Fighting Beauty Stereotypes In Los American Girls By Allison Umminger

Fighting Beauty Stereotypes in Los Angeles
American Girls, a 2016 novel by Allison Umminger, tells the classic coming of age story of fifteen year old Anna, but with an interesting and different twist. Anna lives with her mom Cora, who is a lesbian and is married to Lynette, and her baby brother Birch. Her dad has a new wife and is not involved in her life. She also has a best friend named Doon who influences her in negative ways. Anna steals her stepmother Lynettes credit card to hop onto a plane to escape punishment from her other mom for bullying one of the prettiest girls in school, Paige Parker. Anna and Doon sent mean memes, and bullied her through text messages. She chooses out of all the places to run, Los Angles, where her beautiful up and coming actress sister Delia resides. While living in Los Angles Anna researches the Charles Manson family and the murders they committed for Roger, a skeevy but well-paying director of a movie who Delia used to be in a relationship with. Anna thinks that running to Los Angles will allow her to be beautiful, because so many different people and cultures existed there. She spends lots of time on Delia’s new boyfriend Dex’s TV show set that he writes for, Chips Ahoy. Here she

She even clearly comes out and says "I almost, kind of, understood what it might have been like to be a Manson girl" (95). She has a background of doing illegall tings, like cyberbullying and stealing money, even though it is not the same as the Manson Families murders. They also all crave attention from male figures and love. Also, like I said in the last paragraph, Anna connects with them in the ways of beauty. Both Anna and the Manson girls are not considered beautiful, and this makes them somewhat bitter towards famous and beautiful people. The Manson girls felt this way about Sharon Tate, and Anna feels the same way about Delia and Olivia