Lilly Singh’s first feature film, Doin’ It, is about a topic we often feel shame discussing: sex. But it’s also about so much more than that. It’s a film about self-discovery and loving yourself. It’s also a film we wish we had when we were growing up.
‘Doin’ It’ follows Maya (Lilly Singh), a 30-year-old software engineer from a conservative Indian family who moonlights as a high school substitute teacher while working on a teen-focused app. When she’s unexpectedly assigned to teach sex education—despite never having had sex herself—chaos and comedy ensue.
At the age of 14, Maya is a spunky teenager who is not afraid to speak her mind. She’s a free spirit in every sense of the word. Until an embarrassing moment between her and her boyfriend, Sohan (Utkarsh Ambudkar), which happens in front of not only her classmates, but her mother Veena (Sonia Dhillon Tully), and her grandmother Nani as well. For Maya’s mother, that’s the last straw. Concerned that she is becoming a wild American teenager, they move back to India.
Maya spends her teenage and early adult years living in India under strict rules. At the age of 30, she and her mother finally return to the United States, where Maya plans to launch her app —a tool designed to help parents monitor what their kids are consuming online. Sounds easy enough, right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. When Maya goes to pitch her app to a potential financer, she’s in for a rude awakening. He asks her how she can create an app for American teens when she herself doesn’t even know what American teens are like. That’s where her childhood bestie Jess (Sabrina Jalees) comes in.
MORE: Want to watch another film about self-discovery? We recommend ‘Slums of Beverly Hills.’
After Jess presses Maya for juicy details about her time in India, she learns that it wasn’t full of romantic sexual experiences, and that Maya is still a virgin. So she makes it her mission to create a “High School Bucket List” to help her catch up on everything she missed out on. The way Jess sees it, not only will this allow Maya to live those experiences, but it will also inspire her as she navigates working with teenagers. When Maya decides to become a substitute teacher to learn about the American teen, she finds out the only class available is Sex-Ed. She had hoped to teach Computer Science because that’s what she knows. Determined to learn all she can to get her app off the ground, she accepts the offer.
Meeting the kids in her class turns out to be an interesting experience. As Maya attempts to follow the curriculum laid out by Principal Fletcher (Ana Gasteyer) based on the school board recommendations, she quickly learns that her students are much more advanced than she is. Jess helps her learn all that she can about sex, and that leads to some wild moments for her. Including a crazy, almost hookup with a guy who has a mommy fetish. It’s not all bad, though. She does meet a hot Computer Science teacher (so hot we’re willing to overlook that Doyousmellwhatalexiscooking IG handle), Alex (Trevor Salter). Sparks fly immediately, and the chemistry was chemming between both Singh and Salter. Alex encourages Maya to teach her students uniquely, but he also warns her not to stray too far from the lesson plan.
Maya disagrees with this and throws caution to the wind, coming up with some crazy activities. Not all of the activities she teaches are crazy. The students learn about things like gender identity and gender expression. There’s even a lesson on sexual anatomy. Though her lessons could get a little inappropriate at times, we understood where Maya was coming from. Maya grew up being told to be afraid of her body and sex. She was taught to feel shame, and she wanted to make sure her students didn’t feel that way.
Unfortunately, her trauma was spilling onto her students. Her students are dealing with a lot as well and questioning themselves. Being in her class gave them all the answers they were seeking. Most importantly, they felt seen by her. Despite all the good she’s doing, as she works with the kids, she finds out that in America, things are no different.
After several warnings, Maya must go before the school board to defend her lessons, which inspires her to launch her app “The Talk.” The app is genius. And she finds a financer in the most unexpected person. A cool lunch lady named Barb (Stephanie Beatriz). Though Maya doesn’t end up getting her job back, what she gains is far better. She found herself, and she finally dared to tell her mom what she was dealing with.
MORE: Recognize Stephanie Beatriz? You should. Check her out in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Doin’ It’ is such a delightful film. This writer already loved Lilly Singh, so I was not surprised by her performance. What’s so great about the movie is that Singh’s own script draws from personal experiences. That translates so well on screen, and there is an ease to the way she plays Maya. And the fourth wall break doesn’t feel overdone or out of place. Director Sara Zandieh (The Other Zoey) did a great job bringing Singh’s vision to life.
What we also loved was relatability. Although this film revolves around a young woman raised in a conservative Indian household, the story is universal. As we said earlier, the topic of sex has always been taboo. Especially for women. We’ve been taught from the moment we start our periods that we “have to be careful.” We’re taught to be scared of what others will say about us. My own father told me when I was eleven years old that he would disown me if I got pregnant. True story. We’re taught to be sexy but not too sexy. And we’re even taught that if we’re still a virgin, then something must be wrong with us, or we’re “Too picky.”
Maya’s story can be anyone’s story. From the way she expressed not even knowing her own body to her issues with intimacy, we have all been there. Some of us are still figuring it out. And that’s okay. Overall, ‘Doin’ It’ is a good film. It’s funny and thought-provoking. It is refreshing to see a movie like this that gives us an authentic female perspective. In this current climate where people want us to shrink ourselves down and hide who we are, it’s right on time.
Doin’ It releases in theatres on September 19, 2025. Watch the official trailer below:
