Miriam “Mir” Wexler Mendelsohn is one of the three deuteragonists (alongside Abby Park and Priya Mangal) of the Disney-Pixar movie, Turning Red. She is one of Mei’s best friends.

Appearance

Miriam is a tall and slim 13-year-old Jewish-Canadian girl with curly ginger hair tied in two braids and green eyes. She wears pearl earrings and a green tuque. She also has braces and freckles. Miriam wears a plaid green shirt with a black choker. Her light green t-shirt reads “SK8R” in light orange. Her pants are green, and she wears dark magenta slip-on shoes that have a checkered pattern on the side. Plus, a friendship bracelet on her left arm, and a green bracelet on her right.

Miriam’s gym clothes consist of a white t-shirt that has dark green lines on the collar and sleeves and a “Lester B. Pearson Phys Ed” logo on the top right of her shirt. She also wears green and white shorts.

During the 4★Town concert, Miriam wears a white t-shirt that reads “4★Town” in orange and blue with orange and blue stars and markers-made tattoo with hearts, stars and saying “4 EVA”, “4 Townie” and “4” on her cheeks, hands and t-shirt.

Personality

Miriam is a fun loving and caring girl who looks out and supports her friends. She is easygoing, loyal, a bit of a tomboy, and can make people laugh when they need it most. She is also very nurturing and kind, especially towards Mei, whose life has been turned upside down by her red panda powers. Miriam always lets Mei know she is loved, no matter what she looks like.

Relationships

Mei

It is implied in the film that Miriam has a close relationship to Mei and is a close friend. She’s nurturing and caring towards Mei, letting her know that she’s loved and supported no matter what. Even when betrayed by Mei, Miriam keeps her friend’s Tamagotchi that she dropped and took care of it, singing it lullabies, according to Abby and Priya. When Miriam and the girls find out about Mei’s panda transformation, they sing Nobody Like U to her to calm her down. While they are at Tyler’s party on the rooftop, Miriam tells Mei not to get rid of the panda because she’s proud of her for being herself. When Mei betrays her friends after Ming wrongly accused them of letting her attack Tyler, Miriam was the most heartbroken when Mei betrayed her friends. But during the concert, Mei showed up and apologize to her friends for betraying them, but Miriam was still upset she threw them under the bus. This doesn’t take too long when Abby and Priya reveal to Mei that she had been taking care of her tamagotchi after she left it at Tyler’s. Both girls end up becoming friends again after saying “4*Town forever.”

Ming

Despite being friends with Mei, Ming shows to have a dislike towards Miriam because Ming thinks Miriam is a bad influence on her daughter Mei. When Mei mentions to some of the kids at her school likes 4★Town, Ming mentions Miriam and says that girl is odd and Mei shows a sad face in the background. After Mei tells her friends to leave because she doesn’t want Ming to see them, Mei mentions to Miriam that her mom doesn’t like her, to which Miriam is shocked and surprised by this. Later on, things start to go bad when the girls realize 4★Town will be coming on May 25th, which is the same night as the red moon ritual. Mei attacks Tyler after he insults her and once Ming arrives, Ming angrily walks over to Miriam, Priya, and Abby and the three are shocked when Ming accuses them of badly taking advantage of Mei and her panda. They deny all of this, but Ming cuts her off and glares at her one last time before taking Mei home to prepare for the ritual. In the end, it can be assumed that Ming did apologize to Mei’s friends after the whole panda fight between Mei and her mom.

Tyler

Like her friends, Miriam disliked Tyler because he made fun of Mei. However, at the end of the movie, Miriam and her friends become friends with Tyler at the 4★Town concert once they discover he is a 4*Townie just like them.

Trivia

• Her favorite 4★Town member is Aaron T., as she was shouting “OH MY GOSH!” when he was released from his cage at the concert. In Mei’s fantasy, she is seen sitting on Aaron T’s shoulders and can also be seen lifted by both Aaron T. and Aaron Z. At the end of the movie, she is seen posing next to Aaron T. in the group picture.
• Miriam’s last name is listed as Wexler in the lyric video for “Nobody Like U”.^[1] However, the Pixar website states her last name is Mendelsohn.
  • Her previous surname could be a reference to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
• Miriam is likely Jewish as her first name is of Hebrew origin, and her last name is a Polish/German Jewish surname.
• When Miriam, Priya and Abby see that Mei is sad about her panda form, they all sing 4★Town’s song Nobody Like You to her to make her feel better.
• In one of the deleted scenes, Miriam says her parents are divorced. However, it is unknown if Miriam’s parents are still divorced in the final product as it possibly could’ve been scrapped.
  • However, if divorced, she possibly lives with her dad, as in the film Mei tells Ming “Miriam’s dad is ordering us pizza!”
• When Mei and Ming were leaving to go to mathletes, Ming had mentioned that Miriam is a nice girl but she could slow Mei down.