Guest Blogging at The Book Fairy's Haven

I'm over at The Book Fairy's Haven today talking about the pervasive element of "mean girls" that we see in so much YA fiction. I've had enough of this nastiness. and I think there is nothing wrong with having girls actually be, you know, nice to each other. Because it happens occasionally.

Here's Tammy's intro:


Today I have Jessica Park guest posting on my blog. I recently read her book, Relatively Famous and found myself very surprised that there were no mean girls in her novel.  Of course, besides this being something relatively unheard of and refreshing to me, I asked Jessica if she'd do a post about Mean Girls in YA fiction.

The thing is, many of us dislike mean girls because so many of us (including myself) have bullied by them and reading about them does not always make for the most pleasant kind of material. While I applaud many authors for writing about them (because I do feel that it is important, especially when it comes to highlighting the vicious effects of bullying), what I wanted to know from Jessica was the following:

Do you think that some mean girls in novels are an accurate portrayal of the mean girls in today's society? 

Or, do you think that artistic license plays a role in exaggerating these mean girls and their actions, thereby perhaps perpetuating the idea that a fiction novel cannot be written without having a mean girl cast in a novel?

And finally, at what point does a mean girl's character veer into over-the-top, unrealistic territory? 

Stop by!

Here's a link to a really good article about girl bullies. (Yeah, it's a few years old, but it's all still relevant.) I know that there's been tons of this stuff in the media recently, but we all need to stay on top of this.