Anonymous
Post 12/20/2025 19:37     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Bushnell's books are witty and funny. She's riffing on Edith Wharton. I'd give her Bushnell's Trading Up and then Wharton's Custom of the Country. You could read or reread them with her.

Maybe I'm wrong but the tv series didn't seem to have much at all to do with the books?
Anonymous
Post 12/07/2025 21:33     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think The New Yorker Magazine is a great resource for mature high schoolers. Non-fiction long-form journalism is very educational and teaches how to sustain interest in a piece. The New Yorker also has cartoons and short humor pieces. However, it also does have heavy, adult topics. So it's not for sheltered kids.

To me SATC-type content is junk food - adult versions of "boys and clothes" books for teens. I prefer to let kids find their own "sexy" material instead of handing it to them. I read "Princess Daisy" as a 13 year old. My son found a few things in my library book bag that I'd rather he not have dug out (e.g., Helen Hoang - I like her books but think they would actually be better without a few gratuitous oral scenes).

You could try witty TV to develop an ear. I would try 30 Rock and The Good Place for a teen girl.


One can read both the New Yorker and Candace Bushnell. They’re not mutually exclusive.


Yes, but the New Yorker is a convenient gift, keeps you culturally up to date, has beautiful advertising (and a fashion issue), and may help prep for SATs due to the nature of the writing.

Much better gift for an intelligent daughter.
Anonymous
Post 12/07/2025 21:27     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Anonymous wrote:I think The New Yorker Magazine is a great resource for mature high schoolers. Non-fiction long-form journalism is very educational and teaches how to sustain interest in a piece. The New Yorker also has cartoons and short humor pieces. However, it also does have heavy, adult topics. So it's not for sheltered kids.

To me SATC-type content is junk food - adult versions of "boys and clothes" books for teens. I prefer to let kids find their own "sexy" material instead of handing it to them. I read "Princess Daisy" as a 13 year old. My son found a few things in my library book bag that I'd rather he not have dug out (e.g., Helen Hoang - I like her books but think they would actually be better without a few gratuitous oral scenes).

You could try witty TV to develop an ear. I would try 30 Rock and The Good Place for a teen girl.


One can read both the New Yorker and Candace Bushnell. They’re not mutually exclusive.
Anonymous
Post 12/07/2025 02:00     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
"writing style" as in her own writing style? That will be worked out through her actually writing, not what she is reading (tho of course, this will influence her).
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 10:07     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
I think The New Yorker Magazine is a great resource for mature high schoolers. Non-fiction long-form journalism is very educational and teaches how to sustain interest in a piece. The New Yorker also has cartoons and short humor pieces. However, it also does have heavy, adult topics. So it's not for sheltered kids.

To me SATC-type content is junk food - adult versions of "boys and clothes" books for teens. I prefer to let kids find their own "sexy" material instead of handing it to them. I read "Princess Daisy" as a 13 year old. My son found a few things in my library book bag that I'd rather he not have dug out (e.g., Helen Hoang - I like her books but think they would actually be better without a few gratuitous oral scenes).

You could try witty TV to develop an ear. I would try 30 Rock and The Good Place for a teen girl.
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 09:37     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Candace Bushnell is too racy for a 14 year old. When I think of the books my friends and I read at that age, the Bushnell is on the tamer side and kids are exposed to a lot more with the internet these days.


I’d agree with this (I think I read SATC fairly young too) but also, the book SATC is far less explicit than the show.
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 09:30     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
I don’t think Candace Bushnell is too racy for a 14 year old. When I think of the books my friends and I read at that age, the Bushnell is on the tamer side and kids are exposed to a lot more with the internet these days.
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 09:27     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
I loved Gossip Girl at that age.
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 08:14     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Meg Cabot? She’s got a range of girl internal monologue books for the younger set including for adults
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 08:12     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Anonymous wrote:Jenny Han


Thank you!
OP
PS: just realized I misspelled Candace Bushnell’s last name in my title!
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 08:11     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
Jenny Han
Anonymous
Post 12/06/2025 06:51     Subject: Author with similar style to Candace Bushbell but more tame
I’m trying to help DD 14, find her own writing style. She’s an avid reader and has read a few classics ( Jane Austen, Louisa M Alcott, …) but I’d love to expose her to more contemporary authors.
I love Carrie Bradshaw’s witty internal monologue on Sex and the City, but clearly, it’s way too racy for a 14 year old.
So I was wondering, are there any authors out there with a similar style to Candace Bushnell, whose work would be more suitable for a teen girl?
TIA