Status Updates From Margaret and the Mystery of...

“I’m beginning to think my problem was loneliness. It describes not only a way of life but also a state of being, a social experience insistently internalized and corporeal, felt to be both essential and permanent.” (pg. 249)

“For many of us who lived in the category of girl, the nineties were kind of a mindfuck.” (pg. 248)

"I have only ever wanted to be part of it. History, that is. The great big record of time. But it seems my time keeps running out." (pg. 185)

“You're not fearful. You're strong. You're driven by curiosity and yearning. I believe you're capable of absorbing what I have to share." (pg. 185)

“Adulthood is like the last stop on the train and you have to get off. All you can see is dark and then the train leaves without you.” (pg. 173)

“Everything's a game. You have to pass the levels.” (pg. 121)

“She seemed to believe that writing could solve anything… she gave you exercises to write letters home, letters that would never get sent. Some days she asked you to write angry rants; others, to imagine things from different perspectives. Dr. Holly felt these assignments would help you identify buried feelings and understand their origins, that they'd help you take control over your story.” (pg. 116)

“sane in an insane world
superficial
vain
suffering from suburban American over-abundance
saving the environment
a feminist
a white girl
a girl
a girl, interrupted
a copycat
just following directions
out of control
over-controlling
testing the limits of your body
starving away your feminine parts
trying too hard at being a girl
covering over the real problem
grrr” (pg. 110-111)

“If adolescence is a passageway, a twilight zone or liminal space, it's also the time when, like thick blobs of gummy dough, we get poured into shape and rise. It's plastic time, a time of self-discovery and growth, and in some cases tremendous creativity. Teenagehood is that stage when you get to become who you are, or who you can be.” (pg. 99)

“Some internal levy was about to break and I needed to summon reinforcements.” (pg. 97)

“People are not who they seem… Whether bumblingly or with shrewd calculation, people go about their lives with any number of secret selves knocking around inside them, private layers vibrating deep within- in some cases, just past the surface of the skin.“ (pg. 70)