But the truth is a lot of us are uncomfortable with the word vagina, or uncomfortable buying tampons, or uncomfortable talking about gender and sex. So I didn’t set out to write a book about feminism, but it was interesting to explore our complicated feelings about those issues. And because I was exploring those feelings in a very enclosed, specific environment through small (and strange!) incidents – fighting the president of the purity club to put gynecological stirrups in the school play, using terrible homemade birth control because you can’t get condoms, nip-slipping at the school swim test – I could explore the humour in them, too.

Who do you most closely identify with? Alex, Mary Kate, or another character in the book altogether?

When I was sixteen, I was definitely Mary Kate! It was easy to write her because I took so many things from my own life, like my love for British mini-series and school supplies (I really had – and loved – the tiny purple stapler with tiny purple staples). Now, in my thirties, I think I’ve got a bit of Alex in me, too. I’m more comfortable speaking my mind – and buying tampons!

What were your own favourite books growing up?

My absolute favourites were the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. The first books in the series are children’s books and the later ones are YA, so I grew up with them and they influenced my life so much! I am also a big Beverly Cleary fan, and both those authors were so great at showing human dynamics in small everyday interactions.

At the same time, I loved reading about experiences that girls had in other time periods or countries in memoirs like Red Scarf Girl or Warriors Don’t Cry.

In my teenage years, I was into reading diaries – Anaïs Nin, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. While studying French in college, I discovered Colette and Marguerite Duras, who both mixed fiction and memory in a way I found fascinating. Then in graduate school I read The Sisters – the Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell, and wrote my poetry thesis about the Mitford sisters. All these are narratives of women leading unconventional lives in restrictive societies – a story genre I think both Alex and Mary Kate would enjoy!

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

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