Not one to sidestep piercing, authentic issues in her fiction, Jennifer Mathieu again exposes the tricky trajectory of teenage life in Bad Girls Never Say Die, a feminist reimagining of S.E. Hinton’s groundbreaking 1967 novel, The Outsiders. Released last month by Roaring Brook Press, the novel centers on “bad girl” Evie, who must redefine her identity and rethink the rules she has always lived by after a good girl from the right side of the tracks saves her from a sinister encounter. The story, which is set in 1964 Houston (Mathieu’s hometown), explores some timeless, and timely, issues faced by young women almost six decades later, among them body autonomy and reproductive rights. The publisher has launched a campaign that taps social media influencers to help spread word of the novel’s relevant message.
Mathieu, whose previous novels include The Truth About Alice, Moxie, and The Liars of Mariposa Island, is an ardent fan of The Outsiders, which she has read “countless” times—first as a sixth grader. “I was a very precocious reader and I stayed up all night to finish it—and I think I flunked a science quiz the next day as a result,” she recalled. “I reread the novel many times in high school. It has an intensity that says something about the world teens create for themselves in a world that seems to be working against them. But it is also a sweet story—about love between brothers and friendship, and about class divide.”
The author’s 17-year tenure teaching English, initially in middle school and currently in high school, has enhanced her appreciation of The Outsiders and its profound impact on teenagers. “My very first year as a teacher, I was given a syllabus and was told I’d be teaching The Outsiders, and after loving the novel as a teenager I fell in love with it as a teacher,” Mathieu said. “I have taught at Title 1 public schools and at one of Houston’s most expensive private schools, which had students of very different backgrounds. The novel was universally loved by all the students, and that planted a seed for me wanting to write a story that was compelling and action-packed and centered on that intensity of the teenage experience.”
Mathieu knew she wanted to put a new spin on the story Hinton had created and set out to discover where her imagination would take her. She decided that she wanted to write the novel with “a gender-flip,” adding, “In The Outsiders, there are no bad girls—the book mostly focuses on male characters. I wanted to tell a story inspired by the question: What would it have been like to have been a bad girl at that time? I was curious to see what my mind would come up with.”
The solution she found was multi-tiered. The teenage girls in Bad Girls, she explained, “are ‘bad’ in obvious ways—they wear heavy eye makeup, curse, run around with boys, and cut class. Yet when I dug deeper into their stories, I found that they were also bad by being transgressive in terms of how society expects them to be and to behave. For example, one character, who is Mexican, wants to be called by Juanita—which is her name. But the teacher insists on calling her Joanie. My research taught me that this was something that happened to a lot of students of Latin origin in the early ’60s. But Juanita rebels against her teacher—and that is why she is a bad girl.”
Mining the Past, Braving the Present
Mathieu, who studied journalism at Northwestern University, discovered that her love of research kicked in when she tackled the task of re-creating the particulars of Houston—and the lives of teenagers—in the 1960s. But she encountered some unexpected challenges.
“I wanted to write an honest portrayal of Houston in 1964,” she said. “This was obviously outside of my life experience, but it was important for me to pay attention to details of the time, since I wanted the writing to feel real—the smells of a city bus, brand names, teen magazines, posters on the bedroom wall. Yet I felt that the flow of my writing was often disrupted by my rabbit holes into research, and those interruptions were tricky for me. I’m thankful to the many wonderful people in Houston who grew up in the 1960s who provided useful details, and to librarians and academics who were very helpful directing me to source materials from the era. This book was a journey, and I am grateful to my editor, Kate Meltzer, for her guidance and patience.”
Mathieu pointed to an analogy between the trials endured by the characters in Bad Girls and today’s teens. “My novel is technically historical fiction, yet in some ways it doesn’t feel like historical fiction,” she said. “In 2021 we are living in an era where teens are sanctioned and policed for their behavior in much the same way that Evie and friends are in the 1960s. What is happening today in our country, with legislation like Texas’s barbaric State Bill 8, is telling girls they have no autonomy over their own bodies, reproductive rights, and destinies. We have reached an inflection point in this journey, which concerns me as a feminist—and as a Texan.”
On her expectations about what young adults will take away from Bad Girls, Mathieu noted, “I hope readers of my novel will not only enjoy a fast-paced story, but that they will be prompted to consider what makes a person ‘bad’ in the eyes of society, and whether or not being ‘bad’ is sometimes something worth striving for.”
Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group is partnering with digital influencers on a social media campaign to spread awareness of (and fundraise on their own if they choose) the topics of women’s rights and body autonomy that are raised in Bad Girls. “These issues that are key to the novel are so relevant today; it seemed like a natural fit to coordinate an influencer campaign that would bring further awareness to readers,” senior publicist Brittany Pearlman said.
To implement the plan, the publicity team sent review copies to digital influencers who requested them, Pearlman added, “and at least 30 responded quickly and enthusiastically to the idea of spreading awareness about the issues within the book’s pages and promoting vital organizations such as Planned Parenthood. We want to empower our readers to speak their minds and make a difference, so we’re thrilled that titles such as Bad Girls Never Say Die can help illuminate worthy causes.”
Mathieu heartily supports her publisher’s initiatives. “I am so grateful to Macmillan for all the outreach they’ve done, including encouraging readers to become engaged in the fight for reproductive justice,” she said. “It’s wonderful to see these conversations unfold online, and I am honored if my book prompts action of any kind.”
Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu. Roaring Brook, $18.99 Oct. ISBN 978-1-250-23258-8
