Priya Mangal

**Priya Mangal** is one of the three deuteragonists (alongside Miriam and Abby) of the Disney-Pixar film *Turning Red*. She is one of Mei's best friends.

## Appearance

Priya is an average height, Indian-Canadian, 13-year-old teenage girl with brown skin, brown eyes, and thick eyebrows, with purple-gray shadows under her eyes. She has thick, wavy, dark brown hair that falls right past her shoulders; her bangs are parted and slightly curled. Priya's outfit consists of a quarter zip yellow shirt with gold stripes and a pale-yellow collar, yellow ochre cargo pants, and gray-and-white sneakers. She also wears black nail polish, round glasses with black frames, mini gold hoop earrings, a gold nose stud, a gold watch on her left wrist, and a friendship bracelet on her right wrist.

Priya'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, Priya wears a yellow t-shirt that reads "4★Town" in blue and rainbow-colored with orange and blue stars and markers-made tattoo with hearts, stars and saying "Jesse", "4 Townie" and "4" on her cheeks, hands and t-shirt.

## Personality

Priya is presented to be the most chill and mellow of the four girls while also being supportive of them and having their back. Despite being deadpan and stoic most of the time, she tends to act as excitable as the rest of her friends. Priya is interested in anything that's macabre. She is seen reading a vampire romance novel during her introduction scene and also asks Mei if she's a werewolf after seeing her red panda form. She often makes vampire-like poses like crossing her arms when she's lying down and she also said that she always wanted a tail. Priya's gothic interests are further displayed at Tyler's party when she acts out mortality for a charades game and when she utters the phrase "Thank Cthulhu," after Mei finally arrived at the party.

## Relationships

### Mei

Priya is one of Mei's best friends and is supportive of Mei's transformation, saying that she's "always wanted a tail."

### Miriam and Abby

Priya shares Miriam and Abby's love for the band 4★Town, as well as their obsession with Devon.

### Goth Girl

Priya meets a goth girl at Tyler's party during an awkward game of charades. The goth girl is the only one who is able to guess "mortality," which was the right answer causing Priya to say "Nice" and the goth girl smiling at her. During Tyler's party, Panda Mei had brought the goth girl and her friend over to the dance floor where the goth girl and Priya danced. They were shy at first, but danced anyway.

### Tyler

Like her friends she disliked Tyler because he teased and bullied Mei. However, they later became friends at the 4\*Town concert once they discovered he was a 4\*Townie just like them and they welcomed him into their sisterhood.

## Trivia

* Priya's last name is listed as Dewan in the lyric video for "Nobody Like U". However, the Pixar website states her last name is Mangal.
* Aside from Priya's shared crush on 4★Town, she is also seen dancing with a goth girl at Tyler's party while Mei, Miriam, and Abby give a suggestive look, indicating that Priya is queer. Andrea Goh, an animator in the movie, confirmed in a tweet that she is, in fact, queer.
* Priya is seen as a fan of the *Nightfall* series, an homage to the *Twilight* series of supernatural vampire novels written by *Stephanie Meyer*.
	+ The first Twilight novel came out in 2005, three years after the setting date of Turning Red in 2002.
* Priya's favorite 4★Town member is Jesse, as she was shown freaking out when his cage was removed while shouting "JESSE!" Her bangs look similar to his hairstyle, showing her fan bias. In Mei's fantasy, she is seen lifted by him with one hand. At Tyler's party, she says she won't go to the concert if Mei won't go, but Mei tells her "You can't not go. Jesse is your soulmate." On Tyler's rooftop, she asks what Jesse smells like and Miriam replies "milk chocolate and wet rocks." At the end of the movie, she is seen posing next to him in the group picture and making a heart sign while he blows a kiss to the camera.
* Her last name is derived from the Arabic-Turkish word manqal (منقل) meaning "portable" and originally referred to portable heaters used by Bedouin to warm tents during the cold desert evenings.
* During Dodgeball, Priya is shown to be dodging the balls during P.E while she and the girls are discussing about how they failed to get their parent's permission to go to 4 town concert. Priya tells her friends her parents said she could go when she's 30.
* Priya gets Mei some deodorant after noticing she's been acting weird.
* Priya was the first one to ask Mei if she was a werewolf when she, along with Miriam and Abby, saw Mei in her red panda form.

## Gallery

### Screenshots

Priya and the Goth Girl dancing at Tyler's partyPriya, Abby, Miriam, and Mei on the rooftopMei hanging out with her friendsMei and her friends hug after Mei apologizes for betraying themMei and her friends cry with joy while hearing 4\*Town singPriya introduction cardPriya screaming "Jesse!" after he appears on stage.Mei, Abby, Priya, and Miriam dancing and singing to *U Know What's Up*Mei and her friends come up with an idea on how to see 4★Town
## References

1. ↑ Nobody Like U (From "Turning Red"/Lyric Video)
2. ↑ Andrea Goh on Twitter