic word the school’s principal, Marlene Shelly (Marcia Gay Harden), loves using. This encounter forces Vivian to take a long hard look at herself and be honest about her own shortcomings. With all her good intention, she approaches Lucy to tell her to keep her head down and almost defends Mitchell’s reprehensible and predatory actions by calling them “annoying.” But Lucy is confident and assertive enough to reject the idea of being docile. When Vivian sees that the school’s football star Mitchell Wilson (Patrick Schwarzenegger) sexually harassing Lucy, Vivian genuinely feels uncomfortable. Their quiet school life plan is rattled by the arrival of the outspoken new girl, Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña).
The girls have been inseparable since they were children and are now planning to attend UC Berkeley together. Her best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai) seems to be cut from the same cloth (both were designated INTJ personality types on the Myers-Briggs test). An introvert, she wants to get through the rest of her time at Rockport High without drawing unnecessary attention towards herself. The film begins as Vivian starts attending the 11th grade.