What is Chick Lit
Chick lit is sub-genre within women's fiction which addresses issues of modern women often humorously and lightheartedly.
What makes the teen chick-lit genre so popular is that girls have found a way to escape into a fantasy world where they see themselves and their friends as the characters. The reader may not be a socialite or work in New York City like the heroine, but she does share the ups and downs of growing up and wanting to fit in. Even though the characters’ ages vary from middle school to adults in their twenties, they all go through challenging obstacles while still making the reader laugh.
Covers Design
Most chick-lit covers show whimsical cartoons of pretty girls, clothes, or accessories against backdrops in bright colors such as hot pink and turquoise. In fact, the ubiquitous pink covers have led to the arrival of the term “pink lit” for teen chick-lit titles. If a reader is more interested in reading about the scandalous lives of being a nanny or an heiress, she will gravitate to covers that are more suggestive with photographs of beautiful models. Only show the body and not the face of the model.
Brief History
Like those of her adult contemporary Bridget Jones, Georgia’s diary entries are full of laugh-out-loud episodes about obsessing over her looks (specifically her nose) and obsessing over boys (specifically the hunky rocker Robbie). Here is a sample entry: “7:00 p.m. In my room in front of the mirror. Practicing smiling without making my nose spread. It’s impossible. I must never smile again.” Despite the plethora of books about witty teens, Rennison’s diarist is by far the funniest.- now a teen nick movie.
Proving that not all teen chick lit is strictly fluff, the following fall, a pair of magic pants pushed the trend into the mainstream. In The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, author Ann Brashares created characters who deal successfully with complex issues like sex, cancer, and death without weighing the novels down.
In 2002, the Gossip Girl series introduced readers to a new type of teen chick lit that later became known as “gossip lit.” Although gossip-lit books may have similar themes to traditional chick lit (such as dating, family, and growing up), they are exclusively about wealthy, beautiful girls who live in exciting places, wear trendy clothes, and date hot guys. Although the series has a reputation for being racy, like most reputations it is exaggerated. Yes, most of the characters smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol and yes, a few characters smoke marijuana, but most only talk about who is doing drugs rather than partaking in it themselves. They also have a reputation as being smutty. In the first few novels several characters are virgins contemplating when is the right time, and ‘hooking up’ usually means kissing in the corner at a party. As the series progresses so does the sexual activity of the characters.
After the success of the three different series, new chick-lit titles were quickly published in the beginning of the twenty-first century. Now, more than ten years later, teen chick lit encompasses almost all genres, including fantasies and mysteries. Today, teen chick-lit heroines come in all shapes and sizes. She can the girl next door, a teen witch who needs a date to the prom or a varsity cheerleader who also is an undercover spy.
The Princess Diaries. Chick-lit author Meg Cabot has written many successful books, however, her main claim to fame is how she tapped into the secret desire most girls have to be a princess. At the beginning of The Princess Diaries, Mia Thermopolis is a typical teenager living in New York City with her artist mother. She is a vegetarian who wears combat boots and is failing algebra. When Mia’s mom starts dating her math teacher, she thinks nothing could get worse. But when Mia discovers that she is the heir to the throne of Genovi, her life turns upside down. Mia has to go everywhere with a bodyguard and take princess lessons with her strict grandmother. With fourteen sequels, teens can’t get enough of this reluctant princess-in-training. Meg Cabot’s characters live the life that teenage girls daydream about but I think her success lies in the fact that her heroines are so normal, readers can relate to them.
Vegan Virgin Valentine- Mara Valentine is in control. She's a straight-A senior, a vegan, and her parents' pride and joy. She's aggressively competing with her ex-boyfriend for valedictorian before starting Yale in the fall. Mara has her remaining months in Brockport all planned out, but the plan does not include having V, her slutty, pot-smoking, sixteen-year-old niece -- yes, niece -- come to live with her family. Nor does it involve falling for her boss, Dan or dreaming about grilled cheese sandwiches every night. The sequel is Guyaholic.
My Big Fat Manifesto. Jamie decides to enter the National Feature Award scholarship program by writing the best, most outrageous, hilarious, school newspaper series ever. Not only will winning pay for her college expenses, it would be her chance to convey to the world what it’s really like to live as an overweight teen. In her Big Fat Manifesto, she calls herself Fat Girl, debunks myths, shares alarming statistics and even goes undercover with her skinny friends into a fashion mall, proving how horrid overweight people are treated. Meanwhile her football playing boyfriend Burke decides to get weight loss bypass surgery, which has huge risks associated with it. Jamie adds this unexpected twist into her articles, describing the gory details and heart-draining worry as she and his family brew in the hospital waiting room during the procedure.
Huge. April and Wil couldn't be more different, but both of them are spending the summer at Wellness Canyon -- otherwise known as a weight-loss camp. April knows that if she could just drop a little weight, she would be popular like she's always wanted. She's saved up for months to afford Wellness Canyon, which is more like a posh spa than a sleepaway camp. While April can't wait to jump into all the activities, Wil can't wait to get out of there. To get revenge on her parents, Wil decides she's going to gain weight at Wellness Canyon. During the summer the unlikely pair becomes close and even win the Wellness Canyon Olympics.
Bass Ackwards and Belly Up. Instead of admitting that she was rejected from NYU Harper Waddle announces that she will stay in Bolder Colorado to pursue her dream of writing a novel and convinces her three best friends Sophie, Becca and Kate to join the Dream team and forget about college. Sophie moves to Hollywood to act, Becca becomes a ski coach at Middlebury College and Kate defers Harvard to travel through Europe.
The Jessica Darling Series. The humorous diary entries of sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling begins after her best friend Hope moves away from Pineville, New Jersey. During her junior year Jess feels surrounded by shallow materialistic classmates, is bored by her honors classes, writes honest editorials in the school paper and begins a strange relationship with Marcus Flutie.
Anatomy of a Boyfriend. High school senior Dominique Baylor starts dating and subsequently falls in love with shy Wesley Gershwin after they meet at a local football game. The inexperienced couple have their first sexual experiences together including losing their virginity on prom night. The author dedicates this book to Judy Blume and it feels like a modern “forever” with it’s mature details about sexual discovery.
The Breakup Bible. High school junior Jen Lewis is having a great junior year. She is the features editor of the school paper, and she's dating Max Brown, the paper's editor-in-chief. Everything is perfect-that is, until Max says, "Maybe it would be better if we were just friends." In shock and total denial, Jen wonders how she is going to deal with the pain of seeing Max in school every day. When her grandmother gives her a book that she heard about on the radio Jen decides to follow the commandments in Dr. Emerson’s Breakup Bible.
Luxe. In the first volume it is 1899 eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Adora Holland and her friends enjoy a luxurious lifestyle as members of Manhattan’s upper class. When Elizabeth is forced to accept wealthy twenty-year-old Henry Schoonmaker’s marriage proposal even though he is in love with her younger sister Diana and has had an affair with her best friend Penelope Hayes she takes drastic measures to be with the one she loves. Meanwhile her former maid Lina Broud plots her rise in social society.
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