Out of Reach

Out of Reach: The Ideal Girl in American Girls’ Serial Literature traces the journey of the ideal girl through American girls’ series in the twentieth century. Who is the ideal girl? In what ways does the trope of the ideal girl rely on the exclusion and erasure of Othered girls? How does the trope retain its power through cultural shifts? Drawing from six popular girls’ series that span the twentieth century, Kate G. Harper explores the role of girls’ series in constructing a narrow ideal of gi