Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to sexual abuse and coercion.

The Girls explores the perils teenage girls face. The novel is told through the point of view of Evie, a middle-aged woman who looks back on her adolescence to analyze the crises of teenage infatuation, impulsivity, and identity.

As a teenager, Evie is typical in her lack of self-awareness. She is old enough to analyze and emulate adult behavior, but she is inexperienced and lacks autonomy. Like most teenagers, Evie is bored of her suburban life and feels ashamed of her averageness. She has internalized society’s messages that she needs to be pretty and pleasant for boys, that she isn’t anyone until a boy notices her. She says, “All that time I had spent readying myself, the articles that taught me life was really just a waiting room until someone noticed you—the boys had spent that time becoming themselves” (28). Being taught, either directly or indirectly, that identity is formed by attention from other people is a peril many teenage girls still face; Evie notes that boys don’t have to be secretive or manipulative; they can be themselves, and society accepts certain behaviors from them.