Girls (R) English 2026

'Freya India's writing is compassionate, gripping, and deeply psychological' Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation

Coming of age has always been a time of angst and inner turmoil, especially for girls. But today girls have to contend with those worries in a world of AR filters, TikTok plastic surgeons, dating apps, hook up culture, online porn, modern sex-positivity, profit-driven online therapy apps, direct-to-door medication and even fully customisable AI girlfriends. All personalised by algorithms to play on their innermost fears and insecurities. It is an onslaught of advertising, it is on portable platforms designed to be maximally addictive, and it is far beyond what any previous generation of girls have ever faced.

Girls (R) teases out and traces both technological and cultural shifts in the last decade-from social media to shifting family structures, waning religious attachment and the collapse of communal spaces. And Girls (R) exposes the sinister and rapid intensification and ruthless commercialisation of the inner lives of girls and young women which leads to the loss of their authentic selves-a loss that corporations are all too ready to exploit.

Girls (R) is a personal journey and intimate portrait of girls today, in all their mystery and torment: one that captures the soul of the most complex and misunderstood generation so far, and that empowers them to see their lives through a different lens.