January 18: The challenges of being a 13-year-old girl in the city
If you’re a 13-year-old girl and you live in the city, you are going to have challenges.
At 13, you’re too young to get into a Mature rated movie, so your only options are General Audience rated films like Disney. They don’t make PG movies anymore.
And if you live in Calgary, it can be extra hard because you’re too young to get a part-time job and that means you can’t get pizza at Pizza Bank (best pizza in the world) or Chicken on the Way (best chicken in the world) and of course you couldn’t buy clothes at Ardene’s.
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I did not know about Ardene’s until Jules told me about it. We were at West Edmonton Mall to go to the waterslides and Jules asked me if she could get some clothes there. At first, I thought the store was called Our Dean’s. I was wrong. Jules was in heaven. She got a shirt and a surprise bag and then we ate supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which was good, but not as good as Pizza Bank or Chicken on the Way.
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I never was a 13-year-old girl in the city. I guess I’m glad I wasn’t because I would be a 41-year-old woman now and life probably would have taken me on a different course that would not have made me decide to write a note-a-day. Then you would be doing something else right now, like playing Candy Crush or reading Ulysses or eating pizza from Pizza Bank, which is the best pizza in the world.
My sister was a 13-year-old girl in Calgary. She made a lot of money babysitting the kids across the street. The dad had a hot air balloon company and my sister got to go up in a balloon. Her favourite radio station was AM 106.
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There is probably a difference between 13-year-old girls in the city and in the country.
If you’re a 13-year-old girl in the city, you can probably take the bus to Ardene’s. In the country, you have to get your dad or your mom or your big brother to drive you the nearest city (which could be Cornwall) so you can go to Ardene’s.
If you’re a 13-year-old girl in the city, you can go to the corner store to buy Popeye cigarettes or those neat foil wrapped chocolate coin thingees. If you’re a 13-year-old country girl, you can go outside and see a horse. You can also see hay and a field and a road where a car drives by now and then.
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You know, I don’t think it matters if you live in the city or the country, it’s got to be tough being a 13-year-old girl. I saw this movie called Thirteen once. It starred Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood. There was a quote in the movie: “The two hardest years in any woman’s life is the year when she’s 13 and the year when her daughter is.”
Thirteen marks the end of childhood. That’s when you start feeling funny about playing with dolls. You’re not quite ready to give them up. You still love playing with them but you don’t want to admit to anyone. You feel pressured to be all grown up. You want to wear makeup and you probably never feel pretty enough.
My advice to 13-year-old girls is to stop reading magazines like Tiger Beat or Seventeen. Stop sighing over the actors on Disney TV shows or the singers in One Direction. Doing these things fuels the lie that the world is divided into two groups – the beautiful people and the non-beautiful people. The advertising industry thrives on convincing you that you are part of the latter group but maybe with a little effort (and by buying our products) you can be in the other group.
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Finally, every 13-year-old girl – be they city girls or country girls – are entitled to a fun day at a waterslide park now and then.
At 13, you’re too young to get into a Mature rated movie, so your only options are General Audience rated films like Disney. They don’t make PG movies anymore.
And if you live in Calgary, it can be extra hard because you’re too young to get a part-time job and that means you can’t get pizza at Pizza Bank (best pizza in the world) or Chicken on the Way (best chicken in the world) and of course you couldn’t buy clothes at Ardene’s.
*
I did not know about Ardene’s until Jules told me about it. We were at West Edmonton Mall to go to the waterslides and Jules asked me if she could get some clothes there. At first, I thought the store was called Our Dean’s. I was wrong. Jules was in heaven. She got a shirt and a surprise bag and then we ate supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which was good, but not as good as Pizza Bank or Chicken on the Way.
*
I never was a 13-year-old girl in the city. I guess I’m glad I wasn’t because I would be a 41-year-old woman now and life probably would have taken me on a different course that would not have made me decide to write a note-a-day. Then you would be doing something else right now, like playing Candy Crush or reading Ulysses or eating pizza from Pizza Bank, which is the best pizza in the world.
My sister was a 13-year-old girl in Calgary. She made a lot of money babysitting the kids across the street. The dad had a hot air balloon company and my sister got to go up in a balloon. Her favourite radio station was AM 106.
*
There is probably a difference between 13-year-old girls in the city and in the country.
If you’re a 13-year-old girl in the city, you can probably take the bus to Ardene’s. In the country, you have to get your dad or your mom or your big brother to drive you the nearest city (which could be Cornwall) so you can go to Ardene’s.
If you’re a 13-year-old girl in the city, you can go to the corner store to buy Popeye cigarettes or those neat foil wrapped chocolate coin thingees. If you’re a 13-year-old country girl, you can go outside and see a horse. You can also see hay and a field and a road where a car drives by now and then.
*
You know, I don’t think it matters if you live in the city or the country, it’s got to be tough being a 13-year-old girl. I saw this movie called Thirteen once. It starred Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood. There was a quote in the movie: “The two hardest years in any woman’s life is the year when she’s 13 and the year when her daughter is.”
Thirteen marks the end of childhood. That’s when you start feeling funny about playing with dolls. You’re not quite ready to give them up. You still love playing with them but you don’t want to admit to anyone. You feel pressured to be all grown up. You want to wear makeup and you probably never feel pretty enough.
My advice to 13-year-old girls is to stop reading magazines like Tiger Beat or Seventeen. Stop sighing over the actors on Disney TV shows or the singers in One Direction. Doing these things fuels the lie that the world is divided into two groups – the beautiful people and the non-beautiful people. The advertising industry thrives on convincing you that you are part of the latter group but maybe with a little effort (and by buying our products) you can be in the other group.
*
Finally, every 13-year-old girl – be they city girls or country girls – are entitled to a fun day at a waterslide park now and then.
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