About this Event
It is a truth universally acknowledged that boys will be boys and girl have to grow up.
In 2023, Jess Bacon wrote the article The Year of the Girl -- a brilliant exploration on the resurgence, and commodification, of girlhood. At a time when women's rights are being rewritten, its resurgence is a complex one. A desire to relive the wild freedom, joy and safety of girlhood is often pitted against the relentless pressure to look eternally youthful -- women are rarely given the space to actually be girls.
I'M JUST A GIRL introduces readers to the 'second girlhood', which allows us to recover the parts of ourselves we left behind. Reconnecting with our girl is an empowering act of rebellion. It offers a return to creativity and play that can ultimately imrove our relationships, our mental wellbeing and established a renewed sense of self. It is a reclaiming of what was once taken from us.
Please join us for an evening panel to talk all things girlhood on the eve of the publication of I'm Just a Girl: How Reclaiming Girlhood Can Redefine Womanhood. Jess will be joined by panellists Anita Bhagwandas, author of Ugly, Ellie Austin-Williams, author of Money Talks, and Sophie Gilbert, author of Girl on Girl.
Anita Bhagwandas is an award-winning journalist who explores beauty culture and questions the power that pretty privilege has over our lives. She is a beauty columnist for The Guardian Saturday magazine, freelance Beauty Director at Conde Nast Traveller, and contributes to several international publications. Anita's book Ugly: Giving Back Our Beauty Standards was published in 2023.
Ellie Austin-Williams founded This Girl Talks Money, after realising the lack of accessible and up-to-date financial education content aimed at women in their twenties and thirties. Ellie is also the co-host of lifestyle podcast 'Money Unfiltered', and has featured as a financial expert for a range of publications. Ellie's first book Money Talks, was published in 2024.
Sophie Gilbert is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she writes about television, books, and popular culture. She won the 2024 National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism and was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. Sophie's first book Girl on Girl was published by Penguin in 2025.
The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.
*Please note that the Auditorium at Foyles is fully accessible from the Ground floor lifts.Tickets: £10 General Admission, £8 Foyalty Member / £22 Book and Ticket, inc. a copy of I'm Just a Girl (RRP £20.00)
Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 8.00 to GBP 22.00
