A primary reading series developed with UCL Institute of Education to help children become confident, independent readers.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that boys will be boys and girls have to grow up . . .
Over the past decade, girlhood has repainted the cultural landscape pink. From Taylor Swift’s Eras tour to Barbiemania, this nostalgia for girlhood has become a billion-dollar business, seen in the music we listen to, the clothes we wear and the 2000s movies (and their long-awaited sequels) we watch on repeat.
But at a time when women’s rights are being rewritten, this resurgence in girlhood is complicated. Women are caught between a genuine desire to relive the wild freedom, joy and safety found in girlhood, while facing an ever-growing pressure to hold onto their youth. The world demands women continue to look like girls, yet they are rarely given the space to actually be girls.
In I’m Just a Girl, journalist Jess Bacon introduces readers to the ‘second girlhood’, the extended adolescence that allows us to recover the part of ourselves we left behind. Reconnecting with our inner girl is an empowering act of rebellion. It offers a return to creativity and play that can ultimately improve our relationships, our mental wellbeing and establish a renewed sense of self. It is a reclaiming of what was once taken from us.
For far too long we have been presented with a false choice between womanhood and girlhood – this book is a celebration of a new way of being where we can fully embrace both.
Over the past decade, girlhood has repainted the cultural landscape pink. From Taylor Swift’s Eras tour to Barbiemania, this nostalgia for girlhood has become a billion-dollar business, seen in the music we listen to, the clothes we wear and the 2000s movies (and their long-awaited sequels) we watch on repeat.
But at a time when women’s rights are being rewritten, this resurgence in girlhood is complicated. Women are caught between a genuine desire to relive the wild freedom, joy and safety found in girlhood, while facing an ever-growing pressure to hold onto their youth. The world demands women continue to look like girls, yet they are rarely given the space to actually be girls.
In I’m Just a Girl, journalist Jess Bacon introduces readers to the ‘second girlhood’, the extended adolescence that allows us to recover the part of ourselves we left behind. Reconnecting with our inner girl is an empowering act of rebellion. It offers a return to creativity and play that can ultimately improve our relationships, our mental wellbeing and establish a renewed sense of self. It is a reclaiming of what was once taken from us.
For far too long we have been presented with a false choice between womanhood and girlhood – this book is a celebration of a new way of being where we can fully embrace both.
Reviews
This one's for the girls. Jess Bacon's first book is a bold reclamation of girlhood that cuts to the heart (and harm) of society's paradoxical obsession with sexualising and infantilising the female body.
A love letter to 'girlies' everywhere. Bacon's debut is a relatable, poignant and topical unpacking of girlhood as we know it.
A thoughtful, incisive look at how the stories we inherit about girlhood shape the women we become.
Filled with an even measure of optimism, hope and unflinching melancholy, I'm Just A Girl is an iridescent love letter to living through the paradoxes of womanhood in the twenty-first century. Reading it felt like devouring the pages of a secret diary. Deeply nuanced and intricate, it's an absolutely essential book for any feminist book shelf. In a word: healing.
A joyful, rebellious and much-needed book for every woman who knows, deep down, that the most powerful version of herself is the one she was never quite allowed to be.
Courageous, clever and kind - it's a book I want to share with all the women in my life!