Are You Ready for The ‘Barbie’ Movie? Here’s What We Recommend!
In a recent interview for Vogue - before the film’s July 21st release - writer-director Greta Gerwig told Vogue that the script for Barbie is loosely pulled from a parenting book called Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.
“My mom would check out books from the library about parenting, and then I would read them. Young girls would be funny and brash and confident, and then they just—stop. It’s jarring. How is this journey the same thing that a teenage girl feels? Suddenly, she thinks, Oh, I’m not good enough.”
Mary Pipher was a therapist and was becoming frustrated with the growing problems among adolescent girls. Why are so many of them turning to therapy in the first place? Why had these lovely and promising human beings fallen prey to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts and crushingly low self-esteem? They were losing their resiliency and optimism in a “girl-poisoning” culture that propagated values at odds with those necessary to survive.
Being a teenage girl is hard enough as it is and it’s hard to even explain to thirteen-year-olds what the right path is. At that age, all teens want is to become an adult as quickly as possible to gain freedom, but that freedom of choice isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Unfortunately living in a patriarchal society conditions young women without even realizing they’re being conditioned. Greta Gerwig challenges societal norms in Barbie and makes a campy film about the harsh realization that the reality we’re living in is bleak. From unattainable beauty standards to social media influencers, young girls are having a tough time growing up.
In lieu of Barbie being released, there are coming-of-age stories that are vital for everyone to read. It’s important to turn to novels to always gain a different perspective but also connect with the characters. Thankfully, novels and films have been able to represent everyone and tell crucial stories about the struggles of being an adolescent.
Here are the five coming-of-age books we recommend that will help you through your teenage years or even heal that part of you.
28-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate her newly completed PhD in astronomy. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know… until she does exactly that.
This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. When reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along— the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.
Julia hasn’t been intimate with someone in three years. She’s treading water in a dead-end job, her know-it-all therapist gives her advice she doesn’t ask for, and the men she is surrounded by are, to be polite, subpar. Enough is enough.
Julia’s sexual awakening begins when she meets a woman at a warehouse party one Friday night. She finds her tribe at queer swing dancing classes, and guided by her new lover sam, she soon discovers London’s gay bars and BDSM clubs. Soon it becomes clear that Sam needs to call the shots, and Julia’s newfound liberation comes to bear a suspicious resemblance to entrapment.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universitiies on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
This American classic is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired million of readers for more than sixty years.
For a popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12th — “Cupid Day” — should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privleges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night. However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making slighest changes she may hole more power than she ever imagined.
Have you read any of the books listed above? If you have, let us know which one is your favourite! If you have any recommendations drop them in the comments below.
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