manic pixie dream girl

Meanings

1. A stock female character, typically characterized as a bubbly, quirky free spirit, whose main purpose within a narrative is to teach a young male protagonist to embrace the mysteries and adventures of life.

Etymology

Coined by the American film and music critic Nathan Rabin (born 1976) in a 2007 review of Elizabethtown (2005) to describe the character Claire Colburn played by Kirsten Dunst: see the quotation.