On the one hand, Gemma Burgess' new book series Brooklyn Girls promises to be entertaining, amusing, light-hearted, and fun. On the other hand, it makes us straight-up wonder, what exactly is a "Brooklyn girl"?
In a recent article from The Cut, author Yael Kohen explains, "Nothing about the story's central character, Pia, screams Brooklyn — she's a party girl who gets fired from her PR job after topless photos appear on Facebook and then launches a pink food truck called SkinnyWheels." She continues, "[Lena] Dunham didn’t create the Brooklyn Girl but she cemented her stereotype into popular consciousness... The well-educated liberal arts grad with a degree in English but no real skill set. Brooklyn Girls wear brown, not black; they go to beer gardens, not lounges or clubs with bottle service; they listen to Spotify, not DJs; they drink bourbon, not scotch... They aspire to have jobs in publishing, not PR.... They live in Brooklyn because that’s where they can play out their millennial urban agita rituals with others like themselves."
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How much of his stereotype do we agree with, exactly? From our experience — with an admittedly less-than-perfect-but-still-trustworthy sample consisting of our friends, families, colleagues, and well, ourselves — this stereotypical Brooklyn girl is no more. She can work in PR, fashion, or publishing. Her undergrad degree might be in sociology, economics, music, or history. She can spend an afternoon in a beer garden and a night out at a club.
With all of this in mind, we find ourselves connecting more closely with Kohen's closing statements — that "many real women now living in Brooklyn" are "anything but wandering and lost." And we identify with the desire for more stories of the powerful, independent, employed-for-profit Brooklyn women. Because these ladies, well, they're everywhere.
Photo: Via The Cut.