Hello lovely friends! Lately our life is pretty boring, so I’m going to skip the Life Lately’s for a few weeks. Instead, I’ve been thinking about one of the topics that Fiona Ferris writes about in her “chic” book series (there are three main books in the series + others on more specific topics, like healthy eating and curating a chic closet).
The topic is the importance of finding feminine inspiration and role models/mentors to help guide your personal growth. It’s so crucial to have specific examples of who you want to be as a woman, especially if you didn’t have many strong models of femininity growing up. Let’s be honest–the 90s and 2000s were all about women leaning into masculinity so that they could “make it” in the workplace and the world at large.
And while there’s nothing wrong with masculine traits, many women feel their best when they have a bit more balance between the two sides. Personally, I spent my wholeee teens and college years trying to be cutting edge, competitive, and intense, whilst completely neglecting my more peaceful, domestic, and beauty-loving side. The side that likes to slow down and smell the roses, instead of rushing through my to-do lists so I can check as many things off as possible.
So I’m writing a series of short blog posts for the next month about my personal feminine inspiration through the years. I hope this gives you some new ideas of people, books, and movies to check out as encouragement and places of refuge from our fast-paced world. <3
Day 1: American Girl Books
I don’t have any little girls (yet), but I still shamelessly love the original historical American Girl series, as fun, light reads and as feminine inspiration.
Playing dolls with my sister was the centerpiece of my childhood. I played with dolls until I was fourteen! Yep–I was about to start high school and still off in my own imaginary world. I used to think it was totally cringe, but it was much healthier than experimenting with “normal” teenage things and it made me happy, so why not? Still turned into a functioning adult 😛
Whilst the American Girl dolls were wonderful conduits for our creativity, the stories that went along with them are incredibly special to me as well. I love all the different series, but I’ll just use my first AG doll’s stories (Samantha, the Victorian-era orphan who lives with her wealthy grandmother) as examples.
The stories are the perfect blend of girls bravely fighting for what they believe in while also appreciating typical “girly” things. For example, Samantha spends a lot of the books using her privilege to stand up for her best friend (a poor servant girl) and ultimately help her get adopted into better circumstances. At the same time, she shamelessly daydreams about getting the perfect doll for Christmas, wearing her new holiday dress, and she spends hours creating beautiful handmade gifts for her family and friends.
It was such a healthy example for me in particular as I grew up thinking (for a variety of reasons) that playing with dolls, enjoying putting effort into my appearance and creating beautiful things for their own sake, were all very silly and frivolous pursuits.
I always felt that I should be spending my time doing more productive things, especially as I got older. But a large part of me–the real me–couldn’t change. I loved spending Sunday afternoons baking in the kitchen, even if I could have been doing more for my resume. I loved booking a pottery or drawing class in my schedule instead of another academic class. Even when I was much younger, still in elementary school, I much preferred journaling or playing dolls with my sister to any of the extracurriculars I did.
Growing up I just wanted more space – more time to dream and experiment – more energy to create, garden, and play.
American Girl books taught me that wasn’t a bad thing, and I think that is such a rare and healthy perspective.
xx Claire