All The Young Dudes

Years ago, my friends and I took our first-ever jaunt by train to the city to go shopping. About ten minutes after we arrived, what was supposed to be a group day out split right down the middle when half of us wanted to go clothes shopping and half of us wanted to go record shopping. We met up at the end of the day to go home together.
 
At the time I couldn't believe the audacity of those friends who would rather be in Fat Face than HMV. Instead of respecting that variety is the spice of life, my music friends and I had a rant to ourselves, and the initial idea for a story about a girl who feels pressured by gender stereotypes surfaced. Would our lives have been easier if we were boys? We didn't necessarily feel like we wanted to be boys, but when you start getting fed up of being quizzed on the Entire History of Association Football when you dare to admit you're a Spurs fan, you do wonder what that other life might have been like.
 
'All the Young Dudes' has been through a lot of drafts since then. Writing it so early, but working on it as an adult, has given me an insight into the insecurities of my teenage years that I was too closed-minded to see clearly at the time. I wish I could explain the intricacies of the feminist journey I've been on throughout the process but it's a very similar journey to the one Steph, my main character, takes – so I'd better leave the talking up to her, hadn't I?