“I am going to become a writer for Cosmo – you don’t have to make any sense at all. Or maybe I’ll be a bloke, they don’t have to make sense either.”
– Georgia Nicolson, Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging
If I had to name a writer that crafted who I am as a person, and kept me laughing through the real pain of adolescence, it would be Louise Rennison who has died, aged 64.
She is best known for her book series, first released in 1999, which followed the up close and personal diary of Georgia Nicolson. This was later adapted into a hugely successful film, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging in 2008.
Rennison had an extraordinarily relatable style of writing that was at times rather mad, unabashedly honest and immensely comforting. Her protagonist Georgia was made up of everything you ever were as a teenager; vibrant, sassy, frustrated, confused, sometimes irritating and moody, but always with a massive heart.
“I am done with love. It’s a mug’s game. I am just going to sit in my room for the rest of my life not doing stuff.”
– Georgia Nicholson, Startled By His Furry Shorts
She encapsulated the conflict of adolescence, consistently teetering on the verge of childish innocence, whilst desperately trying to fathom sexuality.
“I can already feel myself getting fed up with boys and I haven’t had anything to do with them yet”
– Georgia Nicolson, Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging
Rennison faced criticism from teachers about the nature of her books, but was fiercely defended by students. She was writing for them, and consistently delivered funny literature that meant a lot to girls growing up. She wrote of things I desperately wanted to know about, but wasn’t brave enough to ask my mother yet.
In an interview in 2013, she explained that her books “get young girls talking, and they talk about what they like and don’t like, what they want to do and don’t want to do. It’s not left up to other people, particularly men, to decide.”
Rennison incorporated feminism into her writing through a sense of humour that empowered the reader. Reading her books left us not only in tears of laughter, but infinitely wiser and a little bit less lonely. She will be carried in the hearts of girls everywhere who took so much from her words.
“Some of you will laugh, some of you will cry, some of you may have a little accident in the piddlydiddly department. I don’t know. But I care.”
– Georgia Nicolson, Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?
