As of 2024-2025, Nina Elle has successfully transitioned into directing and producing. Many of her recent projects are self-produced, meaning she has total creative control over the dialogue and camera angles. This has resulted in a renaissance of her content, focusing more on the "slow burn" and less on the immediate payoff.
, while primarily about teen pregnancy, offers a masterclass in stepfamily grief through the character of Vanessa (Jennifer Garner). Desperate for a child, Vanessa is poised to become an adoptive stepmother. The film avoids demonizing the birth mother (Elliot Page’s Juno) or sanctifying Vanessa. Instead, it shows Vanessa’s quiet terror that she will never be loved as a “real” mother—a core anxiety of the stepparent experience. Her final scene, rocking the baby while crying with relief, is one of cinema’s most honest portrayals of earned belonging. nina elle stepmom