Turning Red - I'm finally figuring out who I am

Mei is a Chinese girl living in Canada. Like most Chinese families, she has overbearing parents controlling her what to do. She is one of the top students in the class, because her parents have high expectation. It seems that Mei's academic results are the only thing that her parents care about. Other than studying, Mei share other interests with her best friends, in particular the obsession with the boy band, 4*Town.

Mei, Miriam, Priya and Abby are best friends, and their love for 4*Town brings them together. 4*Town isn't the only boys they talk about, but they also talk other boys in the neighborhood. There's a boy working in a convenience store. He doesn't look as good as any member in 4*Town, but he looks ok, which already makes Mei develop crush on him. As a young girl, she has all kinds of fantasy and she starts drawing fan fiction with him and her in it. The drawings are discovered by Mei's mom by accident. She is so mad at the boy for seducing her daughter, so she confronts with him. The conversation is overheard by Tyler, a bully at Mei's school. Then, the thing begins to become a chaos.

Mei wakes up as a giant red panda the very next day, which freaks her out. But she finds out that staying calm can revert the transformation, so she tries to be emotionless. However, she becomes emotional again when her mom comes to her school to check her in. Transformed to a giant red panda, Mei runs away.

Mei's mom explains to her that being able to transform to a giant red panda has been her family's magical gift for some time. Long ago, her ancestor, Sun Yee wants to protect her daughters, so she is granted the power of becoming a giant red panda to defend them. Since then, every girl in the family has the ability to turn into red panda, but they all have the power sealed with the ritual. To seal the spirit, she needs to undergo a ritual on the night of the Red Moon.

Mei thought that the red giant panda would scare her friends and classmates off, but it turns out they all love fluffy animal. Knowing that 4*Town is coming to town to have concert, Mei and her friends are dying to go. However, they don't have enough money to buy the tickets, so they think it might be profitable to exploit the giant red panda's popularity. To earn enough money, they start to produce and sell giant red panda's merch to the classmates. Realizing that they can't raise enough money before the concert, Mei agrees to be a guest of Tyler's party.

Mei's aunts tell her that the more frequent she transforms into giant red panda, the harder she will get rid of it. She was a bit of hesitant initially, but now she just wants to enjoy the best of her life.

Living in an overprotective and conservative family, Mei just wants her parents to be proud of her. She doesn't want to be a letdown of the entire family, so she studies hard to live up their expectation on her. Previously, her family was everything to her. However, the more she hangs out with her friends, she knows there's so much more than it. She can have her dream as well, and she doesn't always have to be mama's good girl. Transforming into giant red panda is a way for her to let out her pent-up anxiety and emotion. There's an inner beast in ourselves, and even if we try to suppress or ignore it, it's still here. Sometimes, we should just express our emotion, rather than hiding the true self.