Fifteen years ago, we were introduced to a new kind of woman. She listened to The Smiths on her big over-ear headphones. She wore vintage clothes exclusively. She was always having fun, even when it wasn’t really appropriate. She was so quirky. She had a fringe. And perhaps most crucially of all, she just wasn’t like the other girls.

I am talking, of course, about Zooey Deschanel’s titular character in (500) Days of Summer. Summer arguably marked the pinnacle of the manic pixie dream girl era. With her cutesy style, her eccentric tastes and her rejection of the established feminine norms (or at least some of them), she was, at first glance, someone we all wanted either to be or date – a dream girl.

The manic pixie dream girl was a seismic era of pop culture, but it died out in just a few short years – only 15 years have passed since the world fell in love with Summer, but it feels like a lifetime. So much has changed about how women see themselves and want to see their romances portrayed on screen. Let’s journey back to July 2009 to remind ourselves how and why it all happened.

(500) Days Of Summer at 15: a reflection on the rise and fall of the manic pixie dream girl