GIRLS CAN BE SCARY: a LitHub interview with Anna Solomon

Mitzi Rapkin: There are some lines in there about mothering and about specifically mothering daughters, and that there are a lot of mothers or mother figures who are scarred by their daughters. There’s a line in there, which is very simple but it’s so powerful, and it says, “Girls are unnerving.”

Anna Solomon: Oh right, I think Vee says that, right? Yes, I think it’s true. I mean, having been a girl and and I think, you know, again, this comes back to power and is it true that girls themselves are scary? I think no, like that they’re out to unnerve? No. I think that is the way we experience girls, even when we’ve been one and believe in them and believe in their power. Still, do we perceive them as scary? I think, yeah.

I mean, think about The Crucible and the ways in which girls have been written and performed across centuries. I don’t feel proud of, but I have felt as a mother now of a daughter and having been a daughter to a mother, like, Oh, yeah, there’s a lot of power in this young woman, and it doesn’t always feel safe. It’s interesting even as I want her to come into her power. It’s really tricky.

Read the rest of the interview (or listen to the full podcast) here: https://lithub.com/anna-solomon-girls-can-be-scary/