The Internet's Girlhood
Traci Spadorcia via Apartment Therapy
I don’t know how old I was when I used a computer for the first time. I do remember my dad teaching me how to use Microsoft Word and the feel of the clunky keys against my fingertips as I wrote. I mostly read middle-grade novels, so my unfinished short stories starred spunky, intelligent heroines — girls I saw myself in. When I felt especially proud of a storyline, I would gather my sisters around my monitor and force them to read the latest additions. It was exhilarating, to be able to create and share something so freely. But like many little girls, I had no idea that my visits to the family computer would begin a lifelong relationship with creating and the Internet.
“Obviously doctor,” a Tumblr movie screencap reads, "you've never been a 13-year-old girl." The speaker is Cecilia Lisbon of the 2000 film The Virgin Suicides. For years, The Virgin Suicides has remained a Tumblr fan favorite because of its thoroughly provocative depiction of teenage girlhood. Gorgeous movie stills depict the infamous Lisbon sisters reading, smiling for photos, and lingering between frames. Stripped from their untimely ends, it’s all very simple, which is exactly why it’s so affecting as a celebration of girlhood. The movie finds online popularity among other films heralded as pieces of girl-centric media, like Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird or Anna Biller’s The Love Witch.
Originality has always been important in movies, but our Internet heroines weave creativity into their own identities. Lady Bird doesn’t just not want to be Christine; she adopts the name that is “given to [her] by [her]” as an identity untethered to her complicated relationship with her mother or other people’s expectations. The love witch doesn’t just cast spells; she protects her identity and power from the men in her life. In the hit 2022 film, Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Joy isn’t just a colorful metaverse villain; she is a teenage girl reclaiming her mother’s unintended antagonism.
This thoughtful exploration of identity finds its way into the lives of girls everywhere. Lady Bird, for example, has bedroom walls plastered with imagery and writings that wouldn’t be out of place in any Tumblr blog or print zine. She puts all of herself out there, in a way that postdates her 2002 coming-of-age. The girls of 2022 run Tumblr blogs and TikTok accounts dedicated to documenting their adolescence; “day in the life” videos rule YouTube. One of the sole benefits of the social media age that expects users to share everything is the creation of an expanding catalog of girlhood that feels a lot like a teenager’s messy bedroom.
Scrolling through my social media timelines, I can see the Internet has gained a newer appreciation for female adolescence. Web weaving, the act of curating posts of different pieces of media that fit a common theme, provides an opportunity to express thoughts in the form of a digital collage. Like Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Jobu Tupaki, their festering emotions are expressed visually. If we cannot be heard, we can at least be seen. This #web weaving post explores how feminine aesthetics forced on women often contrasts the depth of their emotions using Euphoria stills and French poetry; another uses Lorde lyrics and My Neighbor Totoro to reminiscence on the innocence of early childhood.
On TikTok, girls gush about the little intricacies that come with coming of age; “at the twilight of my teenage girlhood, removing my phoebe bridgers cd with the new bts album in the one direction cd player i got in 2012, i know i’ll miss this,” user stormsbyfleetwoodmac proclaims over “Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers. Consumption is, for better or worse, a large part of our culture — modern teen girls wear their consumption like a badge of honor. Jennifer Check of Jennifer’s Body keeps a Fall Out Boy poster directly above her bed; Booksmart’s main characters are obsessed with the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Malala. Seeing girls in media passionate about something gives the green light for real-life girls to share their passions with the world. Fandom culture is a place that many girls call home; communities of superfans where consumption and creation are intertwined and omnipresent.
Evidence of millions of people’s coming-of-age stories is plastered all over our phones, and the girls are coming into their own. It’s not like we could choose ignorance when so much of our daily lives are social or political talking points — the Internet forces us to examine the world around us and ask ourselves: Is this who I want to be?