Read by all ages, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is targeted at a teenage audience. The book addresses a range of themes dispassionately. These themes include drugs, friendship, body image, first love, suicide, eating disorders and sexuality. Chbosky appreciates the importance of entertainment in adolescence: "Books, songs, and movies are more than entertainment when we're young. They help all of us discover who we are, what we believe, and what we hope our life can be." As such, the book contains several cultural references across all mediums: musically the book references The Smiths and Fleetwood Mac, literarily the book references "This Side of Paradise", "On the Road", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Hamlet", "The Stranger" and "Walden", and theatrically the book references "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".