I read the blogs of a lot of young women. Sure, some identify as preppies, some are clearly artists and creative people, others are lawyers, others are brides who have finished the getting married activities. But at my age it’s most important that they are young. In their 20’s, or early 30’s. For the most part they don’t have children yet. And in my life children were the defining act, so given limited imagination and an underdeveloped sense of the political, that that’s how I categorize others. Are they in the age where the question of children or no children hasn’t yet been answered? Are they in the age where they are still wondering what to do next, where each act doesn’t happen inside a life with definitions in place?
The blogs that stand out right now, for me? And let me be clear, I am making no statements on overall excellence. Just for me. And I read all in my Reader window, every day.
- east side bride – love the semi-permanent scowl and the groom fashion
- even*cleveland – her charming whimsical Polyvore outfits, to go map-making for example
- first milk – design, but personal (no longer writing)
- Good Mouse, Bad Mouse – it’s her photo you see in the window there along with her cool post labels. With posts called “Yearn” and “Stare”, what more is there to say? And she’s going to South Africa… (no longer writing)
- Landlocked Mermaid – I like the Italian American family details (blog is now private)
- Monograms and Manicures – the uber-preppy but so on-the-go, so enthusiastic, so purposeful she transcends the category (no longer writing)
- Peonies and Polaroids – simply lovely writing and photographs from Scotland with a sly sense of humor (still one of my favorites)
- Puttin’ on the G.R.I.T.S. – A Southern preppy girl with a great story of a boyfriend named Country, the possible end of that relationship, and now making Christian about to be born-again noises (lost track)
- what possessed me – super-smart city girl, irreverent, one of the funniest posts ever here
- communicatrix – marketing and advertising without using business jargon (posts rarely)
- carboniferous – a grad student who still wants to buy dresses
Why these girls, for so they seem to me? Juicy stories. Juicy stories and good pictures and evocative writing. Details of lives I have not and will not live. And some maternal instinct. I wish good outcomes for all these girls. Who would not, I imagine, want me to call them girls at this point. But I mean girls in the fierce 12-year old sense, in the sense of the Dar Williams song. Which despite my usual extreme horror of sentimentality (unless it’s about my children of course in which case I can cry at a piece of crumpled paper on a carpeted floor), made me cry the first 18 times I listened to it. So, collectively, I suppose I could say if I weren’t a High WASP, you go. Girls.
Updated April 30, 2014
11 Responses
Aw, thanks for the shout-out, LPC!
Hi there – I just discovered you via Corporette a few days ago and wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying catching up on your archives. It’s a very nice change to read the words of someone who is not in my exact age group (Second Cherry is another one of my favorite reads – she’s on my blogroll). I turned 30 last October and FWIW I have no idea when scrunchies and nude pantyhose became very bad things – it’s like I always knew they were, but I don’t actually know *when* that happened. Re: scrunchies, there was a SATC episode where Carrie vilified them, but they had been disappearing before – though, again, never saw that memo. I am rambling but just wanted to say hello :)
Scrunchies must have been sent to camp for bad clothes at about the same time as tortellini appeared on grocery stores in the guise of a commodity item rather than something to go to Florence for. I was having small children then. Much, if not everything, was a blur.
Oh. And hello:).
LPC –
This may be the nicest post I’ve ever read. I’m touched to be included in such company.
I know exactly what you mean about that fierce twelve-year-old feeling – I try to keep it with me the best I can, because I think it’s kind of the clearest, truest part of each of us.
Anyway. Thank you.
(and P. is crazy funny, isn’t she?)
This made me tilt my head and smile my secret smile. It is the smile I discovered when I was 12.
Thank you.
I’m quite happy to be called a girl. And in such illustrious company, I feel most honoured!
Well, hells bells, Little Nell: 47 and a girl again? I thank you!
That is some craaaazy list, too, my Internet friend. Are you sure all those diverse interests aren’t gonna get you kicked out of the Olde WASPs club?
Oh, I don’t know, diverse interests are a requirement of all the High (and lower) WASP clubs I have secret memberships to. (Many).
But this post is so good and true I read it several times this week, and I still don’t have the right thing to say.
But I do like spending (internet) time with these women on a regular basis sharing the our fierce 12 year old girl selves. It’s a wee blessing.
Communicatrix. 47? You sure fooled me. Girl at heart, that’s what I say. Fierce girl at heart. And all the wee blessings that accompany that state. Every time I say wee I nod to Peonies…BTW the descendents of my forebears who stayed in Scotland are still making cheese, I believe. I think if you have cheese making famiy in Scotland you get a free pass for life to the WASP club. At least that’s what they told me.
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