tvtropes.org

The Girls Series

  • ️Mon Apr 30 2012

The Girls Series (Literature)

A series of books by Jacqueline Wilson, aimed at teenagers, following three girls through their third year of high schoolnote  as they deal with the issues of teenage life. The series explores subjects ranging from everyday problems to very serious issues.

The main characters are Ellie, the narrator, an artistic girl with image issues; Nadine, Ellie's gothic childhood best friend with something of a wild streak, and Magda, a confident and popular girl who befriended them at the start of high school.

The books are:

  • Girls in Love: The girls all deal with having their first boyfriends, but Ellie and Nadine both have some problems.
  • Girls Under Pressure: Ellie develops an eating disorder, Nadine gets a chance to be a model, and Magda's good looks give some people the wrong idea.
  • Girls Out Late: Ellie gets her first real boyfriend, while wishing she could stay out later, and Magda and later Nadine make some unwise decisions.
  • Girls In Tears: Ellie's relationship is struggling, Magda is upset over losing her pet, and Nadine gets an Internet boyfriend.
  • Think Again: A long-awaited sequel for adults released in September 2024, 22 years after the previous instalment. Ellie is turning 40, living alone after her daughter has gone off to uni, and deals with some surprises in her life which lead her to discover more about herself.

The series was given a Live-Action Adaptation, called Girls in Love, which ran for two seasons on CITV between 2003 and 2005.

This series provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Attractiveness:
    • In the television adaptation, Ellie - whose characterisation largely revolves around her weight and other looks issues - is played by the pretty Olivia Hallinan.
    • Dan is described as a spiky-haired bespectacled nerdy boy who is younger and less mature than Ellie in the novels. This description is not the case in the show.
    • An in-universe example: Russell draws a picture of himself and Ellie together. She points out that he's made both of them much better-looking than they really are.

    Ellie: I wish. You wish!

  • Adoptive Peer Parent: Anna is 27, and was only 14 when Ellie was born. She is also described as looking young for her age and people often think she is Ellie's sister.
  • Affectionate Nickname: "Mags" for Magda and "Nad" or "Naddie" for Nadine.
  • Alice Allusion: At the beginning of Think Again, Ellie meets her new friend and love interest Alice when both of them are wearing the same T-shirt with Alice in Wonderland on it.
  • All Art Is Autobiographical:
    • Played for laughs when Ellie writes a poem in English class. The poem is autobiographical - she based it on going for a walk with Russell - but the entire class (including the teacher) becomes convinced that Ellie described having sex with Russell, which gets her in trouble.
    • The illustrations in the books are implied to be drawn by Ellie, and always reflect whatever's going on in her life.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Eggs to Ellie, Natasha to Nadine.
  • Animal Motifs:
    • Ellie is often associated with elephants.
    • Likewise, Magda with cats.
    • Ellie makes Nadine a toy lemur as the black fur around their eyes reminds her of Nadine's gothic makeup style.
  • Attempted Rape:
    • Ellie and Magda manage to save Nadine in Girls In Love.
    • Magda narrowly avoids one with Mick after he gets the wrong idea about her in Girls Under Pressure.
  • Author Appeal: Ellie's favourite subjects at school are English and Art, she loves swimming, and she has a tense relationship with her father, just like Jacqueline Wilson.
  • Awkward Poetry Reading: In Girls Out Late, Ellie writes a romantic poem about meeting Russell in their local park. When her teacher forces her to read it out loud, she gets put in detention and laughed at by the other students. She's genuinely confused about why, until Magda and Nadine explain to her that, although she was writing about them kissing, it sounded as if she was describing them having sex in public.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Kevin comes to Ellie's rescue when she is drunk and trying to find her way home in Girls In Tears.
  • Big Fancy House: Russell's friend Big Mac has one.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: Several characters comment on Ellie's chest.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Ellie gives her dad a pretty brutal telling-off when she thinks he is jealous of Anna's success in her new job.

    Ellie: The only thing you're good at is making us all unhappy!

  • Cardiovascular Love: The Heart Symbols on the cover of Girls In Love.
  • Career Versus Family: It is mentioned that Ellie's mother gave up a promising career as an illustrator to take care of Ellie. In one book Anna's career causes friction with Ellie's father, although it's later resolved.
  • Career Versus Man:
    • In Girls Out Late, the girls are upset when they discover that their favourite pop star is ending her career because her boyfriend was jealous of her success.
    • Ellie herself has an instance of this when she feels that Russell is not supportive of her ambition to become an illustrator..
  • Childhood Friend: Ellie and Nadine have been friends since they were five years old.
  • Cool Teacher: Mrs Lilley and Mr Windsor, Ellie's art teachers. Both encourage her talent and treat her kindly.
  • Crappy Homemade Gift: In "Girls Under Pressure", Ellie mentions that she makes all her Christmas gifts and the reception is mixed, with Magda expecting something more shop-bought. However, when Ellie stitches stuffed toys for her friends in the present day, they genuinely enjoy them and Ellie's negative attitude towards them is positioned as part of her eating disorder angst.
  • Date Rape Averted: Magda fights off a would-be date rapist in Girls Under Pressure.
  • Derailing Love Interests: In Think Again, Ellie starts going out with her old art teacher Gary Windsor. She initially thinks it's the happiest relationship she's ever had, but in order to have her get together with Alice at the end of the book, he becomes demanding, critical, and patronising towards her. He also repeatedly accuses her of cheating on him; even though he himself has at least one woman on the side.
  • Dirty Old Man: As it turns out, Ellis.
  • Dude Magnet: Magda. Girls Under Pressure reveals this upsets her to some extent, since guys only want her for a bit of eye candy. Nadine also has quite a few guys interested in her.
  • Eat the Evidence: In the TV series, when the girls are caught passing notes in art class, Nadine eats the note rather than have to read it out.
  • Embarrassing Cover Up: Magda and Nadine reluctantly convince Ellie to go to the home of a guy they've just met, but it turns out to be just him and a couple sleazy friends - who try to grope the girls and offer them alcohol and drugs. In order to get Magda and Nadine away from the men so the girls can sneak out together, Ellie hides in the bathroom and lies that she needs her friends to help her because she is so drunk she threw up all over herself.
  • Embarrassing First Name:
    • Ellie's brother Eggs, which is a nickname for Benedict, "Anna's slightly poncey choice".
    • Magda's stepchildren are called Nathaniel (Nat) and Coriander (Corrie), which she thinks are horrid names and blames on their mother. Nathaniel is a fairly standard Biblical name, but Coriander is certainly...out there.
  • Ephebophile:
    • Ellis is a middle-aged man who grooms teenage girls over the internet.
    • 17-year-old Liam turns out to be one of these. He nearly coerces thirteen-year-old Nadine and even younger Vicky into having sexual relations with him, and is mentioned to have gotten another pregnant. According to the other girls, he goes after young girls because he believes he doesn't have to practice safe sex with virgins and has dumped every girl who has allowed him.
  • Erotic Asphyxiation: Ellie is horrified to discover that one of Nadine's hookups has done this to her in Think Again.
  • Fat Idiot: Inverted. Ellie, who is described as being overweight, does not always use her common sense, but it is shown several times that she is far more intelligent than her two skinny friends, Magda and Nadine, especially when it comes to meeting boys.
  • Fiery Redhead: Magda lampshades this trope when talking about her on/off boyfriend Greg.

    Magda: Redheads are known for their tempestuous natures.

  • Fictional Document: Spicy, the teenage magazine running the modelling competition in Girls Under Pressure. Possibly a play on the British celebrity gossip magazine Heat.
  • Flowers of Romance: Nigel anonymously sends them to Ellie's flat, but it ends up freaking her out.
  • Food Porn: Many of the descriptions of food in Girls Under Pressure invoke this trope.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • There are a couple of hints that Ellie will end up dating a woman in Think Again. Firstly, she finds Alice attractive when she first meets her, which triggers a memory of a drunken encounter with Nadine. A fair bit later on in the story, she's complaining about Gary's personality to Nadine and Magda. They reply that those faults are because he's male and joke that the kind of partner Ellie wants must be a woman.
    • Ellie's cat Stella also reacts badly to Gary, but is surprisingly friendly to Alice, providing a hint as to who is the better match.
  • Freudian Trio: The three girls - Magda is the confident Id, Ellie is the anxious Ego, and Nadine is the stoic Superego.
  • Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: In an episode of the TV series, the girls take revenge on Magda's ex by doing this. They steal his togs while he is in the shower at the pool, and then remove all of his clothes from his locker.
  • Good Stepmother:
    • Anna and Ellie have a good relationship, though Ellie admits that wasn't always the case on her side, and the two frequently confide in and support each other.
    • Zigzagged with Russell's stepmother Cynthia, who he seems to dislike. However, she is very kind to Ellie when Russell invites her over for dinner.
    • As an adult, Magda ends up with two young stepchildren and develops a good relationship with them.
  • Grade Skipper: Dan and Zoë are mentioned to have been put up a year at their respective schools.
  • Grand Romantic Gesture: Invoked a couple of times but rarely goes to plan.
    • In Girls Out Late Russell can't meet Ellie as he's grounded and has no way to let her know, so he stands her up. Later, he knocks on all the doors in her neighbourhood to find where she lives, but when he eventually finds the right house, she's not at home.
    • In Think Again, Gary books a surprise trip to Venice for himself and Ellie, but she's not thrilled about it as he booked it without asking her. It's also mentioned that Magda's partner Chris took her on a surprise trip to Paris for her 40th birthday and took her around all the famous hotspots, which Ellie finds a bit cliche but made Magda very happy.
  • Have a Gay Old Time: Nadine's dad calls Ellie "Curlynob". note 
  • Huge Schoolgirl: Ellie is embarrassed about her weight, and expresses some D-Cup Distress as well. Nadine is also described as being very tall.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
    • The 4 books of the series use a "Girls [preposition] [noun]" pattern: Girls in Love, Girls Under Pressure, Girls Out Late, and Girls in Tears. However, it's avoided by the eventual sequel, Think Again.
    • The first 4 books also have quirky ways of demarcating the chapters which reflect the events of the stories.
      • Girls in Love starts each chapter with a list of nine things, such as Ellie's resolutions for the new term.
      • Girls Under Pressure has Ellie in different guises according to how she sees herself.
      • Girls Out Late gives the chapters names which all contain the word "Time".
      • Girls in Tears has different situations that make girls cry.
  • Important Haircut:
    • After experiencing Attempted Rape, Magda gets her hair cut into a short, unflattering style and dyed back to her natural color, believing that this will stop boys from assuming she will sleep with them. When she regains her confidence, she gets it cut again into a better style, and dyed bright red.
    • Ellie also considers doing one in her resolutions at the start of the first book, but is never shown to have gone through with it.
    • Dan gets his hair cut very short in an attempt to look tough, but it just ends up making him look silly.
  • It's All My Fault: When she hears the news of Mr Allard's heart attack, Ellie feels incredibly guilty as she was supposed to be spending time with him and Anna when it happened - Anna had tried to organise a family lunch but Ben and Ellie both already had plans.
  • Just Friends: Ellie insists than Dan is this throughout most of the first book and first series of the live action version, even though he insists differently.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Ellie gets pregnant at 20 from a one-night stand but Magda doesn't manage to conceive until she's 40.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Magda.

    Ellie: Magda can be a real scheming bitch at times, but at least she's always honest about it.

  • Loving a Shadow:
    • In the first book of the Girls series, Ellie falls hard for Kevin, an older boy she has seen around town but never really met or spoken to. She later develops a relationship with Dan (a boy her own age) and has to accept that Kevin will never live up to her romantic fantasies as he is gay; however, Ellie and Kevin do form a genuine platonic friendship. When Dan later dumps Ellie, she wonders if her perception of Dan was just a fantasy.
    • In Think Again, Ellie meets Russell for the first time in about twenty years and discovers that he's married to a woman who looks a lot like her and is called Elinor. Ellie realises Russell never got over her and reflects that he probably isn't consciously aware of what attracted him to Elinor.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Natasha and Eggs; lampshaded in a scene where they dress up in each other's clothes.
  • May–December Romance:
    • Ellie's father is in his 50s while his second wife Anna is still in her 20s. Also a former case of Teacher/Student Romance, since they met when Anna was one of his art students at college.
    • In Think Again, Gary (aka Mr Windsor) has a friends-with-benefits arrangement with his colleague Kim, who is 23. He is around 50.
  • Meet Cute: Russell and Ellie's first meeting. She notices he's looking at her from across the room - turns out he's drawing her, so she starts drawing him too and then they compare sketches. Aww.
  • Missing Mom: Ellie's mother died of an unspecified illness prior to the beginning of the series. In Think Again, we learn she had cancer.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: Russell gets completely the wrong end of the stick when he spots Ellie chatting to Kevin at the supermarket.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Think Again mentions that Ellie was a fan of The Lottie Project as a child and her daughter Lottie is named after the book.
    • In the same book, Alice remembers reading a book about a tattooed mother that is clearly The Illustrated Mum.
    • In Girls Out Late, Russell compares his situation as a child of divorced parents to a book he read, which has the same plot as The Suitcase Kid. Ellie replies that she has read the same book.
  • No Bisexuals: Think Again deals with a middle-aged Ellie's attraction to another woman. It's made clear that she's had romantic and sexual attraction towards men before, but her feelings for Alice just make her wonder if she's gay - she doesn't seem to consider the possibility that she could be attracted to more than one gender.
  • No Sympathy: Nadine and Magda can be guilty of this toward Ellie.
  • Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: Ellie is disappointed that Magda and Nadine didn't call on her 40th birthday and are both too busy to meet up. Turns out it's all part of a Surprise Party plan.
  • Oblivious to Love: In the second half of Think Again it becomes clear that Alice has romantic feelings for Ellie, but she doesn't realise.
  • Offscreen Breakup: Ellie and Dan in the TV series. The first series focuses on their relationship, ending with them getting together, but by the second he's just ... gone. He's never even mentioned, and Ellie says she's never had a relationship before.
  • One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: During her student days, Ellie slept with a man at a party, which resulted in her becoming pregnant with Lottie.
  • One-Steve Limit: Downplayed.
    • Magda has a brother named Steve and there's also Steve Fedden (Lottie's father.)
    • Averted with Ellie (short for Eleanor) and Elinor (Russell's wife, who's implied to remind him of Ellie.)
  • Only Sane Man: Ellie, very frequently.
  • Passing Notes in Class: Happens in an episode of the TV series, with Magda passing a note to her friends about her crush on the teacher. The teacher catches them, but Nadine eats the note rather than have to read it out to the class. The girls also pass notes to each other in the books.
  • Phoneaholic Teenager: Ellie and her friends are always tying up the phone with their conversations.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Rather than simply telling Ellie he's got a new girlfriend, Dan decides he'll just "fade out of the picture" by not contacting her any more. This hurts her feelings and then embarrasses her even more when he brings said new girlfriend to Christmas drinks.
  • Practically Different Generations: Ellie (13) and Eggs (6) almost qualify for this in the books, but the trope definitely applies in the TV series, where he is born at the end when she is already 14.
  • Recycled Plot: Some plot elements are re-used from earlier books by Wilson.
    • Ellie developing disordered body image, going on an unhealthy diet, and ending the book drinking hot chocolate in a cafe after swimming to reflect her improved self-image are all experienced by Barbara, the protagonist of Deep Blue.
    • In Think Again, Lottie tracks down her father Steve, who lies to her that Ellie never told him she was pregnant. This was a key plot point in Wilson's first novel for teenagers, Nobody's Perfect.
    • The adult Ellie also ends up in a very similar situation to Jo from The Lottie Project. Both are young single mothers who refuse financial help from their parents as they want to be independent.
  • Relationship Reboot: Ellie and Russell at the end of Girls in Tears. Think Again reveals that their relationship lasted for four years, only ending when they both left for uni.
  • Retcon:
    • Mr Windsor's name is Guy in the original books but becomes Gary in Think Again.
      • This was later acknowledged to be a mistake, as the Kindle version has reverted his name back to Guy.
    • In the original books, Ellie lived in the London area. In Think Again, it is mentioned that she moved to London for art school (Central St Martins College) and has lived there with Lottie ever since. While her home town isn't specified, it is apparently a considerable distance away by train.
    • The name of Ellie's cartoon elephant creation also changes from Ellie Elephant to Nellie.
    • In the original books, Ellie recalls throwing away the elephant toy her mum got her some years ago and no longer has it. However, she mentions in Think Again that she had it until her teens and made a copy for Lottie from the same knitting pattern.
  • Sadist Teacher: Mrs Henderson. Though she ends up more of a Stern Teacher.
  • Second Love: Russell for Ellie. Ellie's relationship with Dan ended when he met his Second Love, Gail.
  • Secret Diary: Wendy and Alice finally end their relationship after Wendy discovers from Alice's diary that Alice is in love with Ellie.
  • Shout-Out: Ellie mentions that she enjoys watching The X-Files and Sesame Street on TV.
  • Show Within a Show: In Girls in Tears, Nadine has become a fan of a fantasy TV series called Xanadu, an obvious pastiche of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • Slut-Shaming:
    • Although she doesn't want to go further than kissing, Magda likes to wear sexy clothes and flirt with lots of different boys. In Girls Under Pressure, Mick and his friends call Magda a slag.
    • In Think Again, Magda's stepson Nat calls her a "silly tart" (slut). Since he's so young, he probably picked this up from his mother.
  • Sorry, I'm Gay: Ellie discovers her supposed secret admirer is her socially inept cousin Nigel. Realising that he's not going to take no for an answer, she instead puts him off by telling him she's gay.
  • Stealth Pun: Magda goes to an Indian restaurant called The Ruby in "Girls Under Pressure". This is from Cockney rhyming slang "Ruby Murray" = "curry".
  • Stout Strength: It isn't dwelt on, but in the second book, after Ellie bumps into Mick after he pretty much assaults Magda, and he starts calling her a slag, she hits him hard enough that he appears scared of her next time they meet. She is thirteen, he is some years older, so she must be pretty strong if she actually managed to hurt him that much.
  • Surprise Party: Ben organises one for Ellie's 40th birthday, with Lottie's help.
  • Teacher/Student Romance:
    • In Girls Out Late, Magda attempts to start one of these with Mr Windsor. He is not happy with this.
    • Also, Ellie's father teaches in an art college, and both of his wives were originally his students.
    • In Think Again, Ellie starts one up with Mr Windsor, her former teacher.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Nadine:
    • In Girls Under Pressure she attempts to go to a photography session by herself that will literally be just her and the photographer (he turned out to be legitimate, but still).
    • At the end of Girls Out Late, she agrees to go off in a van with three strange guys. Magda and Ellie also go along with this, although Ellie was only doing it because she didn't feel she could abandon her friends while they were being so stupid. Magda was swinging between the two reasons to go.
    • Finally, in Girls in Tears, she goes to meet her internet boyfriend, who, predictably, is not who he says he is, and has to be saved by Ellie and Magda once again.
  • Two-Timing with the Bestie: The trio and Russell go to a Wild Teen Party in Girls In Tears, where everyone gets drunk. Ellie is devastated when she eventually catches Russell and Magda making out on the stairs.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Ellie considers that her father and Anna fit this trope.
  • Unperson: Dan in the TV series, with it suddenly being like he never existed the way with him not only never even being mentioned after Ellie breaks up with him, but Ellie even claims that Russell is her first (proper) kiss and boyfriend.
  • Weight Woe: Ellie. She develops an eating disorder in the second book, and still has issues in the rest of the series. Even as an adult, she's shown to worry about her weight. There's also Zoë, Ellie's art friend, who suffers from severe anorexia.
  • Wild Teen Party: Averted - Ellie and Magda expect Adam's party to be an example of this trope in the first book, but hardly any guests turn up. Played straight with Big Mac's party in the final book.
  • With Friends Like These...: Ellie's friendship with Nadine and Magda can come across this way. It's believable that the friendship survives, but Ellie does need a lot of patience.
  • Women Are Wiser: The main characters believe this, with Magda and Nadine often making derisive comments about 'schoolboys', despite the characters only being 13/14 themselves. The series repeatedly demonstrates that Magda and Nadine are not wise in the slightest.