Badass Chick: The Girls from The DUFF

You really can’t talk about YA lit without a regular series highlighting all the inspirational female protagonists. We have all these easy swoony boy posts, and I’ve been wanting to do my first badass chick post for a while now. But really. THE PRESSURE. I have been trying to decide: do I do Katniss or Karou? Meg Murry or Leslie Burke? THE PRESSURE IS TOO MAAAAAHHHHCH FOR MY WEAK HEART.

The truth is, we all know those badass chicks. I mean, if you haven’t read the Hunger Games, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Wrinkle in Time or Bridge to Terabithia, then seriously, what are you doing here?

So here is when I tell you I’m doing the first Badass Chick on Board post on….the group of girlfriends from The DUFF by Kody Keplinger.

I’m serious! This book is proudly feminist, discussing body image, sexuality, terms for the female body, subtle sexism and more blatant sexism and how it remains so embedded in our society, still.

Beyond the YAY!FEMALES!YAY! aspect, it also depicts a tres fabulous way chicks can be badass: by being supportive girlfriends. Teenage years are…well…

And girlfriends aren’t always the most sensitive at this age, amIright?

The DUFF was a quick, entertaining read with a sassy female lead and a fun romance. At the risk of incurring Kassiah’s wrath, the guy (to me) was the least interesting part of the book. [Christina: GASP. Wesley Rush is dreamysigh material] [Lo: Whatever, he’s kind of a manwhore, and although he does get some serious swoon points at the end, he’s no TuckerPeetaAdamJoeFontaine.] So, because this is MY post: my favorite aspect was the friendship between the main character, Bianca, and her two best friends, Jessica and Casey. They’re each strong and vulnerable in a way that feels true. Some friends-in-books are the comedic side-kick or the convenient know-it-all. Here, the friends are the popular pretty ones, and they are also nice. (Well, Casey and Jessica are. Bianca is often unnecessarily snarky, but being real here: some teenage girls are also unnecessarily snarky.)

“I know you hate him,” she continued. “I wanted to make sure you were fine… and that he was okay, too. You didn’t, like, stab the boy, did you? I mean, I totally disapprove of murdering hotties, but if you need help burying the body, you know I’ll bring the shovel.”

I love portrayals of all of the firsts of the teenage years. First kiss and first love, sure, but also first girlfriend solidarity, first fight, first hard lesson. The DUFF actually does all of these well. It’s hard to be a teenage girl. Scratch that. It’s hard to even be an 8-year old girl (first time I was called a bitch) or a 10-year old girl (first time I was called Four Eyes) or a 22-year old girl (first time I realized I was actually expected to get my own health insurance). But in particular, teen girls can be mean and gossipy and easily influenced by whoever has the designer denim rather than is the most reasonable.

So *music swells* I’m grateful that teen girls have these types of relationships to read about: where the friendship needs priority, where the girlfriends truly care if their friends are going through a rough spot, where feminism is woven throughout.

It may not be playing to the death in a booby-trapped arena or a story of a girl sent on mysterious errands across the globe to fetch healthy non-blemished teeth and braces by Dentist Greenbelt. But, sometimes the social arena of teenage girls is actually the most brutal, so props to the badass and well-portrayed girlfriends.