In short, to be a girl, woman, feminine-presenting, or nonbinary person is for society to look at you and assume you are there to be judged through the lens of other people’s (usually cisgender) assumptions of what/who you are or aren’t. It’s infuriating and it’s unfair and it’ll never get any better unless we call out the contradictions and injustice of it all. Books like this one, and another YA I read recently by a writing duo, Watch Us Rise, certainly help us along in that regard. Swipe for the editorial that started the journey for Marin, the main character who was inspired to write these “rules” for being a girl.
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Marin is a senior, an editor of her school paper with her best friend, dating a jock, aspiring to attend Brown in a year, and maybe crushing on her English teacher. When said teacher, Mr. Beckett gives her a little too much attention Marin is a bit spooked, unsure of what happens is her fault, and confused as to why her bestie’s reaction isn’t to encourage her to report the behavior. She’s on edge and all of a sudden her eyes are wide open to casual sexism that spews from her boyfriend’s mouth, the school dress code that gets more and stringent for the girls specifically, and the lack of women author’s on Mr. Beckett’s assigned reading list. In response she writes her heart out, addressing the many quandaries of being a young girl, and starts a feminist book club to encourage anyone who is interested to veer off the predictable curriculum white male authored classics. While the administration protects Mr. Beckett, Marin understands that neither the school nor her best friend have her best interests in mind, but she’s not ready to give up standing up for what’s right, even if her relationships and her future at Brown might be on the line.