When I first heard about the Netflix series, I was SURE that it would be a period piece, set in the 80s or 90s – who would hire 12 or 13 year olds to sit for their kids these days, anyway (even if they knew them well, which seemed to be the case. Everyone knows EVERYONE in Stoneybrook!)? Nope, it’s definitely in the 21st century, pre-COVID days. They made some changes to the story. For example, Dawn is no longer a California blonde, but Latinx. And her parents divorced because her dad came out. I guess we won’t have a stepmom, but a stepdad! And Mary Anne is half Black, half Caucasian. I guess it makes sense – her dad, Richard, was extremely strict with her and forced her to wear her hair in braids until the fourth book. Perhaps he didn’t know how to talk to her about discrimination nor did he know how to care for Black hair. Claudia is still of Japanese heritage, but Mimi, Claudia’s grandmother, is no longer an immigrant. Instead, as a child, she was one of many Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps during World War Two. Kristy is Kristy, Stacey from NYC is still Stacey (and has Type 1) and we barely met Mallory (no more glasses, though) and Jessi (still a dancer, of course). Oh, and spoiler alert…Jenny no longer exists. Instead, the character has been replaced by Bailey, a trans kid on episode 4 (Mary Anne Saves the Day)

Am I a fan of these changes? Mostly, yes. It did need to have some updating. However, I would have preferred that they changed Stacey’s ethnic background rather than Dawn’s. Dawn will forever be the California blonde for me. I didn’t mind the gay dad part nor did I care that Mimi was born in the US. In fact, NOT making her an immigrant was a welcome change. It shows that Asian immigration goes way back, and it isn’t more of a recent, post 1960s kind of thing (especially when one is of Japanese heritage).

The diversity of the show’s cast (Dr. Johannsen is now Black and her daughter, Charlotte is Asian (was Charlotte adopted? I don’t think I recall that)) is further enhanced in the series, but it doesn’t deter from the original spirit of the books. The original books were fairly diverse for its time, and unlike other books, shows or movies, it never REALLY affected how readers related to the characters. Their ethnicities were just part of THEM. You didn’t have to be Asian to relate to Claudia nor did you have to be a redhead to understand Mallory. If you were a horse girl, you probably liked Mallory. Strict parents? Definitely Mary Anne (yep!). Chronic illness? Stacey (same). As someone on a message board I post on said, “You either related to them or wanted to be like them, and you wanted to be friends with them. You could feel like you’d be accepted in their group, no matter who you were.” There were no strict guidelines nor did people look at you funny because you didn’t “look” like a character, yet wanted to be her. You don’t get much of that these days, with cancel culture and all that.

I loved how the books dove into more serious topics that other YA books never did. They looked into grandparents getting ill (Claudia and Mean Janine), looking after kids with special needs (Jessi’s Secret Language and Kristy and the Secret of Susan), a parent’s job loss (Poor, Mallory) as well as racism (Keep Out, Claudia!). It was real life, yet still a fantasy world. And yeah, it was very much a part of my childhood. Normally, it takes me a week to go through an entire series on Netflix or Prime. BSC? I was done by Monday.

I hope there’s a season two. But who knows, now that shooting has been postponed due to COVID? And these kids are going to age out of the characters they’re playing – the girls stayed 13 after the first few books in the series. Which books do I want to see turned into shows? Claudia and the Bad Joke, The Ghost at Dawn’s House, Mary Anne and the Great Romance and Logan Likes Mary Anne!. I DO NOT want to see Claudia and the Sad Goodbye. And Karen is SO ADORABLE that she needs a spin-off series!!

I’m seriously not going to be surprised if people who binged on the series were NOT kids, but Xennials! Who DIDN’T want her BFF to be at least one of the seven? And did anyone want to have a boyfriend like Bart or Logan? Even though Kristy and Mary Anne were both way, way too young to have one? Stoneybrook was our fantasy world when we weren’t doing homework, playing piano, going to Brownies, etc, etc…I mean, that was what things were like for me!

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This isn’t just about budgets, but how some people have been online lately.  I realize many people don’t like the current Ontario government – especially the man who was sworn in as premier just a month or so ago – but many of the comments, especially from mainstream media, are just politically correct and Toronto-centric.  I’m sorry, but even as a Torontonian, a true, blue Toronto gal, I can’t believe how many people I know only think from a Toronto perspective.  Or from the perspective of wherever they live.  Take the whole provincial cabinet thing for example.  Sure, it’s not as diverse as it could be – ethnically speaking – but considering WHO the premiere is, having SEVEN women is, well, better than one would have expected?  And as for ethnicity, can we please stop living in a bubble?  Ontario isn’t just Toronto and Ottawa.  We also need to look at discrimination within individual cultural groups and other culture/ethnic-based issues that are NOT addressed all in the name of diversity/sensitivity (i.e. we don’t want to “meddle” with other people’s businesses/cultures because we don’t want to be seen as “ignorant.”  Well, you’re BEING ignorant just by being too politically correct.  You want people to integrate and feel comfortable here?  Well, make it easier.  Learn about their cultures and find ways to help them or encourage/be allies and ensure they feel they belong – it sometimes takes time to get used to, but most people DO – if they aren’t constantly .  We talk about being allies to the LGBTQ communities, but what about newcomers?  #justsayin).

Lately, I have had to not just unfollow, but unfriend SEVERAL people on Facebook as they were beginning to get on my nerves.  They used to have some kind of reasoning skills, but have somehow become a little more…radical.  I get that the world is changing, and not necessarily for the better –  there are more and more extreme groups on both sides of the spectrum (more right than left, but I won’t be surprised if that changes) – but I feel like both sides need to put more effort in research.  And to look at both sides without killing each other.  It only increases stress and anxiety and makes everyone look like they’re in Grade 7.  Can we please grow up and do this maturely?  There’s a reason why I’ve written posts like “Politics, Determination Stories, Diversity and Privilege,” “On Feminism:  Am I Being Shamed?” and others.  Of course, this is just a small, personal blog rather than, say, Time or Macleans, so it isn’t like it’s going to get high traffic.  And to be honest, many of my peers are too busy being radical to really think or care.

Image by Artur Szczybylo/Shutterstock

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Photo of the article I wrote in 2004

In my article, I talked about how we grew up in an era where we didn’t have many “true” icons.  Sure, as kids, we were part of the Cabbage Patch Kids craze and were the first cohort to be exposed to computers as children (remember creating flags on Commodore 64s?), but as teenagers?  Compared to Generation X, who had celebrities like Madonna, Prince and Cyndi Lauper and Millennials, with their boy bands, we had little.  Sure, there was New Kids on the Block, but they didn’t last THAT long (not as long as N’Sync, anyway).  On television, there was Beverly Hills, 90210, but we shared the obsession with later Gen Xers.  The only iconic thing I can think of that REALLY addressed us and was FOR US, fairly exclusively, was My So-Called Life.  It didn’t even last ONE SEASON.

Of course, it isn’t all negative.  After all, having cultural icons unique to your youth isn’t EVERYTHING and we probably had more of a “traditional” childhood compared to millennials – especially younger millennials.  Many of us freely rode our bikes in our neighbourhood and didn’t have as scheduled a childhood (okay, I sort of did, but it was limited to Brownies/Guides and piano lessons).  We were able to HAVE FUN, and CREATIVE FUN at that.  We (at I wasn’t) weren’t criticized because we built a wall instead of whatever was pictured on the box when we got a Lego set for our birthday.  Fewer of us were overweight because we played outside so much more.  We were probably the last ones who were able to do that (I loved spending time in our backyard where we had a swing set.  A neighbourhood kid would often just pop in just to play).  But still, it would have been nice to have SOMETHING we could say defined our middle and high school years – especially for the ’77-80 set.  Current events like the OJ trial don’t count.

I’m not looking for actual acknowledgement of coming up with this first…more than a decade ago (okay, maybe I’m KIND of looking for some acknowledgement), but it’s just a little..weird to me (and probably much of my cohort) that we’re only getting some press NOW.  Why not earlier?  I guess it’s like being a middle child.  Yes, the Xennial cohort is, if we want to borrow from an even earlier generation, Jan Brady.

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