My Girl

My Girl (1991) introduces Annette Chlumsky as Vada, a precocious 11-year-old girl who can't get any normal adult attention from her (widowed?) undertaker father (Dan Akroyd) or (senile?) grandmother. She refuses to play with girls her own age, preferring the company of boys or unrelated adults. In the opening act of the movie, she fakes being sick (see hypochondriac and teases some little boys of her acquaintance by pretending her grandmother is a not-quite-dead corpse. She gets more attention from her father's assistant.

Shelley, a divorced makeup artist who wears short dresses, starts working for her father and takes an interest in Vada. Invited to Shelley's camper, Vada discovers a cookie jar full of money. In the next scene, she has enrolled in a creative writing class taught by the schoolteacher she has a crush on.