Cookie Queens (2026)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Balances humor and sweetness with surprisingly complicated emotional moments.
Captures the ambition, creativity, and determination of young Girl Scouts.
Probably will make you crave and think a little differently about the boxes of cookies you buy every year.
NO
Leaves the larger organization and economics of cookie sales mostly unexplored.
A handful of scenes feel staged for dramatic effect.
Stops short of fully exploring its fascinating collision of childhood innocence and capitalism.
OUR REVIEW
With a “G” rating from the MPA, Cookie Queens is an all-audiences documentary showing us four young Girl Scouts feverishly selling Girl Scout Cookies. Those cookies generate $800 million in gross sales for the organization over the course of just six weeks every year.
That’s an insane number of cookies being sold, but the boots-on-the-ground tactics used by millions of Girl Scouts around the nation have proven to be a staggering success. I remember a former colleague of mine who would buy a case of Thin Mints, pop them in his big freezer in the garage and then nosh on them the whole year.
Whether it is those mints, Do-Si-Do’s, Samoas, Tagalongs, or Trefoils (the “healthier option” as 5-year-old Ara markets them), we all have pulled out cash at the grocery store and purchased at least two or three boxes of cookies, whether we need them or not.
Cookie Queens is mostly a charming film, as we watch the girls plan strategies for reaching their sales goals. But director Alysa Nahmias also taps into genuine stress and anxiety for Scouts and parents alike. While never over-the-top, the film appears to stage a handful of scenes for dramatic effect. Nahmias is not interested in presenting a glowing celebration of cookie-selling season. Cookie Queens has a little bit of an edge to it. Nahmias opts to present the stories of these kids, ranging in ages from 5 to 17, as they shoot videos for websites, perform original songs, drag wagons through malls, beaches, and community events to try and sell more and more boxes.
Olive, age 12, takes etiquette lessons in Charlotte, North Carolina, while appearing annually on the local news for the massive amounts of cookies she sells. In seven years of selling, she has earned over $200,000 for her local chapter.
El Paso, Texas resident Shannon Elizabeth sets a lofty goal of 2,750 boxes, which underscores the obligation that few consider: parents have to purchase the inventory and then sell the merchandise.
Nikki, age 9, aims to follow in her older sisters’ footsteps. Together, they decide to sell 5,000 boxes to fund a family trip to Europe. Their mother, a troop leader in Chino, California, sets individual goals for each girl, with the older sisters, deeply involved in high school and exploring other interests, later sharing that what used to be fun, now feels like work.
And 5-year-old Ara, from San Diego, steals the movie as a young diabetic with incredible intelligence and a huge heart, reminding us how this can actually be as fun as the kids and parents wish to make it. Her goal of 55 boxes seems manageable in comparison.
For much of the film, we see supportive parents and go-get-em attitudes, but in certain moments, the film also hints at a growing disconnect between parent and child. In Olive’s story, she holds back tears when trying to communicate with her mother about how hard this has all become. She shares that sometimes it feels like she isn’t selling cookies for the best interests of the troop, but simply to make her mother happy.
That’s a powerful moment in a film that you think would otherwise be happy-go-lucky and rather benign in its analysis. And it is … but these sales can come at a cost. Thankfully, Nahmias finds a nice balance in how she integrates that stress into the story. In another sequence, Nikki’s older sisters bridge a gap between adolescence and maturity. As one of Nikki’s sisters says when asked what it’s like getting older, “you end up having to do a lot of things you don’t want to do.”
Overall, there is some context missing, which hampers Cookie Queens’ effectiveness. We never really learn how the annual cookie sale grew into such a massive undertaking. We see archival footage over the opening titles, but the film remains silent on how these six weeks have become such a massive undertaking. Taking a few minutes to inform viewers why families will push so hard to sell morning and night, every weekend, after school, walking up to strangers, pounding the phones and posting videos on the internet would match the edge that Nahmias introduces.
Interestingly, Girl Scouts of the USA remains largely in the background. Nahmias celebrates drive and initiative, but leaves the larger organization behind this massive undertaking largely unexamined.
When one family frets over what it means if their daughter cannot sell her inventory, the tears are real as they struggle with the possibility of having to absorb those costs themselves.
Cookie Queens is sweet, but has bite. And though it hesitates to fully vocalize a powerful, very American story of innocence crashing into capitalism, you cannot help but think about that box of Thin Mints a little differently the next time you are asked that universal question …
“Wanna buy some Girl Scout cookies?”
CAST & CREW
Starring: Olive, Ara, Shannon Elizabeth, Nikki
Director: Alysa Nahmias
Written by: Alysa Nahmias
Release Date: August 7, 2026
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