Three Girls by Katie Clapham
Published by UCLan
THREE Girls is a story of exactly that. It is told from the perspective of three very different 15-year-old girls attending the same school and all that which separates and brings them together.
First and foremost this book is about developing friendships at a young age, the value of finding people to connect with in a world where it seems like everyone else already has someone. There’s something deeply comforting and reassuring about those themes being addressed for people around the age of these girls. Living in your own head it can feel like you’re the only one doing so, worrying about the little things and how great other people’s lives are.
What’s special about Three Girls is that it shows everyone, especially in youth, has worries about where they fit and everyone thinks they’re going through it alone.
Ultimately this is a story about not having to go through it alone.
Minnie is “The Athlete” and that’s all she’s ever been, but after an accident she’s left to re-evaluate what she wants and what matters to her.
Lena is “The Princess” seemingly untouchable but harbouring a secret jealousy of Minnie’s natural athleticism that appears to just come naturally and most importantly how everyone loves her for these talents.
Alice is “The Really Tall One” she had never taken interest in sports until learning to run as an escape, hoping the long legs she’d always been teased for would become something good, something of her own.
These three girls who had never cared for each other before come together not by choice, but by order of the school. A photographer decides they would be the perfect trio of “friends” to have laughing and chatting casually on the school’s brochure. They perform this role at first after a question that is ridiculous and shallow but offers really no way out.
“We just want to show that friendships forged here are the real deal. Genuine. Built to last. That sort of thing. For the brochure. Do you mind?”
At the beginning of the book, Minnie, Lena and Alice know very little about friendships that are genuine and built to last. Minnie has only ever really had her boyfriend Daniel and mostly ignored opportunities for friendship out of a sense of there being no room in her life. Lena has always had friends, well, she’s always had Aimee who these days seems to be different than when they were little but she stays in a friendship that’s fading.
Alice has never really had friends, she finds herself surrounded by acquaintances but no one to really talk to about that which matters. Each of them upon being forced together for the sake of a photo shoot begin to realise the value in putting trust in other people your age, in realising you’re not alone and of course, the value in each other.
