A tribute to the original Twenties Girl, who started it all

I’ve always loved Sophie Kinsella’s vivacious heroines. They were charming, witty, silly, independent, and above all, deeply compassionate human beings. Flawed they were, but somehow they made me want to dance on the street and proclaim - “Look at me, I’m a girl!” They really brought out the fun parts of being a woman. My favorite Sophie Kinsella novel to date remains ‘Twenties Girl’, a book that brought me much joy, and sowed the first seeds of feminist thought during my turbulent teenage years.

‘Twenties Girl’ is the story of Lara Lington, a struggling twenty-something business owner who one day attends the funeral of her 103-year-old great-aunt Sadie, and finds herself saddled with the said aunt’s ghost, who won’t leave Lara alone. Thus begins a series of misadventures that change Lara’s life forever.

There are many reasons that I would recommend young women and young adults to read this book today. I absolutely loved how much emphasis was put on Lara’s start-up and her own personal goals and ambitions, despite the book being called (disparagingly, in my opinion) - a ‘chick flick’. I loved the earnest doggedness with which Lara tries to save her business, in the face of tremendous difficulties and personal embarrassments and failures. It didn’t matter to her that most people in her life gave her little to no encouragement to continue, focusing instead on her failed relationships. Despite the setbacks and the fact that sometimes life feels like a series of cruel jokes aimed at her, Lara Lington pushes forward with faith in her ideals and her business, which I would very much love to emulate today. She makes embarrassing mistakes and questionable life choices along the way, but to my teenage self the most important lesson the book managed to hammer was - ‘You be you, girl.' To anyone who’s been assailed by self-doubt and confidence issues growing up, these are magic words of wisdom.

I also loved how the book taught compassion towards old people through Sadie - the ghost of Lara’s 103-year old grand-aunt who manifests as a young woman in her twenties.

“This is how I felt.” She stretches out her arms. “Like this. A girl in my twenties. All my life. The outside is just … cladding,” says Sadie in a memorable scene, explaining why she chooses to appear as her 23-year old self.

Sadie is annoying, often self-centered, and often outrageous, but “just another old woman', she is not. In fact, her unapologetic directness, the fierce kindness under her prickly sarcasm, and her ‘chin-up' attitude in the face of devastating personal tragedy gave me some of the earliest female role models of my life. It also makes you think about the old people in your life and the stories of their youth.

There is a romantic subplot in the story, but the hero’s appearance does not diminish the importance of Lara’s dreams, nor does it take precedence over the central mystery of Sadie’s appearance in Lara’s life. I enjoyed the slow-building romance as much as the hilarious shenanigans of the human ghost duo.

So why this blog post about a book I read many years ago?

I suppose I want to commemorate my twenties in the way Sophie Kinsella has done in this book. Follies and triumphs, and rambling observations. As a person, who has had her nose buried inside a book all throughout school, the real world has almost always, been a constant disappointment. No ghosts of long-dead ancestors, no mysterious time-traveling missions, no monsters, and no magic quests - the mundane world has taxed my overactive imagination terribly. I’m still waiting for a mysterious stranger to pop out and tell me that I’m actually part of a terribly dangerous quest to save the world!

Except, that I’m not.

In the real world, we choose our own quests.

So consider this blog as my personal quest - to seek for the moments of magic and to start appreciating the role I’ve always been destined to play - as the heroine of my own story.

As for you, dear Reader, what are you waiting for? Go grab your favourite drink/snack and a copy of ‘Twenties Girl’ by Sophie Kinsella. Also, don’t forget to tell me what you thought of it in the comments below.

Until then, Tally Ho!

Quote of the day:-

“Darling, when things go wrong in life, this is what you do - you lift your chin, put on a ravishing smile, mix yourself a little cocktail—and out you go.”

- Sadie Lancaster

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