Critic Brian Price called A Real Young Girl a "transgressive look at the sexual awakening of an adolescent girl", an "awkward film" which "represents Breillat at her most Bataillesque, freely mingling abstract images of female genitalia, mud, and rodents into this otherwise realist account of a young girl's" coming of age.
Critic Brian Price labeled A Real Young Girl as a provocative examination of the adolescent girl's coming-of-age experience, which he deemed an "unpolished film" that integrates abstract images of female reproductive organs, mud, and rodents into a realistic portrayal of a young girl's growth into adulthood.