The New Nancy Drew: Strong Girls in YA Literature.

It is a great privilege for Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday to host a blog post by Lesley Roessing. Lesley is a YA advocate who posts frequently on Facebook.  I have been following her for a long time. We have been friends on Facebook, but we have yet to have a “live” face to face conversation. This is a perfect example of how social media brings people together who share common interests. I am sure that one day we will find each other at the same conference or YA event and have a great conversation. I was pleased when she suggested a post that discussed one of my literary heroines, Nancy Drew.  Yes, I read every single one that was in print when I was in the fifth and sixth grade. I loved the wonderful adventure of these book as well as the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, and a host of other novels in the “pulp fiction” category. I know that many people consider the quality of these books as less than literary. I believe that is beside the point. These books and many others never stopped me from reading other, more challenging books; instead,I am still reading a wide range of novels in the "solve the caper" genre—including Donald E. Westlake, Jo Nesbo, Walter Mosely, Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, J. A. Jance and a great many more (is it a little crazy that I rest from reading YA titles by reading?).

Furthermore, Lesley’s post reminded me about how these same books were influential in the reading lives of my three daughters. All of them read a great deal growing up and continue to read as adults. (I think there might be a possible guest blog post from them about their childhood and adolescent reading habits.) I was never a big fan of all of those Sweet Valley High books that kicked around the house, but they helped make great readers. I know that you will enjoy Lesley’s post and I hope it not only sends you down memory lane, but will encourage you to include her suggestions in your classrooms and library shelves. 

​Now, its your turn, Lesley.

I, Lesley, became the strong, independent woman I have become because of five people: my mother and father and Nancy Drew, Jo March, and Anne Shirley. My parents were the children of immigrants, but even in the ‘50’s and early ‘60’s, even though they never went to college, held high expectations for me as a teen; they expected high grades in academic subjects and they constantly told me I could be anything I wanted, even President. However, without the added models of my fictional female teens, I don’t think that I would have believed them.

Besides Nancy, Jo, and Anne, there were not many strong female teen characters in the 1960’s. There were biographies of famous adult women but those didn’t provide an adolescent with teen examples. Luckily, there were numerous Nancy Drew casebooks—and I owned and read them all, Anne of Green Gables appeared in eight novels, and I read and re-read Little Women innumerable times. I am sure there were others characters who inspired me but have faded in memory, but I distinctly remember WWND (What Would Nancy Do?) always in the back of my mind. Nancy Drew was independent,  with a supportive family, and supported by her friends, intelligent, determined, and spirited. Although the series was created by Edward Stratemeyer, there were definite female influences on the character and story lines. Mildred Wirt Benson, the first Carolyn Keene, was the ghostwriter of the first eight novels as well as many others, and, after he died, Edward Stratemeyer’s daughters took over the syndicate, and Nancy.

​While these characters were inspiring to an adolescent reader, they did not face, and conquer, the same problems as I: mean girls, feelings of alienation, membership in a minority group, negative body image, small town to big college transition. My peers faced such challenges as physical differences and physical difficulties. 

Adolescent problems have only intensified—or maybe my awareness of adolescent problems has increased. I was not aware of any peers who were affected by death or trauma, who suffered the challenges of mental illness or learning differences, who were bullied, faced racism, or were suicidal. In my small town, I was unaware of any refugees or those who questioned their sexuality or gender identification.  Peers were not publically shamed and, since there was no Internet, there was no cyberbullying to contend with.
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In contemporary novels, strong female characters demonstrate resilience over a variety issues and concerns—facing challenges, traumas, and adversity in diverse forms. These are characters who mirror the issues that are faced by current adolescent girls and who provide models and maps for navigating those problems. Characters who are their own persons, make hard choices, and have defined their moral codes, sometimes against the majority, sometimes at great cost.

​One of the most unforgettable characters is Kendra in Scars. At age 15 Kendra begins remembering years of childhood abuse and feels that she is being stalked by her abuser whom she cannot remember. She uses art and cutting as a way to cope but finally finds the strength to face the former abuse, recall her abuser, and save herself and her mother. In Call Me Hope, Hope is constantly verbally-abused by her mother. Inspired by Anne Frank, the young adolescent builds a support system and confronts her mother and helps her to change. Another character who learns to manage the trauma caused by family abuse is 16-year old Sarah (Still Life with Tornado) who, with the help of her ten-year-old, twenty-three-year-old, and forty-one-year-old selves, exposes the family secrets so she can become whole again.

​Mina (The Lines We Cross) is a Muslim refugee whose family encountered considerable trauma and death in Afghanistan, during their escape by boat, and throughout their stay in a detention camp. Moving to a new town in Australia, Mina, a high school junior, stands up for refugee rights against Aussie Values, an organization that believes that Australia is accepting too many refugees—especially Muslim refugees, an organization created by her boyfriends’ parents. For younger readers, the main character of Amina’s Voice, a Pakistani-American Muslim girl, faces the challenges of fitting in middle school and a diverse community which includes some Islamaphobic members.

​There are characters who are suicidal but are able to overcome those tendencies and decide to live, which is the challenge. One such character is Ally (Forget Me Not), shamed and cyber bullied after compromising photos of her are texted throughout her school. In My Heart and Other Black Holes, Aysel plots her suicide, worried that she has inherited her father’s violent tendencies. Spending time with her suicide partner, she finds strength as she realizes that she does not want to die and does not want Roman to die either. In All the Bright Places Violet Markey is able to save herself from suicide but is not as fortunate in saving Finch, the boy who helped her find a reason to live. Finding strength through others, Vicky Cruz (The Memory of Light) works through her suicidal depression with the help of her hospital therapy group.

​Adolescents who are grappling with the repercussions of rape often also are forced to contend with the additional torment of shaming by their peers. Some Boys features an adolescent who has been raped and shamed but stands up for herself, even again the rapist’s best friend. In this provocative novel Grace and Ian narrate alternating chapters, and when Ian questions the way she dresses, Grace asks why her clothing choices should matter or be assumed to send a message. In All the Rage Romy has been assaulted by the sheriff’s son. No one believes her allegations and, by coming forward, she is bullied by her former friends. As other girls become hurt, Romy has to decide how hard she will fight to be believed.  A victim of teen prostitution, 13-year-old foster child Dime (Dime) finds her strength and the courage to make a plan to leave what she thought was love and security to save a baby. 

​Transgender girls face a multitude of challenges, many external, some internal, as they define who they are. One of my favorite books is If I Was Your Girl. After attempting suicide, Amanda Hardy has transitioned, transferred schools, and moved in with her father to start a new life. But when she shares her secret, she learns that not all “friends” can be trusted, but she also learns that it is not always who you think who are the dependable friends and truly strong girls. In other novels, two delightfully strong girls are Lily (Lily and Dunkin) and Grayson (Gracefully Grayson) who have accepted themselves and expect others will also as they live life on their own terms.

Mean girls are an adolescent girl’s nightmare, but strong girls of all ages learn to handle them as does gutsy Piddy Sanchez (Yacqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass) and immigrant Kasienka (The Weight of Water).

For younger adolescent readers, there are characters who deal with physical differences, learning differences, or developmental disorders, such as Kiara (Rogue) who has Asperger’s syndrome and learns to use her “special ability” to help her new neighbor Chad, a victim of parental abuse, and seventh-grader Rachel (Braced) who is diagnosed with scoliosis and is required to wear a body brace 23 hours a day. Middle school student Molly (Finding Perfect) learns to manage OCD as does high school junior Samantha McAllister (Every Last Word).

​Sometimes families present the challenges. Other novels that feature strong or resilient girls are Skyscraping, the story of Mira, a high school student, who discovers her father is gay and that her parents are in an open marriage. After her father is diagnosed as HIV-positive, she learns to accept her family as they are. In another type of family crisis, Claire (Falling Over Sideways) deals with bullying at school and, at home, learns to support a father who has experienced a stroke. Male authors can create strong female characters; challenging the advantages of strength, Parker Grant (Not If I See You First), who copes with blindness and her father’s recent death, learns not to be too strong and to let others help her. 

Readers also meet strong girls in a multitude of memoirs, such as Positive: A Memoir, the narrative of Paige Rawl. Born HIV positive, Paige was bullied by middle school classmates after her best friend shares her secret and coaches, her counselor, and administrators refuse to intervene, resulting in a suicide attempt. Positive is really a story about surviving bullying rather than surviving illness and the courage to face the world and share a journey.

I have to say that my favorite strong girl is the half Japanese-half Black Mimi who faces racial prejudice and sexism in Marilyn Hilton’s Full Cicada Moon. The year is 1969, Neil Armstrong will be walking on the moon, and Mimi plans to become an astronaut. She enters the 8th grade Shop class in her Vermont school and is told that Shop is for boys; Home Ec is for girls. Sensing she needs this education for her future profession, she persists—and is suspended. When Mimi returns to school, her female classmates join her in a Shop class sit-in. An 8th grade biracial feminist fighting stereotypes!

​The “new” Nancy Drew is still strong, intelligent, determined, and spirited, but she isn’t solving mysteries; she is surviving the complex issues of contemporary life.

Below is a slide show of all of the book titles that Lesley covers in this post. You could probably use it as a source for several book talks with students.
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A middle school teacher for twenty years, Lesley Roessing is currently Director of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project and Sr. Lecturer at Armstrong State University where she works with teachers and teaches Bibliotherapy. She is the author of Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically & Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core; Comma Quest: The Rules They Followed. The Sentences They Saved; No More “Us” & “Them: Classroom Lessons and Activities to Promote Peer Respect; and The Write to Read: Response Journals That Increase Comprehension. Lesley is a columnist for AMLE Magazine and editor of Connections, the journal of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English.
 
Lesley can be contacted at: lesleyroessing@gmail.com
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