MeiMiriamPriyaAbby

"When my emotions start growing, I just have to think of the people I love the most in the whole world."

- Mei talking about Abby, Miriam and Priya

MeiMiriamPriyaAbby is the friendship between Mei Lee, Miriam Wexler, Priya Mangal and Abby Park from the Turning Red fandom.

Canon
At the beginning of the movie it's already established that they share a close friendship. When Mei gets to school and asks for them to "assemble." But since Mei's family is very overbearing and eccentric, this causes some clashes with her friends that genuinely want her to have some fun. After school, they share their enthusiasm for the boy band, 4*TOWN. And when they ask Mei if she would join them for a hangout later, she says she can't go because she's in charge of cleaning at home. As Mei goes to her home, her friends reflect on how controlled she is.

After the Kmart incident where Mei's mom embarrassed her in front of Tyler, a kid from school, and all of the people at the store, Mei turns into a big red panda. This deeply troubles her, but she realizes that if she remains calm, she can regain her human form. So she tries to remain calm at school, but her friends are the first people to realize she's acting weird. Then, they also cover for her and support her. And even scare Tyler off when he starts making fun of Mei again.

The next day, Abby, Miriam and Priya go to Mei's house, looking for her to tell her that 4*TOWN would be coming to town. Although Mei tells them to go away at first, since she was in her panda form, upon hearing 4*TOWN's name, she immediately opens the window's curtains and scares her friends off. Before they go running away, Mei grabs them, calming them down. But as Mei starts explaining everything to them, she starts panicking and ends up crying on the floor. At that moment, Miriam decides to sing one of 4*TOWN's songs to cheer her up, and Abby and Priya are quick to follow her. When they finish the song, the four of them share a hug and Mei immediately goes back to her human form.

At that moment, Mei has a revelation. She realizes that there's something about her friends that calms her and keeps the panda away. But when her friends tell her that she should then tell her parents that she will go with them to 4*TOWN's concert, Mei gets concerned again, telling them that they will not let her. As Mei hears her mom approaching the room, she starts pushing her friends out the window, and even tells Miriam to go fast since her mom doesn't like her, which makes Miriam sad. Later, Mei's parents do a test with her, showing her pictures that can cause her panic, to see if she can stay calm, and when she's about to break, she thinks of her friends hugging her and saying supportive words to her, and she instantly calms down.

Later on, Mei and her friends start making a plan to get the money necessary to afford the tickets to 4*TOWN's concert ($800), after they realize Mei's panda form has gathered so much attention that people are willing to pay to see it. And on Tyler's birthday, Mei starts feeling extremely bad because she can't transform into the big red panda. So she suggests that she should not go to the concert, since they have enough money for just three of them to go. However, Miriam says that if one of them can't go, then none of them will. When Mei sees her friends crying because of this, she gets very determined and transforms into the big red panda then and there, making the party a huge hit. Later, as they're celebrating they have reached the amount of money they needed on the roof of the house, all of them find out that the concert it's actually on the date of Mei's ritual to be back to her normal human form. So Mei gets extremely anxious and when Tyler starts nagging her and insulting her family, she jumps on him, scaring him, and all the rest of the guests. Tyler's parents then finish the party abruptly, reprimanding Mei's mom for what happened, calling Mei an "animal."

After this happens, Mei expects her mom to do the worst, yet she walks right by her and goes to her friends, reprimanding her for "badly influencing" Mei. They firmly deny this, and seek for Mei to explain to her mom that this is not the case, yet she says nothing, completely shocking her friends. As she goes away in the car with her mom, Miriam sees Mei's toy on the floor and picks it up, looking at Abby and Priya melancholicly.

The day of the ritual, Abby, Priya and Miriam go to 4*TOWN's concert with just the three of them, as Mei spends the day preparing with her family. Her dad, however, notices that she's visibly devastated. So when he goes to the basement to store some chairs, he stumbles upon Mei's camera, and sees all the beautiful, happy moments she recorded with her friends. He later shows this to Mei, who dismisses them as "silly things", saying she'll later delete those. Hearing this, his father advises her to cherish all parts of her, and showing her the happy moments on the camera, which makes Mei reconsider it all. And even decides not to let go of her panda during the ritual.

Later, when Mei's mom comes into the stadium where 4*TOWN were performing, Miriam, Priya and Abby help her and support her after the four of them make up. They unite to sing a song and help Mei's mom get rid of her panda form. In the end, the four of them are shown, extremely closer than ever, having been there for each other in their toughest times, and now enjoying beautiful moments together.

Fanon
The friendship has been adored by many since Turning Red came out. Many liked how they got along and had many memorable moments together. Some include Tyler in the friendship since he joined the friend group at the end of Turning Red. Others don't include Tyler in the friend group since he was initially an antagonist to the group. MeiMiriamPriyaAbby currently has 7+ works on AO3.

MeiMiriamPriyaAbby is sometimes shipped romantically as a poly ship. The most popular romantic ship within it is Meiriam. Though MeiMiriamPriyaAbby as a poly ship is normally rivaled by Priya x Goth Girl.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Variations

 * 4*TOWNIES refers to the ship between the four and Tyler Nguyen-Baker
 * Meiriam refers to the ship between Mei and Miriam