Within the canon of the 'girl essay' on SubStack are future novelists, poets, journalists and essayists, and that’s something I’m excited to see come into fruition over the coming years!
many thanks to eliza for facilitating a comment section where i can discover even more of y’all, it is a privilege to be so connected yet all see the world differently and i want to hear about it xox
I’ve felt in two minds about this discussion! So much of it has started to feel like a bandwagon in the micro trend vein, that I understand why people are exhausted with ‘the girlhood thing’. Yet I’m glad that young women are thinking critically about it and finding new forums to articulate themselves especially as those forums decline irl! I’m reminded that we did all this on Tumblr in the mid-2010s, too, with girlhood poetry and moodboards and networks and so on, and that also became rapidly uncool, with its cooption by girlboss feminism and general association with fandom cringe - as you say ‘if enough young women like something, it’s about to get majorly cringe’. This nostalgia is what made me write my own girlhood essay last November - guilty as charged and I’d like to think it’s not too redundant! Though as you say, all art is derivative and stories are shared - in the case of criticism that can be part of its allure and power, finding and making and breaking connections with that which has come before.
At the same time I worry that when we claim that anyone who’s late to a critical ‘movement’ or platform like substack is a copycat, we risk alienating the young writers finding their voice who don’t have the status, following, finances, or frankly the aesthetics to grow their platform to a substantial size. Also, isn’t it funny we’ve gone from hot take is to defend the girlhood thing to hot take is to criticise the girlhood thing in the space of a month…I think it speaks to fickleness of internet culture as an identity marker (which you spoke about in your great essay on rage bait too) too.
Sorry for such a long comment and thank you for another great piece as usual 💓
I love this!! I think it’s easy for us to become cynical when it feels like one point of view is all we’re seeing but I think we forget to look outside our internet bubble and remember for every essay on girlhood — there’s a thousand of something else. Love your words and perspective ❤️
Anything we write could be written by someone else. And that's the point to be a poet read by people working at liquor stores or 24 hour diners. It's why people love Bruce Springsteen or SZA. Turning the 99%'s internal dialogue into art. Loved reading this and loved the use of the James Baldwin quote.
sometimes i fear that what i'm writing is pointless to share because other people have written about it before, and this is a great reminder that that's often okay and even good. i like how you situate writing as part of both a lineage and a conversation, and i think about how one of those tips on having good conversations is to reword what was said to you back to the speaker, as a way to like check your own understanding and also to affirm to them that they have been Seen--and that helps build the connection between the two parties. maybe all this writing on the same topic is a kind of form of that. thanks for writing this :)
Just when I thought I had a great topic for a girl and consumption essay, I find out the RFQ already beat me to it. But seriously, understanding that all our work is in conversation with someone else who came before us really lifts the debilitating burden of coming up with something “original”
i was afraid to read this at first because of my own place in the new-substack-girl-writers world but you only made me feel better about myself and about trying to be a writer right now. thank you for your words always and know that you are one of the artists i am trying to be 1/8 as good as. <3
I love that this is generous. It could have been written cynical and snarky and would still have been good. Instead it was still smart but also generous (but without smarm), making it even better.
Hey hun, I don't know if I fully understand the whole "girl essay thing" but I appreciate you making the ending productive, I was almost afraid you were one of those baseless critics haha.. (thank God I finished reading)
Anyway, I just joined substack and believe it or not we are a small community compared to the millions of others who don't read anymore out in the world. People just don't read or understand the significance of writers in history. That being said, THANK YOU for encouraging the young girl essay thing. We need to cherish them :)
Within the canon of the 'girl essay' on SubStack are future novelists, poets, journalists and essayists, and that’s something I’m excited to see come into fruition over the coming years!
i feel blessed to be (a small) part of the substack girl writer industrial complex with yall <3
many thanks to eliza for facilitating a comment section where i can discover even more of y’all, it is a privilege to be so connected yet all see the world differently and i want to hear about it xox
Given my last few newsletters on here, I felt called out at the beginning and affirmed by the end. I really love this one Eliza.
I’ve felt in two minds about this discussion! So much of it has started to feel like a bandwagon in the micro trend vein, that I understand why people are exhausted with ‘the girlhood thing’. Yet I’m glad that young women are thinking critically about it and finding new forums to articulate themselves especially as those forums decline irl! I’m reminded that we did all this on Tumblr in the mid-2010s, too, with girlhood poetry and moodboards and networks and so on, and that also became rapidly uncool, with its cooption by girlboss feminism and general association with fandom cringe - as you say ‘if enough young women like something, it’s about to get majorly cringe’. This nostalgia is what made me write my own girlhood essay last November - guilty as charged and I’d like to think it’s not too redundant! Though as you say, all art is derivative and stories are shared - in the case of criticism that can be part of its allure and power, finding and making and breaking connections with that which has come before.
At the same time I worry that when we claim that anyone who’s late to a critical ‘movement’ or platform like substack is a copycat, we risk alienating the young writers finding their voice who don’t have the status, following, finances, or frankly the aesthetics to grow their platform to a substantial size. Also, isn’t it funny we’ve gone from hot take is to defend the girlhood thing to hot take is to criticise the girlhood thing in the space of a month…I think it speaks to fickleness of internet culture as an identity marker (which you spoke about in your great essay on rage bait too) too.
Sorry for such a long comment and thank you for another great piece as usual 💓
I love this!! I think it’s easy for us to become cynical when it feels like one point of view is all we’re seeing but I think we forget to look outside our internet bubble and remember for every essay on girlhood — there’s a thousand of something else. Love your words and perspective ❤️
Anything we write could be written by someone else. And that's the point to be a poet read by people working at liquor stores or 24 hour diners. It's why people love Bruce Springsteen or SZA. Turning the 99%'s internal dialogue into art. Loved reading this and loved the use of the James Baldwin quote.
sometimes i fear that what i'm writing is pointless to share because other people have written about it before, and this is a great reminder that that's often okay and even good. i like how you situate writing as part of both a lineage and a conversation, and i think about how one of those tips on having good conversations is to reword what was said to you back to the speaker, as a way to like check your own understanding and also to affirm to them that they have been Seen--and that helps build the connection between the two parties. maybe all this writing on the same topic is a kind of form of that. thanks for writing this :)
Thanks for this. I feel similarly about the snide criticisms of “booktok” and reading as a trend, god forbid a girl wants to read & write.
Just when I thought I had a great topic for a girl and consumption essay, I find out the RFQ already beat me to it. But seriously, understanding that all our work is in conversation with someone else who came before us really lifts the debilitating burden of coming up with something “original”
gonna link this essay to the guy in my comment section who called me "yet another all lowercase wannabe essayst"
I didn’t even know this was a thing; that people are annoyed by these essays?
I only see titles like “the commodification of girlhood” on tiktok or YouTube. Never substack.
I didn’t know there was a wave of girls writing their own analysis no matter how shitty
i was afraid to read this at first because of my own place in the new-substack-girl-writers world but you only made me feel better about myself and about trying to be a writer right now. thank you for your words always and know that you are one of the artists i am trying to be 1/8 as good as. <3
I love that this is generous. It could have been written cynical and snarky and would still have been good. Instead it was still smart but also generous (but without smarm), making it even better.
Hey hun, I don't know if I fully understand the whole "girl essay thing" but I appreciate you making the ending productive, I was almost afraid you were one of those baseless critics haha.. (thank God I finished reading)
Anyway, I just joined substack and believe it or not we are a small community compared to the millions of others who don't read anymore out in the world. People just don't read or understand the significance of writers in history. That being said, THANK YOU for encouraging the young girl essay thing. We need to cherish them :)
I feel called out.. but in a way that feels good. Thank you for this 💕