To know me is to know how much I adore Terry McMillan, a teenage discovery that I continue to revisit and cherish like the well kept secret she is not. Acclaimed author and peer of bell hooks and Alice Walker, McMillan’s appeal to me personally, lies in the way life plays out. There’s a lot of talk about ageing, who’s 37 and looks 21, who’s 19 and looks older than their years – a strict focus on the aesthetics of age alongside some comments on what you should know in your older years.
McMillan’s story is focused more on doing the thing – writing the stories you love, penning the characters you want to see, creating the experiences you have through the eyes of someone else, making the decisions you’re curious about and seeing how it plays out. Her characters then, Stella in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, the female quartet of friends in Waiting To Exhale, the family dynamic of the Price family in A Day Late – they feel tangible, relatable and portray the dynamics of interpersonal relationships romantically, platonically and familially.
Finding success in her 40s, McMillan’s thrust into literary canon is only 30 years young. I say this to remind myself that life is so full and not at all devastating even in the mistakes we make in this bid to get it right. McMillan knows the truth, there is no one way to be and this makes her a multigenerational talent. There is something for everyone, but in this case, there is truly something for me. A keen reminder that I owe it to myself to experience life in its entirety as messy, flawed, vulnerable and ultimately true. This is the true path to savouring girlhood, by carrying it with you as you grow.
-Ada K.