What a Girl Wants is a 2003 American teen comedy film directed by Dennie Gordon and written by Jenny Bicks and Elizabeth Chandler.

Based on the 1955 play The Reluctant Debutante by William Douglas-Home, it is the second adaptation for the screen of this work and stars Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, Eileen Atkins, Anna Chancellor, and Jonathan Pryce.

Seventeen-year-old Daphne Reynolds is an American girl, living with her wedding singer mother, Libby, above a restaurant in Chinatown, Manhattan.

Many years earlier, Libby had met Briton Henry Dashwood in Morocco, and they had gotten married in a Bedouin wedding ceremony, under uncertain legality.

Checking into a London hostel, Daphne meets Ian Wallace, a local boy who works there to support his dream of becoming a musician.

Daphne tries to win the acceptance of her father's social circle, but is repeatedly thwarted by Glynnis and Clarissa, who feel threatened by her arrival.

He asks her to assume the more dignified manner of the Dashwood lineage, after which Henry's polling numbers quickly begin to improve.

Henry informs Daphne that he has brought a large apology present for her—at which point Ian appears and asks her to dance.

Now able to be together, Henry and Libby are legally married in another Bedouin ceremony, while Daphne is accepted into the University of Oxford, still being in a happy relationship with Ian.

A rep for Warner Bros. explained: "'In a time of war, we made a slight alteration so that we could avoid any potential political statement in a completely nonpolitical film.