Girl Reviews
Our Girl Reviews showcases blogs that discuss how girls are portrayed in and impacted by books, movies, television shows, live performances, museums and exhibits, games, and products.
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My Top 3 Feminist Reads: Send Nudes
Cover art for Send Nudes by Saba Sams, 2022 Send Nudes by Saba Sams, 2022 Where Madeline Miller’s Circe reclaims female agency within mythological retelling, the second narrative in my series of reviews, Saba Sams’ Send Nudes, transposes that same feminist lens...
Racheltjie de Beer: Courage, Selflessness, and Family Bonds
Courage to Protect, Helen Barnard, 2025. In this second part of Racheltjie de Beer’s story, we read further of her bravery, selfless love, and the strong family ties that make her legacy so special. Her story continues to show us today that fearlessness and love...
My Top 3 Feminist Reads: Madeline Miller’s Circe
Cover art for the 2018 novel Circe by Madeline Miller via Wikipedia. For centuries, children’s and young adults literature has historically struggled regarding issues of gender representation. ‘As early as the eighteenth century, parents and educators have...
Racheltjie de Beer: Resourcefulness of a Young Girl
Great Heart, Helen Barnard, 2025. This is the first of a two-part blog series, exploring the timeless South African folktale of Racheltjie de Beer. It is a story that resonates with young girls today, because it teaches us that strength and love can shine in the face...
The Cranes are Flying: A Young Soviet Woman’s Life
US release poster for the soviet film, The Cranes Are Flying, (1957). John J. Lomasney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Released in 1957, The Cranes are Flying (Летят журавли) is the only Soviet film to ever win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in...
I Sent My Grandma a Vagina In the Post
A Trip to the London Vagina Museum Ode to Gy(n)a, mural (detail) produced in collaboration with Skaped and four young artists. Vagina Museum, London. Photo by Lottie Horn. There has always been something about the vagina that has intrigued me. Perhaps the symbol...
A Little Princess: Your Next Must-Read!
Helen Barnard, The Little Princess, 2025. Imagine coming home after a long day, where literally everything went wrong, and you find this book on your bed. A warm embrace to soothe you. It’s one of my favourite books that gave me hope, renewed my courage...
Barbie Comes to London: Design Museum Exhibition Review
The original 1959 Barbie on display. Photo by Scarlett Evans. The world descended into Barbie-mania last year, with Greta Gerwig’s much-anticipated film starring the leggy blonde doll who’s been the staple of children’s homes since the 1950s. It seemed you couldn’t...
Eve: A Review
Thoughts on Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. Cat Bohannon was a life-drawing model. She seemed to enjoy it. It was money and she used it not just to be observed unclothed, but to observe those who were drawing her. I could write...
Review of Barbie: The Movie, Better late than Never
Contrary to what most people I have talked to believe, this film was not for children. It was for everyone else. My partner loved the film as well. We both laughed hard.
Unearthing the Girls of the Holocaust: Girlhood at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Robin explores the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, looking for the stories of girls. Her findings showcase the struggles of incorporating girlhood into historical narratives.
Panel Reflection–It’s a Doll’s World: American Girl Dolls, American History, and Raising a Generation
An image from @hellicity_merriman on instagram In the mid to early 2000s, a craze took over a generation of girlhood: American Girl Dolls. Expensive 16 inch dolls connected to an era of American history, each with her own book series. Each doll had an extensive cache...
Gender Expression in Art: Seeing Gender Exhibition
Seeing Gender exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Image source: Asian Art Museum San Francisco On a rainy Sunday afternoon in September, I finally got the chance to visit the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The "Seeing Gender" exhibition,...
Book Review: Pizza Girl, by Jean Kyoung Frazier
It was a hot summer's day, I was on the London tube sweating and running for my train with an inconvenient suitcase dragging at my heels. I was one stop away from Kings Cross station and this book caught my eye. It had been left on the tube (not an unusual thing in...
“Girlhood… It’s Complicated!” (Except for When It Isn’t)
Image from Jazz Jenning’s Facebook page. This image was included in a photo series of Jazz and her family visiting the ‘Girlhood… It’s Complicated!’ exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. In October 2020, Smithsonian’s...
OK to not always be OK
Well, here I am again, not knowing what to write for a Staff Rant. So many things swirling in my brain, but trying to grab just one of them is as fruitless as trying to grab a wisp of a cloud. They just flit away, mocking me intensely. If you’re thinking this...
Girl Pictures: the Unknowable Teenage Girl
"Boy Torture: the Two-Headed Monster" (1999) by Justine Kurland from the series Girl Pictures When imagining girlhood in a rather vague sense, what comes to mind is plastic. Plastic dolls, plastic pink crowns and shoes and jewelry. A stiff neon interpretation colored...
TV Review: The Strong Women of Jane the Virgin
The three Villanueva women sit together on a bench that is a staple setting for conversation. It is a rare thing to come across very potent storytelling for girls and women, although, less rare than it once was. My teen-girlhood was marked by a deep immersion into...
Media Review: Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century This weekend my roommate and I were scrolling through Disney+, when we stumbled upon a childhood favorite of both of ours: Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. I distinctly remember watching the trilogy in the early 2000s, and I...
Why Alice? : A Retrospective Look at Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser
Poster for Alice in Wonderland (1951). Image taken by author. I had a vague recollection of watching the original Disney adaptation of Alice in Wonderland as a child, and was therefore intrigued by the new immersive exhibition exploring its history which...