ohMg!!! Have you seen this???” I received this message from several contacts in the space of a few hours on Thursday afternoon. All of them millennial women. They all linked to a story announcing that beloved children's author Jacqueline Wilson was going to publish her first adult novel in almost 50 years, and would revisit the main characters of the young adult series “Girls.”
“I KNOW!!! IT'S SO EXCITING!!!!” was my response (there were, if anything, even more exclamation points in the original correspondence).
Why the unbridled hysteria? Well, if you're a woman in your thirties in the UK, you didn't just grow up with Jacqueline Wilson's books: they were the literary backdrop for your entire childhood, adolescence and adolescence.
The universally beloved stories, brought to life off the page by Nick Sharratt's illustrations, were so compelling not only because Wilson is a masterful storyteller, but because the characters she portrayed had real, difficult, and complex upbringings. Her protagonists were often feisty, brave, and sometimes downright spoiled children, but they struggled with difficult family dynamics.
Wilson simply didn't write about nuclear families with 2.4 perfect children: Tracy Beaker lived in a nursing home (aka the “dump”); Andy had to deal with her parents' divorce and being torn between two families in The boy with the suitcase; Charlie was the daughter of a single mother who struggled to make ends meet in The Lottie Project; Mandy suffered harassment in bad girls; Dolphin and Star navigated having a mother with bipolar disorder and a drinking problem in The illustrated mom.
But perhaps the books that had the biggest impact on me and my cohort were written for a slightly older demographic: the “Girls” series. These four youth novels: Girls in love, Girls under pressure, Girls leaving lateand girls crying – followed protagonist Ellie, a budding artist, and her two best friends, Nadine (“slender” and “goth”) and Magda (“tall” and “glamorous”) as they navigated high school, their first boyfriends, and their body image problems.
The 'Girls' books came to life in a TV series starring Olivia Hallinan and Zaraah Abrahams
(Children from Granada)
The reason they agreed so deeply with me – and perhaps with so many girls my age – was that Ellie is convinced that she is unattractive and boring “and that no boy will ever be interested in her.” I can't express how much I shared this feeling between the ages of 13 and 16. Like Ellie, I too had pale, freckled skin; giant curly hair (well, curly, but same difference in the late '90s); wore glasses; and went directly from the fat puppy stage to the “apple” shaped stage, according to copies of Happiness, sugar and only 17 Magazine I bought religiously. This (in my opinion) unenviable body type consisted of having small hips, large breasts, and a round belly.
Oh, and I even went a step further than Ellie when it came to unattractiveness, compounding it all by having a mouth full of metal thanks to years of braces. Now I'm grateful for my fairly straight teeth, but railroad tracks were never exactly known for their sex appeal.
There are few things more difficult than being a teenager. I identified strongly with Ellie's turbulent mix of emotions: her love for her best friends (4eva!), but also her conflicting jealousy. I felt surrounded by peers who were prettier, more popular, taller, and thinner. And this last attribute dominated my thoughts, as well as Ellie's.
There are few things more difficult than being a teenager. I identified so strongly with Ellie's turbulent mix of emotions.
Beauty standards for women have changed since then, although they have arguably become, if anything, more difficult to meet, but in the early 2000s, it was all about thinness. Not even scarce: “heroine chic” was a genuine term used in the press. To be considered desirable, you were supposed to look like an emaciated drug addict. The concept of dieting to be “size zero” entered the national consciousness, with Kiera Knightley, Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham as our poster girls. Moss popularized the phrase “nothing tastes as good as feeling skinny” and everyone just accepted it. Is it any wonder she tried Weight Watchers at age 15 and wrote in my journal that she was fat and disgusting and that no one would ever like her?
The book that had the greatest impact on me was the second in the “Girls” series. Girls under pressure. It explores each of the three friends' struggles with their appearance, but the focus is on Ellie dealing with an eating disorder. Wilson really did her research: Ellie's story seems desperately true, and the feelings that led her to starve were exactly what my classmates and I were experiencing: shyness, low self-esteem, no control over our hormones, our bodies, or our feelings. lives. The book handles it with incredible sensitivity, but it also does not shy away from dark realities. Ellie sees an old friend who has developed anorexia and bulimia so severe that she ends up in the hospital.
Wilson's new book will follow Ellie, Nadine and Magda as they become adults.
(Corgi Kids)
I honestly believe that reading and rereading that book (which I did furiously and often during those horrendous years of puberty) helped me avoid having an eating disorder. It may sound melodramatic, but seeing my situation and my emotions reflected so faithfully in those characters made me feel seen, like I wasn't so alone. Ellie, whom I considered my literary representation and counterpart, manages to achieve a certain degree of self-acceptance and even gets a boyfriend. Although I unfortunately can't say that I followed in her romantic footsteps while she was at school, at least she made me believe that such a miraculous event could be possible.
I can't imagine what the adult version of the books will be like, either in tone or story, but I do know that I can't wait to spend more time with Ellie, Nadine and Magda after our 22-year hiatus. Here's to you, my teenage triumvirate: I couldn't have made it through adolescence without you.
Think Again will be published by Transworld in hardcover, audio and e-book in September.
For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this article, the eating disorder charity DefeatThe NCFED Helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. NCFED offers information, resources and advice for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. Visit eating-disorders.org.uk or call 0845 838 2040
