Once a podcast, now a blog

Why are we so obsessed with dead girls?

Way, way back in the time before Covid, I thought about starting a podcast. I had read a book called Dead Girls: Essays on an American Obsession by Alice Bolin and was incredibly disappointed by it. I’d been curious about the obsession people have with dead girls, from real life victims through the consumption of true crime to the unbelievable amount of dead girls in fiction and thought that Bolin might have done some research on it. Despite the title of her book, Dead Girls instead of focused on Bolin’s own life, primarily moving to Los Angeles and a love for Joan Didion. Disappointed that I hadn’t read a book deconstructing this trope, I decided to try and do it myself in the form of a podcast. That obviously failed, but maybe it will be successful as a Substack section?

The title of this Substack section comes from a quote by author Brenna Yovanoff in her novella “Ideas and ‘Drowning Variations’” found in the collection The Anatomy of Curiosity which also features novellas by Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton. While Yovanoff focuses more on girls and drowning, I couldn’t help but attach it to girls in media.

Drowning, or dying, is what girls do. But why?

Let’s see if I can find out.