Cookie Queens is an apt title for this sticky-sweet yet charming documentary. It follows four girls of different ethnicities and classes as they try to reach their sales goals during the six-week Girl Scout cookie selling season. All four are indelible, each with different reasons for being in the Girl Scouts and selling cookies. Olive, age 12, is goal-oriented and super focused, while Nikki is nine and the youngest of three sisters who are also Scouts. She wants to sell enough cookies to go to Europe, a trip her sisters have already taken. Eight-year-old Shannon Elizabeth picks an ambitious goal and struggles to sell her cookies. The youngest, Ara, a five-year-old piano prodigy, has the most realistic expectation, setting her goal at 55 boxes.

Director Alysa Nahmias (who also helmed the excellent Art & Krimes by Krimes) takes a vérité approach and just lets the action unfold. There are no talking heads or experts describing the kids’ behavior or examining the history and impact of the Girl Scouts. Nahmias keeps the focus on the girls and their families, which is fascinating in itself. The family dynamics are markedly different; again, their class, race, and status influence their drive and their methods for selling cookies.

Nikki comes from an upper-middle-class Black family whose parents use the sale as a lesson in responsibility and following through on goals. Shannon Elizabeth comes from a decidedly middle-class background and has Indigenous and Latino roots. Her parents are understandably concerned about the amount of cookies they have committed to sell, as they are on the hook for the rest, which reaches thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, overachiever Olive has a sometimes contentious relationship with her mother, who co-leads her troop. In an intimate conversation, Olive states she isn’t sure if she sells cookies to please her mom or herself. Young Ara seems like the most relaxed of the crew. It’s just another thing she does, like playing the piano. In my opinion, she has the most grounded view of what she’s doing.

Mostly, though, the film is about adorable young girls selling cookies and basking in the glow of success. And adorable they are. In one moment at dusk on the boardwalk, Ara tries to sell cookies to a passerby who says maybe later, so she insists on staying past her bedtime because the person might come back. Shannon Elizabeth’s journey is paired with her attempt to earn a purple belt in karate. Nikki is delighted to wear her sister’s Girl Scout uniform instead of her Brownie vest, while Olive laments that she’s mostly known as the top cookie seller, prompting another troop member to say, “I see you as not just a cookie seller; I see you as my best friend.”

Upbeat and positive, Cookie Queens moves fast, only occasionally taking a moment to breathe. It feels somewhat like a commercial for both the Girl Scouts and kiddie capitalism, save for the fact that director Nahmias sneaks in tender, honest moments that reach for something bigger: the effects, both positive and negative, that consumer culture has on these young girls.