Well said! Thank you for articulating such thoughtful insights into this ongoing saga of “to write, or not to write’ girlhood essays. Your careful analysis looks at the more nuanced and complicated aspects of what it means to write as a young person, especially as a girl, in this postmodern era. And I agree, some of the harsher critics need to give the girls a break! Let them be free to write their hearts out. I’d much prefer to read 100 more girl essays than yet another snarky comment hating on a young person who dreams of being a writer. When you wrote about how ideas are not owned by any one person, that statement definitely struck a chord with me. I believe that a collective of writers thrives when people share and exchange their ideas (with kindness and respect); oftentimes writers reach a new, previously unknown realizations through listening and sharing their thoughts with other people. I recognize the quotes you sited, and I enjoyed reading those writers’ recent posts as well. Thank you for speaking up for the girls. I appreciate your excellent piece of writing created with such a sense of empathy, humor, and brilliance!
thank you so much for this. i wrote an essay on my own substack on how as a black and latina woman i’ve been so upset with how blind some of the comments are about the girlhood essay are so irritating! so well done!
reading this going ‘yes! yes! yes!’ and then seeing my name in it was really quite funny. great post - and I think I read that same short story in a high school class, great metaphor.
ahh Helena thank you so much! I actually read all of those snarky Notes and thought "damn I think girlhood is getting woman'd." Then clicked on your essay right after and realized I was only looking at the tip of the iceberg. Thank you for your words and insight!
as an eighteen-year-old absolutely drowning in girlhood essays but also so compelled by the pop culture around it, i really loved this. it's so well articulated and soo important to consider. some of us are just looking for connection! some of us just really love writing and want to be part of The Moment that we missed because we were too young for tumblr. girls can be messy and write bad. love love love to you <3
Wow, this comment means a lot. And yes, girls CAN be messy and write bad, it’s the law actually! thank you for your perspective and love right back to you!! 🧡
this is so well written!! people always forget that so many artists start out with imitation! the likes of rayne fisher-quann definitely inspired so many women to try their hand at the same introspective writing that inspired them. it's no different than every college band sounding the same at the peak of nirvana career. we as a culture find it impossible to let women imitate, be bad at things, be cringey as they find themselves
I also feel like putting thin White women in the center of this boom is just to disparage the entire niche of girlhood articles under the guise of calling out performative hobbyists. Like you said, girls of colour are also partaking in the fun! Aligning girl-coresque writing to Whiteness just makes us WoC feel more estranged in enjoying the same things.
Yes exactly, your comment was also perfectly timed with me thinking about that Bo Burnham song White Woman’s Instagram lol. It's so easy to look at something white women have given the visibility or perceived palatability to and deem it as unimportant or frivolous but it's more difficult to think about how that commentary can discourage other women and femmes from doing something or keep them out entirely. That disparagement looks like critiques of easy and "infallible" targets; sometimes I think it's totally justified but other times it feels like another kind of ladder being pulled up before we can even reach for it
Thank you. I've been seeing too many tweets and posts about Substack and how everyone is annoyed at "womanhood." We shouldn't forget that we all have unique lives, with unique experiences, and whether or not a person can write (which I believe is quite subjective to the reader) is irrelevant. I love reading other women's stories. We've been silenced for too long, and let's not forget the many modern-day stories we’ll never hear because some of us still can’t fathom writing an opinion piece simply because they were born in the wrong place.
thank you!!
Well said! Thank you for articulating such thoughtful insights into this ongoing saga of “to write, or not to write’ girlhood essays. Your careful analysis looks at the more nuanced and complicated aspects of what it means to write as a young person, especially as a girl, in this postmodern era. And I agree, some of the harsher critics need to give the girls a break! Let them be free to write their hearts out. I’d much prefer to read 100 more girl essays than yet another snarky comment hating on a young person who dreams of being a writer. When you wrote about how ideas are not owned by any one person, that statement definitely struck a chord with me. I believe that a collective of writers thrives when people share and exchange their ideas (with kindness and respect); oftentimes writers reach a new, previously unknown realizations through listening and sharing their thoughts with other people. I recognize the quotes you sited, and I enjoyed reading those writers’ recent posts as well. Thank you for speaking up for the girls. I appreciate your excellent piece of writing created with such a sense of empathy, humor, and brilliance!
thank you so much for your thoughtful reply, I really appreciate it! ❤
thank you so much for this. i wrote an essay on my own substack on how as a black and latina woman i’ve been so upset with how blind some of the comments are about the girlhood essay are so irritating! so well done!
read it and then I went back and immediately read it again. WOW!! thank you for sharing your words and experiences 🧡
thank you so so much !!!
Wonderfully written! Thank you
reading this going ‘yes! yes! yes!’ and then seeing my name in it was really quite funny. great post - and I think I read that same short story in a high school class, great metaphor.
ahh Helena thank you so much! I actually read all of those snarky Notes and thought "damn I think girlhood is getting woman'd." Then clicked on your essay right after and realized I was only looking at the tip of the iceberg. Thank you for your words and insight!
Yes!! I really agree thank you : )
This is kinda unrelated but this made me realize how ironic yet inevitable it was that Rayne got womand after writing about it for a year
I love this soo much !!
the girls who are looking for community online. PERIOD. god bless you. love this essay you are cool and smart
Thank you so much! That compliment really means a lot 🧡🧡
so well said. let girls be messy with their attempts and let them grow their skills!! loved this sm
as an eighteen-year-old absolutely drowning in girlhood essays but also so compelled by the pop culture around it, i really loved this. it's so well articulated and soo important to consider. some of us are just looking for connection! some of us just really love writing and want to be part of The Moment that we missed because we were too young for tumblr. girls can be messy and write bad. love love love to you <3
Wow, this comment means a lot. And yes, girls CAN be messy and write bad, it’s the law actually! thank you for your perspective and love right back to you!! 🧡
this is so well written!! people always forget that so many artists start out with imitation! the likes of rayne fisher-quann definitely inspired so many women to try their hand at the same introspective writing that inspired them. it's no different than every college band sounding the same at the peak of nirvana career. we as a culture find it impossible to let women imitate, be bad at things, be cringey as they find themselves
getting woman’d is such a true phrase
I also feel like putting thin White women in the center of this boom is just to disparage the entire niche of girlhood articles under the guise of calling out performative hobbyists. Like you said, girls of colour are also partaking in the fun! Aligning girl-coresque writing to Whiteness just makes us WoC feel more estranged in enjoying the same things.
Yes exactly, your comment was also perfectly timed with me thinking about that Bo Burnham song White Woman’s Instagram lol. It's so easy to look at something white women have given the visibility or perceived palatability to and deem it as unimportant or frivolous but it's more difficult to think about how that commentary can discourage other women and femmes from doing something or keep them out entirely. That disparagement looks like critiques of easy and "infallible" targets; sometimes I think it's totally justified but other times it feels like another kind of ladder being pulled up before we can even reach for it
Thank you. I've been seeing too many tweets and posts about Substack and how everyone is annoyed at "womanhood." We shouldn't forget that we all have unique lives, with unique experiences, and whether or not a person can write (which I believe is quite subjective to the reader) is irrelevant. I love reading other women's stories. We've been silenced for too long, and let's not forget the many modern-day stories we’ll never hear because some of us still can’t fathom writing an opinion piece simply because they were born in the wrong place.