In 'Girlhood,' A Writer Examines Her Youth For Signs Of The Woman She Would Become
Though author Melissa Febos' essays dip into her adult life, they keep trying to find the child and teenager that she was — how she learned to be, feel, believe, and react.
Peering back at one's childhood and adolescence can be a daunting task.
We all tell ourselves stories about the days of our youth, no matter how far behind us they are, and it's easier to make these stories simple: a good childhood, a terrible one, or one so ordinary that there's no reason to think about it much.
In exchanging stories of our teenage years with one another, we might flatten the narrative into loving high school or hating it, the jobs we had to hold during the us, is difficult. Memories are inexact and patchy things, and it can be painful to admit how our spongy nature during these years meant we soaked in lessons and messages with lasting consequences.
