Enid, the best role model.

Everyday when I try to find a new book to read I find myself lost in blogs full of young adults novels. I have become kind of an expert finding them because they are my obsession, however I must recognize that every single one of them goes around the same issue: Shy girl who falls in love with the broken guy, which relationship is impossible and then three books later, sometimes six (thanks mortal instruments) they end up together.

That is what Ghost World is not about.

The graphic novel by Daniel Clowes tells the story of two best high school friends and how they start growing apart.

The characters are Enid, a girl who hates trends and has strong opinions about everything and Rebecca her best friend who shows herself as cynical as Enid.  The story goes around how they face adulthood after high school and how (like most of us) they are really confused and scared of leaving their comfort zones.

What it is most appealing is the way they communicate, the dialogues are so natural that at one minute you do not care if the subject is deep you just want they keep talking.

The melancholic mood of the random stories of their summer made me call my high school friend to talk about the time we try to sell my old barbies so we could have enough money to go to RBD’s concert and how I end up bursting in tears because the only doll we sold was the one my brother gave me and the money we made was not enough. Or the time I decided to wear a hat for months because I didn’t like the shape of my head and she just let me be, even though everyone else thought I was weird.

When Enid goes back to recover her old toy, when she wears that helmet she bought at the sex shop I was truly shocked that those kind of stories that didn’t seem as important for me created such a great novel.

And that made me think about how unidentified I feel with the role models in the young adults novels and more than that how girls everyday try to become those characters that are just a product of really bad imagination.

This generation is surrounded of bad examples, stupid role models that do not come close of what a woman should be.

I used my searching powers to find opinions about Ghost World in the blogs I usually visit and I couldn’t find them. But I read a lot of how everyone wishes to be in a Fifty Shades of Grey novel.  I also found reviews that state Enid is not a role model, because she is confused and she does bad things like make a joke to a guy who wants to meet his dream girl and then she feels really bad about it.

But I think that feeling confused, angry and a hater is not a bad example of who you should be.

I think that writing about those things, about the time you were so disappointed of love and you told your BFF that maybe you should be a lesbian that is a good example of what a girl is.

More than that, despite the many critics that claims that Enid found an easy way out of all her problems I think is a better role model than all the Kardashians together.

And I am just glad that this graphic novel inspired other role models such as: Daria.

In conclusion we should all accept our inner Enid, accept our confussion, accept that not all friendships are forever and be sure that even though our Enid take the bus she remains truthful to herself, and we all should do the same.