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Girl Stories
A graphic novel jam-packed with the joys and humiliations of being a teenage girl
Girl Stories began as a series of comics drawn for the teen girls' Web site gurl.com, where they generated thousands of e-mails from teenage girls (and some boys too).
Expanded into a full-length graphic novel, these tales of one girl's adolescence are hilarious, heartbreaking, and honest. Lauren R. Weinstein tells the horrible truth about growing up, surviving embarrassing parents, bullies from hell, best friends, boyfriends, breakups, and trying too hard to be cool--and it has never been funnier.
Girl Stories began as a series of comics drawn for the teen girls' Web site gurl.com, where they generated thousands of e-mails from teenage girls (and some boys too).
Expanded into a full-length graphic novel, these tales of one girl's adolescence are hilarious, heartbreaking, and honest. Lauren R. Weinstein tells the horrible truth about growing up, surviving embarrassing parents, bullies from hell, best friends, boyfriends, breakups, and trying too hard to be cool--and it has never been funnier.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2006
About the author
Lauren R. Weinstein
5 books14 followersLauren R Weinstein is a cartoonist who is still recovering from having a baby and moving to the suburbs of New Jersey (it’s been two years). Her comics books include, Girl Stories and The Goddess of War, and her work has been published in Kramer’s Ergot, The Ganzfeld, An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and The Best American Comics of 2007 and 2010. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Glamour, and Heeb magazines. She is currently working on a sequel to Girl Stories.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
June 4, 2017
Am I fat? Am I good kisser? Will Morrissey marry me? Why am I not popular? Who put the crap in handsome jerk Glen’s locker? How can you make your childhood Barbies into punk queens?
Find the answers in girl-growing-up-in-the-nineties Girl Stories, first posted in gurl.com, including different drawing styles developed over the years (which I found interesting, not annoying). Book published in 2006.
Think: Lynda Barry’s 100 Demons, Ariel Schrag’s Stuck in the Middle, Esther Pearl Watson’s Unlovable, and Corinne Mucha’s Get Over it. Maybe not quite as good as any of these, but still, often painfully hilarious about teen straight (cisgender) nineties girlhood. I’d say 3.5.
Find the answers in girl-growing-up-in-the-nineties Girl Stories, first posted in gurl.com, including different drawing styles developed over the years (which I found interesting, not annoying). Book published in 2006.
Think: Lynda Barry’s 100 Demons, Ariel Schrag’s Stuck in the Middle, Esther Pearl Watson’s Unlovable, and Corinne Mucha’s Get Over it. Maybe not quite as good as any of these, but still, often painfully hilarious about teen straight (cisgender) nineties girlhood. I’d say 3.5.
May 31, 2017
A flashback to my teenage years, as many of Weinstein's comics formerly appeared on gUrl.com. I actually like them better now, as an adult, than I ever did as a teen. Painfully awkward and very funny.
May 7, 2017
My daughter invited me to do a reading a challenge with her this year. Who says no to their teenager’s request to do a book challenge together? It has a list of specifications like ‘read a book published the year you were born,’ ‘read a trilogy,’ and many other things. One requirement is to read a graphic novel, so I went to the library and read this. Since my daughter and I agreed one book could fulfill up to three requirements, this also covered me on reading a book set in high school, which I was sweating the most.
I thought this was very funny and easy to relate to, even decades down the line. I can (still) count the graphic novels I’ve read on two hands, so this was fresh and hilarious to me. It’s a collection of comic stories about the awkwardness and misery of 8th grade and high school, with all the horrors of having the cool kids at your house, French kissing, getting a pus-oozy piercing, and wearing the wrong outfit. The drawing at the end of the story ‘Freak’ was especially great.
I'm only sorry I put my daughter on a plane yesterday, because she would have liked this too (and knocked two items off the challenge list).
I thought this was very funny and easy to relate to, even decades down the line. I can (still) count the graphic novels I’ve read on two hands, so this was fresh and hilarious to me. It’s a collection of comic stories about the awkwardness and misery of 8th grade and high school, with all the horrors of having the cool kids at your house, French kissing, getting a pus-oozy piercing, and wearing the wrong outfit. The drawing at the end of the story ‘Freak’ was especially great.
I'm only sorry I put my daughter on a plane yesterday, because she would have liked this too (and knocked two items off the challenge list).
July 17, 2013
Before I write another word, I have to say this: I love Lauren Weinstein’s coming-of-age collection of comics “Girl Stories.” I think it’s relatable, funny and in some instances super clever. I like the raw honesty of her character, a self-aware art chick who still plays with Barbie Dolls, but understands all the problems with Barbie Dolls and doctors her collection to make it more punk rock. Meanwhile, she has that brand of self-loathing so familiar among girls who grew up in the 1990s. I like that her drawings have a sort of crass R. Crumb-Lynda Berry-ness to them, while also maintaining a very signature style.
But. I say all of this as though I’ve read this collection in a vacuum. As if I haven’t read this collection of comics, heard this song, watched this movie and recorded episodes of this TV show about one katrillion times in my adulthood: Smiths fan awkwards her way through her teen years.
The main character here is flirting with popularity. One minute she’s got it; One minute she’s clinging to her nerdy best friend since second grade. She’s tormented by the popular kids, particularly that dick Glen who seems to hold the yoyo string that controls her social ascent. There’s a junior high dance, a move to high school, a flirtation on a bus and a multi-part incident involving something super gross that someone put in Glen’s locker.
I can no longer differentiate between what is good, what is original and what is derivative anymore. I’m starting to think that even though we are all unique and precious flowers, we all had versions of the same upbringing and now that story has been told and told and told. Yes, high school boys are dicks. Yes, we had a first love and he was probably a skateboarder. Yes, we tried took fashion stances that tried too hard. Yes, we wished that Morrissey would disavow his celibacy for a single round of 7 Minutes in Heaven.
No voice sounds fresh anymore. No story more open-wounded than the next. We grew up in a certain decade, we wore big flannel, we made some bad, some good choices and then we stepped out of the way so we could navigate new areas and the next generation could take its shot at it all (wear whatever, make choices, move on).
When these comics first went live, I bet they bit into a really raw space. I bet girls read them and laughed and related, passed them on and were inspired. I bet they dug the Barbie Dolls out of the closet and gave them punk makeovers. I bet they considered the unique torture of a handsome asshole. In fact, this must be true because Weinstein includes a section at the end featuring readers’ responses to a comic she did about body image. Those responses range from “Am I fat?” to “Thank you.”
But now, read so much later after so many people have been here and done this and were perhaps even inspired by Weinstein, it just feels like slipping into the flannel one keeps around out of habit. It’s comfortable. It feels good. It makes a lady happy. But it’s lost a lot of the power it must have once held. I don’t know what any of this means. That Weinstein and the first makers of 1990s angsty girl art did what they did so well that now everyone has done it, thus diluting the water?
But. I say all of this as though I’ve read this collection in a vacuum. As if I haven’t read this collection of comics, heard this song, watched this movie and recorded episodes of this TV show about one katrillion times in my adulthood: Smiths fan awkwards her way through her teen years.
The main character here is flirting with popularity. One minute she’s got it; One minute she’s clinging to her nerdy best friend since second grade. She’s tormented by the popular kids, particularly that dick Glen who seems to hold the yoyo string that controls her social ascent. There’s a junior high dance, a move to high school, a flirtation on a bus and a multi-part incident involving something super gross that someone put in Glen’s locker.
I can no longer differentiate between what is good, what is original and what is derivative anymore. I’m starting to think that even though we are all unique and precious flowers, we all had versions of the same upbringing and now that story has been told and told and told. Yes, high school boys are dicks. Yes, we had a first love and he was probably a skateboarder. Yes, we tried took fashion stances that tried too hard. Yes, we wished that Morrissey would disavow his celibacy for a single round of 7 Minutes in Heaven.
No voice sounds fresh anymore. No story more open-wounded than the next. We grew up in a certain decade, we wore big flannel, we made some bad, some good choices and then we stepped out of the way so we could navigate new areas and the next generation could take its shot at it all (wear whatever, make choices, move on).
When these comics first went live, I bet they bit into a really raw space. I bet girls read them and laughed and related, passed them on and were inspired. I bet they dug the Barbie Dolls out of the closet and gave them punk makeovers. I bet they considered the unique torture of a handsome asshole. In fact, this must be true because Weinstein includes a section at the end featuring readers’ responses to a comic she did about body image. Those responses range from “Am I fat?” to “Thank you.”
But now, read so much later after so many people have been here and done this and were perhaps even inspired by Weinstein, it just feels like slipping into the flannel one keeps around out of habit. It’s comfortable. It feels good. It makes a lady happy. But it’s lost a lot of the power it must have once held. I don’t know what any of this means. That Weinstein and the first makers of 1990s angsty girl art did what they did so well that now everyone has done it, thus diluting the water?
January 4, 2009
This is a great book for a weekend afternoon read. The illustrated glimpses in Lauren R. Weinstein's Girl Stories are drawn (no pun intended) from her own life, and if you're looking for a laugh you'll find it here. The stories are mainly from her middle school years, and focus on her as an uncool, arty kid who desperately wants - of course - to be one of the cool kids. But that plan doesn't quite work out, and in one of my favorite parts of the book she turns to her idol, Morissey, and together they frolic in graveyards, disdain meat, and revel in their awkwardness.
There's also some useful information in the book, such as tips on making Barbie clothes (cutting up balloons to make swimwear is simply genius) as well as how to really get a boyfriend (he might be a total asshole, but you'll still get one).
This book is funny, but it also has enough sensitivity and depth to keep it from being "just" a laugh. The awkwardness of adolescence with all its thrills and agonies is captured here.
There's also some useful information in the book, such as tips on making Barbie clothes (cutting up balloons to make swimwear is simply genius) as well as how to really get a boyfriend (he might be a total asshole, but you'll still get one).
This book is funny, but it also has enough sensitivity and depth to keep it from being "just" a laugh. The awkwardness of adolescence with all its thrills and agonies is captured here.
May 21, 2008
Just fine, not super.
Not really edgy and deep, and ok with that...this book felt really comfortable with itself, I liked the style of the art, and I liked her love affair with Morrisey.
Yep.
Not really edgy and deep, and ok with that...this book felt really comfortable with itself, I liked the style of the art, and I liked her love affair with Morrisey.
Yep.
August 18, 2022
Not necessarily an 2 star but I don't enjoy the humor/dynamics of the characters. Good text to look at in terms of story telling & comic making, Lynda Berry-esque.The physical formatting was fun and added to the handmade feeling the story supports.
Essentially is just an compressed, skewed look at one teen's 8th and 9th grade years. It centers around clique dynamics & gross young adult humor that I personally could not relate to. I knew this going into the book so to me this was more just looking at the craft of the graphic novel/comics collection than looking to read for the story alone.
Essentially is just an compressed, skewed look at one teen's 8th and 9th grade years. It centers around clique dynamics & gross young adult humor that I personally could not relate to. I knew this going into the book so to me this was more just looking at the craft of the graphic novel/comics collection than looking to read for the story alone.
Read
February 6, 2020I mostly just remember these from being an 11 year old on the internet
April 23, 2015
"Girl Stories" is a Lauren R. Weinstein's memoirific survey course of some embarrassing and near-victorious moments from 8th grade through high school. It's more vignettes than stories and as a few other reviewers said, it would have been great to see her go a bit deeper. At least one of the Goodreads reviewers compared her to Lynda Barry and Ariel Schrag. They are all three cisgender female people who commemorate the painfulness of teenage years on some cultural fringes, but stylistically I think they are pretty far apart. I identify with Barry and Schrag's work a bit more. That said, "Girl Stories" is an engaging, sad and funny book. I laughed when I wasn't cringing at the awkwardness and awfulness of trying to navigate that bleak social landscape of adolescence (yet again). It's great material for comics. I guess I probably laughed and cringed at the same time quite a few times, which is, I think, perfectly appropriate. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could.
September 2, 2015
"Girl Stories" is a very innovative, and I'm guessing real life story about the author, Lauren R. Weinstein. The fact that it's real, even it it wasn't, it feels real. The expressive art really allows the reader to feel the emotion in the novel.The artists style is very unique, and cluttered in a "controlled chaos" type of way. The art feels, if anything, nostalgic to comic styles of the past. Not only is the art unique, but the artists uses her color palette in a very unique way, at times using the entire rainbow, and in other moments the palette is drastically minimalistic with lovely bursts of colors here and there. The writing is splendiferous, and the story itself has moments that real people truly experience in real life, and just like real life, it doesn't necessarily end happily. No bad guy get's what was coming to him, the main girl didn't get the guy, but that's okay, because that's what makes it so real.
November 4, 2007
I loved this graphic novel. If I could relate to every graphic novel the way that I did to this one I would read a graphic novel a day.
Lauren Weinstein writes about her life as a teen. She experiences all the usual teenage girl things... her best friend from childhood has started to hang out with "the cool kids" and abandoned her, she wants to have a boyfriend but then when she gets one wants him to be deep and emotional instead of just wanting to get in her pants, she's being bullied by a guy at school.
In my opinion one of the coolest things about this book is that Lauren wrote the different stories over several years and her style of drawing changed over that time so you get a mix of all different styles. At the beginning of the book she gives and example of how she drew herself each year.
A very fun read!
Lauren Weinstein writes about her life as a teen. She experiences all the usual teenage girl things... her best friend from childhood has started to hang out with "the cool kids" and abandoned her, she wants to have a boyfriend but then when she gets one wants him to be deep and emotional instead of just wanting to get in her pants, she's being bullied by a guy at school.
In my opinion one of the coolest things about this book is that Lauren wrote the different stories over several years and her style of drawing changed over that time so you get a mix of all different styles. At the beginning of the book she gives and example of how she drew herself each year.
A very fun read!
January 25, 2010
Cross Ariel Schrag with Lynda Barry, and add a dash of Laurie Sandell, you get this quick and juicy read. Weinstein tells anecdotes of (what seems to be) her childhood in messy, inconsistent images. Very accessible and charming, with lots of detail and lots of approachability. Reminds us all of our early teen years. It left me wanting more. Which, I suppose, is a very good thing.
December 9, 2008
Nicely done, highly enjoyable and funny comics, somewhat visually reminiscent of Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Lynda Barry (high praise, coming from me). I really like Weinstein's scrawly art and I think teenage girls in particular would really find this book a spot-on depiction of those excruciatingly drama-filled high school days. Plus the author's "Morrissey and Me" story is the best and funniest Morrissey tribute comic I've seen yet, and I have seen my share (I believe I personally drew my Morrisssey strip in 1993).
Read
December 1, 2008I enjoyed/laughed/winced in various places while reading this, though once again I wondered whether it won't appeal more to woman in their 30s, like me, than actual teenage girls. I didn't find the artwork very appealing (well, it's not meant to be appealing, exactly, but I didn't care for the style), and I'm not sure what students will make of it. I think they like their graphic novel illustration a bit more slick.
March 18, 2011
This is such a delightful, exuberant, and honest collection about what it's like to be a girl. The stories are obviously very personal but I feel they could speak to anyone who has had to navigate the disastrous territory between childhood and womanhood. That description makes this collection sound very "Lifetime" but it's not; Weinstein recounts her tales with talent, wit, and originality. It made me chuckle and cringe simultaneously, in the best way.
March 16, 2012
I really liked this book and the comics and drawings were so amazing. The thing with this book is that I could really relate to all the book contains in general. I found the book amusing and saw much of myself in the main character and some of the other characters in the book. When The main character wants to get her belly button pierced the drawing are really good. I think this is one of those books that I will read Over and Over again.
July 25, 2007
Not bad. It's actually a collection of shorter comics, most of which ran on gurl.com. It's interesting to see the different styles weinstein experimented with. All of the stories are mostly autobiographical and took place during Weinstein's 8th and 9th grade years -- and everything is painfully familiar. Do I look fat in this? Do you think John likes me? What if I'm not a good kisser?
April 15, 2009
These comics are pulled from different times in Weinstein's life, so the styles and inkwork change a lot throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - got at some really accurate/memory-provoking bits from my own childhood. A great introduction for those new to the memoir-comic genre, or even comics in general.
Also: Morrissey.
Also: Morrissey.
March 6, 2014
Fun and honest stories of being a teen. It was fun and horrible to remember how horrific those years from 13 to 17 were.
Weinstein was a new acquaintance for me and as such, a very welcomed one. Her drawing style evolved throughout the collection but it was always brilliant and fresh and sort of naive.
Weinstein was a new acquaintance for me and as such, a very welcomed one. Her drawing style evolved throughout the collection but it was always brilliant and fresh and sort of naive.
May 29, 2019
Very enjoyable journey through the early teen years. As a child of the 90’s this resonated with me on many levels. Lauren captures the craziness that is teenage girldom. My copy had some redacted text and I am curious to know if this was how it was published or if someone decided some words were too much. (I purchased it 2nd hand).
July 23, 2007
not totally young adult-they just drop any graphic in this genre at times-but a fun quick read. i read about the author in The Believer magazine and wanted to check out this first collection of short comics.
December 12, 2007
Wow! I'm really getting into this graphic memoir thing! She's funny, talented, and real. I loved it--took about an hour to read, and it was something I could get from our library. The perfect combination for Jill!
November 28, 2017
Overall this book perfectly captures the horror of teenage life and I'd recommend it to any girl or woman who was unhappy during that time in her life. Or currently is. Humor is a great way to deal with misery.
May 19, 2008
I guess we can never have too many of these teenage confessional comics. The stories are all really short, and I wish the author/character was willing to go a little deeper. Some pretty great stories, though.
October 18, 2009
I hate to admit that I read this, but I did. It had some hilarious stuff in it. The artwork wasn't too bad either. If you see it laying around, pick it up and give it a read. Made me laugh out loud a couple of times.
August 11, 2016
Takes you off your feet for a grand hour. You are in good hands while being in the awful places of 8th grade and locker-lined school halls. Yes, to the pages featuring the sweet temporary salve of idolatry and anatomy of French Kisses. Love the colors and pacing and weight of book on my lap.
September 22, 2012
This book is HILARIOUS. It has almost everything I like: 90s references, high school hilarity, teenage girl probz...the art was a bit lacking, but it was so funny I didn't care. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could, but since there is no option for that, it gets a rounded up full 5.
January 4, 2015
Besides small strips in the newspaper, I've never fully read a comic, but I'm glad this was my first! Lauren Weinstein is incredibly witty and her humor applies so easily to my life (is this something I should tell people???) Defiantly worth the read!
September 3, 2015
I picked this up because I flipped it open and saw Morrissey, and kept on flipping because of the funky colours and over-dramatic Lauren, who is definitely relatable, and very funny. I love her drawing style, and it has definitely inspired some of my journaling.
May 23, 2007
This book is nothing but wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews