Latest news with #AmericanGirl
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Musician and Entrepreneur Kelly Kidd is Revolutionizing the Immersive Family Entertainment Space
Musician and Entrepreneur Kelly Kidd is Revolutionizing the Immersive Family Entertainment Space originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Six years ago, when my daughter Ayla turned 10 years-old, we held a birthday party for her at Kidd's Jewelry Heist in South Pasadena. Back then, the immersive jewelry-making experience was housed in the rear of beloved children's toy store Dinosaur Farm on Mission Street. It was a dimly-lit space, moody and romantic, and exploding with a bounty of glimmering gems, bright-colored beads and golden baubles. My daughter and her friends spend two hours stringing together bracelets and necklaces adorned with unicorn and heart charms, decorating each keepsake with unfettered girlish glee. (Even the boys had fun; my son made himself a silver-chain necklace with a dangling skull charm). At the end of the birthday party, after a round of singing 'Happy Birthday' and eating slices of pink, buttercream-frosted cake, Aylas's friends presented to her a necklace they had custom-made for her, each charm representing one of Ayla's qualities they cherished: friendship, loyalty, her sense of humor. It was one of the most beautiful birthday parties I can ever remember attending. Not just because it was my kid–but because it was at Kidd's Jewelry Heist. Kidd's Jewelry Heist is the brainchild of Texas-born musician-cum-entrepreneur, Kelly Kidd. Kidd–a vocalist who, years ago, inked a deal with record producer Glen Ballard and will be touring with Katy Perry this summer as the face of her VIP concert experience–got his start in the business sector at 19 years old working as a district trainer at Discovery Zone, a popular but since-shuttered American chain of 'fun center." Think: ball pits, climbing walls, trampolines. Kidd's experience at Discovery Zone informed what he calls, 'the bigger picture.' 'No one had revolutionized the family entertainment business outside of theme parks in over 40 years,' he says. 'We've got Chuck E. Cheese, Build-A-Bear, American Girl, David & Buster's. Why can't we have immersive experiences for kids and adults outside of theme parks?' In 2012, Kidd's Jewelry Heist was born. In 2023, Kidd expanded, relocating to a new, bigger and brighter space on Huntington Drive in San Marino. Stepping inside the updated digs is like wandering into a real-life simulation of the pirate ship scene in "The Goonies". Comprising several rooms, each one centered on a different theme, Kidd's Jewelry Heist is an eclectic fusion of antique relics and fantastical artifacts, with lush, velvet-upholstered sofas, gold-trimmed ottomans, ornate lamps and gilded lighting fixtures recalling Louis XIV and the Palace of Versaille. A long wooden dining table is lined with glass trays and porcelain tea cups filled with beads and trinkets of every imaginable color. The day I visit, several birthday parties are booked (Kidd's Jewelry Heist is available via reservation only). Soon, the place will be crawling with kids–and parents–stacking beads for bracelets and dashing from room to room on a themed scavenger hunt searching for treasure and trinkets hidden amongst the furniture and decor. There's a stage, a grand piano, a library. It is a fairytale sprung to life. 'I tried to imagine what it would be like to have a little hideout in San Marino,' says Kidd of the space's design elements. 'We have a mural of Hercules on the ceiling. We've hand-selected all the beads. They're in tea cups and saucers on the grand dining room table. We have mummies in our library. We have a Medusa head. I got most of this stuff from San Marino and Pasadena estate sales. I definitely benefited from the idea that everyone is doing mid-century and modern right now in the community. They just wanted to get rid of stuff. I got these cool trunks and tables. I have a $20,000 hand-carved oak buffet to put your cake on that I paid $500 for. I was able to find these monstrously cool pieces. The feel is very Night at the Museum.' Kidd's current mission is to expand his business even further. In particular, he is eyeing potential locations on the westside of Los Angeles and in the San Fernando Valley. Kidd's Jewelry Heist is also available to come to you–they've created custom parties and events poolside at hotels and at people's private homes. 'We have such a unique space and concept,' says Kidd. 'Moms, kids, grandparents–they all go absolutely crazy for it.' This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
How a fuzzy blue alien from Lilo & Stitch became a Disney cash cow
Maia Kealoha and Stitch attend a premiere for the film Lilo & Stitch in Los Angeles, on May 17. PHOTO: REUTERS NEW YORK – Eight-year-old Elle Bauerlein of Wake Forest, North Carolina, is obsessed with Stitch. 'Honestly, I think about him all the time. Like, 10 hours every day.' Her American Girl doll – clad in a Stitch onesie, complete with alien-eared hood – is technically named Stacy, but Elle prefers to call her 'S' in tribute to Stitch. If she had to pick a favourite Disney princess, it would be Moana, but only because Moana spends time on beachy activities similar to Stitch. Her pillowcase is Stitch. Her backpack is Stitch. Her Crocs are Stitch. The third grader was born more than a decade after the 2002 Disney animated film Lilo & Stitch was released in theatres. And yet, for the past two years, the rambunctious title character has been a fixture in her life. She is not alone. In an act of belated cultural permeation, Stitch – the destructive but adorable alien experiment who crash-landed in Hawaii and befriended a young girl named Lilo – has become a crucial character in The Walt Disney Co's modern empire, mainly in the form of a dizzying array of licensed merchandise. At PetSmart, you can find a Stitch squeaker toy for your dog. The discount chain Five Below has Stitch neck pillows, portable power banks and slime. Stitch clothing and accessories line the shelves at Primark. Yoplait offers berry- and cherry-flavoured Stitch yogurt. Even Graceland has a tie-in collection of Stitch pompadoured plushies dressed in various Elvis Presley ensembles. If you are overwhelmed, do not worry. There is also a cottage industry of TikTokers who devote their entire accounts to showcasing the latest Stitch-centric items to their legions of followers . While Disney does not release official sales data, the company's annual financial reports for 2023 and 2024 included Lilo & Stitch on a short list of nine examples of its 'major' licensed properties, putting it on a par with classic titans such as Winnie The Pooh and Mickey And Friends, and conglomerates like Star Wars and the collective Disney princesses. With Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch remake earning US$341.7 million (S$438 million) at the global box office since opening on May 22, a fresh round of products is set to supercharge Stitch mania for the now CGI-ed star. Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders) in Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch. PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY CO 'He is one of those special characters who is simply fun to bring to life through products,' Ms Tasia Filippatos, president of Disney Consumer Products, said in an e-mailed statement that also noted how Stitch's 'playfulness' and 'mischievous personality translates easily into a broad range' of items around the globe . The mass proliferation of Stitch merchandise was not an obvious evolution. Although the original animated film earned more than US$273 million at the global box office, it failed to generate the blockbuster numbers and cultural cachet of Disney predecessors like The Lion King (1994) and Beauty And The Beast (1991), or the more recent billion-dollar hits Frozen (2013 to present) and Zootopia (2016 to present). Until 2025, the on-screen Stitch franchise had been mostly dormant since a string of direct-to-video and TV releases in the 2000s. Yet, the Stitch character has only grown in popularity with wide swathes of consumers . He is nationless, raceless and ageless. And while he is canonically male, a Google search for 'Stitch' suggests a popular question is: 'Is Stitch a boy or a girl?' The Disney Stitch Puppetronic, an almost 46cm electronic puppet by Wow! Stuff that was named the 2025 Toy of the Year, echoes this idea in its official description, noting 'Stitch transcends age and gender'. 'You could have asked me three years ago, 'Who's going to be the customer for this?'' said Wow! Stuff chief executive Richard North in an interview. 'I would have said it was really clear: seven- to 12-year-olds. How wrong.' Instead, he added , consumers aged 13 and older, including Gen Z enthusiasts and middle-aged collectors, are responsible for at least 40 per cent of all Stitch Puppetronic sales. With younger customers, he said, the gender breakdown is evenly split, while older fans tend to skew more female. 'It's been the biggest, broadest, all-encompassing demographic for a toy, I think, that we've ever created,' he said. Chris Sanders, one of the directors and writers of the animated Lilo & Stitch, first doodled his idea for an orphaned monster in the 1980s while toying with an idea for a children's book . He resurrected the concept in the mid-1990s when Disney approached him for feature film ideas, transforming his initial drawing of a creature that resembled a tiger with a fang-toothed rodent head into the stocky star people know today. 'I just took some time and drew a character that I really wanted to see,' said Sanders, who also voices Stitch. 'There was never a discussion about his design.' Now, like Mickey Mouse, Stitch is an instantly recognisable brand ambassador. But, unlike Mickey, Stitch is a misfit and a menace. 'If a bunch of Disney characters like Mickey, Donald and Goofy had a Christmas party, they wouldn't invite Stitch. But if a bunch of villains had a party, they wouldn't invite him either,' Sanders said. 'When I was thinking about that, I realised Stitch exists in this zone between good and evil. He exists in the zone that we exist in.' 'Disney characters, for the most part, are all about being proper or royal,' said Mr Travis Hammock, also known as Ohana Trav, a 30-year-old content creator who highlights Stitch products on TikTok and Instagram. 'They have to fit into this mould. They have to live up to their parents' standards. But Stitch is just a rebel from birth.' Hundreds of Stitch products in a room at Mr Travis Hammock's home in Orlando. PHOTO: ZACK WITTMAN/NYTIMES Hammock converted a spare bedroom in his Winter Park, Florida, home to hold 'probably more than 1,000' pieces of Stitch merchandise he said he had acquired, either through his own purchases or collaborations with Stitch licensees like Funko and Hot Topic. He first noticed Disney prioritising Stitch merchandise in 2021, when it rolled out a 'Stitch Crashes Disney' limited-edition collection that reimagined the character in the colours and imagery of other classic Disney movies, like Peter Pan (1953) and Pinocchio (1940). It was a rare instance of the company's franchises intermingling on products. That was followed by a sprawling summer-themed Stitch collection in 2023 and another collection, in 2024, that featured Stitch eating theme-park snacks. 'They're not only making more merch, but they're doing annual or routine launches,' Hammock said. 'Mickey and Minnie and the OG characters, they're not even getting some of that attention. There are so many people that love Stitch, and it's so unique that it's clearly selling.' Mr Travis Hammock in a pile of Stitch products at his home in Orlando, Florida, on May 18. Hammock posts about Stitch merchandise on TikTok and Instagram. PHOTO: ZACK WITTMAN/NYTIMES Noticeably lacking in the mountains of merch? Lilo. The six-year-old protagonist of the franchise, and other human characters like her older sister Nani and Nani's love interest David , are rarely featured. A more prominently merchandised character is Angel, a female experiment introduced in the 2000s Lilo & Stitch TV series, who looks similar to Stitch but is pink. TikTok user Josi Cruz, who runs the @mainstreetorlando account, where she often highlights new Disney merchandise, said she believes children see themselves in the Lilo role, and tote their Stitch toys as if he were their pet. 'Lilo is very lonely. Girls bully her because she's 'weird'. But Stitch is always by her side,' she said. 'So, I feel like kids can identify with being Lilo themselves, and they just want to have Stitch in their lives.' Still, consumers can be fickle. In at least one North Carolina classroom, Stitch's days of reigning supreme are already dwindling. 'Last year, Stitch was the most popular with the other kids at school , that's for sure ,' said Elle, the eight-year-old fan. 'But this year, everybody likes Hello Kitty.' NYTIMES Lilo & Stitch is showing in Singapore cinemas. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
In ‘An American Girl Anthology,' dolls still teach us how to be girls
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Hysmith — who earned her master's in gastronomy and food studies from Boston University in 2014 — met Orlovsky-Schnitzler at UNC Chapel Hill, where they were both part of the school's American Studies department. There, Hysmith worked toward her PhD, while Orlovsky-Schnitzler completed her master's thesis in folklore, and spent time at the Harvard Schlesinger Library as an undergrad in 2016, where she researched the NOW (National Organization for Women) archives and '[pretended to be] a Harvard student.' Advertisement The two had gone their separate ways, with Hysmith moving back to her hometown in Texas while Orlovsky-Schnitzler moved to the West Coast. It wasn't until 2022, when Orlovsky-Schnitzler gave a talk at the American Folklore Society Conference on American Girl in the digital age — specifically Advertisement After witnessing the enthusiastic connection between audience members and American Girl, Orlovsky-Schnitzler was inspired to give voice to the important but 'historically disparaged,' topic of dolls and culture. With the help of Hysmith, the two scholars set out to curate 'An American Girl Anthology,' resulting in 17 essays written by a group of 16 contributors, including Hysmith and Orlovsky-Schnitzler themselves. Topics range from American Girl's both problematic and admirable representation of ethnic and religious minorities, to community-created head-canons — or aspects about the dolls sprouted from the interpretation of fans — The collection debuted May 15 and Orlovsky-Schnitzler and Hysmith will celebrate the anthology's release at Orlovsky-Schnitzler and Hysmith sought out academics to contribute to the anthology through social media. HANDOUT Q. How did you go about selecting whic h essays y ou wanted t o include? J : The diplomatic and correct answer to say up front is that we love all of them. [To solicit submissions] we did what you do now, we put out a call on Instagram. KC : And we made a cake that had words on top, saying, 'We need your essays.' And then it just was off to the races. So many people [reached out]. We would get emails that were frantic — and there were typos — just because people were clearly so excited to write about their feelings, their perspectives on American Girl. Advertisement Q. What are the most interesting or complex things you learned from your contributor's essays? KC: For me, it's always the doll [face] mold. J: [For] Kaya, the Indigenous doll, the company made a new mold because they learned that the Nimíipuu people did not show their teeth because that was seen as a sign of aggression. And all the dolls, as you know, have a kind of slightly open mouth. They had a little spectrum of doll molds to represent different ethnicities. But when it came to Nelly O'Malley, who's meant to be a recent Irish immigrant to the United States, she had the same face mold as Rebecca Rubin, the Jewish American doll. It felt like there was a lumping of these immigrant groups. KC: Also the fact that [founder] Pleasant Rowland was just really disappointed with the offerings out there for girls, doll-wise. She had grown up with Barbie, and was really frustrated by that, and so set out to do a lot of research to figure out what she could do differently. She combined her training as an educator and this new businesswoman work ethic to create this whole universe. Q. The 'Barbie' movie brought the word 'girlhood' to the mainstream. How do you think American Girl represents girlhood differently? J: Barbie, she's an adult woman. She's had 150 jobs, and she's a pro at all of them. And we love that! She's a doctor. She's president. She can be anything. American Girl dolls are meant to be around nine years old when their stories start. They're not great at math. They have troubles with their siblings. They aren't always sure how they should be treating other people. They just have a different lens. Advertisement KC: And a lot comes down to 'What is girlhood?' Which is a lot of what we talk about in the book. Is girlhood just for girls? Or people who identify as girls? Does it have an age? Because, my grandma's just a girl, but so is my nine-year-old kid. There's no right or wrong answer, really, is the takeaway. There's just lots of different ways to think about it. Q. I wanted to talk about the cover as well as the close-up of those iconic teeth. KC: We talk about the American girl teeth in the book a couple of times, and it's so iconic [and] instantly recognizable. But it's also just a little bit creepy. We also can't put just one doll on [the cover]. We don't want to say American Girl is just white. That's part of the criticism, right? But we really struggled with how to do that. We figured the best way was just to focus on teeth. J: And that [photo] is my childhood doll. Q. Wait — it's your doll, specifically? J: Yeah. KC: She has a tiny little smudge — a chip in her tooth. Q. That's such a full-circle moment. J: She was with us [at the book launch]. We actually had everyone who brought dolls to the book launch — which several people did, and I hope they bring them to Porter Square. Advertisement Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler and KC Hysmith will be in conversation with Sarah Biskowitz, cultural activist and manager of the , May 23, 7 p.m. 1815 Mass Ave., Cambridge. . RSVP required. Marianna Orozco can be reached at
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Novel About Motherhood, Childhood, and Secrets
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Honor Jones's debut novel, Sleep, starts with a child's perception of the world around her. I've known Honor, a senior editor at The Atlantic, since we were both children, and reading the book was a little like immersing myself in our own long friendship. I asked Honor a few questions about Sleep, which is out today. You can buy it here. Walt Hunter: I think I was one of the first people to read the whole novel—is that right?—which is an incredible gift for an editor, not to mention a friend. You're an editor, too, and a journalist. What are the differences, for you, between writing fiction and writing nonfiction? Honor Jones: You were! And you gave me the most brilliant notes. We go back: I'll remind you and everyone else here that you also read and advised me on my thesis in college! I see how the idea of moving from fact to fiction could feel really unmooring, but I basically think that writing is writing—you're always thinking about voice, about structure. What really matters is that you have a purpose: something that needs to be said or done in the text. If that's the case, then there's always something dictating what the story needs, even if, instead of news or history, it's only the demands of the story itself. That said, it was hard—and exciting—to try to leave my journalist self out of the sentences. I had to go through and cut like a thousand commas out of the book. During the editing process, I also accidentally called the book title 'the headline' so many times that it started to get embarrassing. Walt: When I think about the novel, the first thing I think about is your style. What does a novel allow you to do that a news story doesn't? Honor: One thing it lets you do is write what a character is thinking and feeling about what's happening, even when she doesn't understand what's happening. This was important because the beginning of the book is told from the perspective of a child. I also felt that I was often exploring an idea that I couldn't argue or defend. A novel is a good place for that, especially if the idea is weird or perverse or otherwise hard to talk about. Walt: The main character, Margaret, is a sharp observer of her world—someone 'on whom nothing is lost,' to borrow a phrase from Henry James. We start the book in the dampness under a blackberry bush—such a tangible detail! Honor: I knew that I didn't want the child in this story to be special or precocious. She has no exposure to the world of art or ideas. She knows next to nothing about history or politics. She's growing up in the '90s, and I have this line about her education lying entirely on a foundation of American Girl–doll books. She simply has no context for what happens to her. But she's trying really hard to make sense of it anyway. She's naturally probably a perceptive kid, but she's also that way because she has to be, because she learns that she has to protect herself. And I think that sense of watchfulness defines her as she grows up. In the sections that follow, she changes in all these ways while remaining fundamentally the same person. I was interested in that—how she can't shake her own history, how many of her choices as an adult are defined by the events of her childhood, how she has to learn to be a mother while remaining a daughter. Walt: The novel is also psychologically astute in any number of ways. For example, we watch the friendship between Margaret and Biddy as it develops over a long period of time. And Margaret's relationship with her family members is, of course, at the center of the book. What are you exploring with these long-term ties? Honor: I loved writing this friendship! You can probably recognize aspects of the girls we both grew up with in the character of Biddy. She's sort of a composite of all the best friends I've loved through life, while also being her own person—ballsier and bolder than any of us were at that age. Biddy really is Margaret's family, the person who stays alongside her through all the years. One thing I find freeing about their relationship is that, even though Margaret keeps this terrible secret from Biddy, in some ways, it doesn't matter. The novel is so concerned with the danger of secrets and the power of disclosure, but Biddy just loves Margaret. She is the one character for whom the truth would change nothing. A lot of the book is about Margaret trying to understand the people around her, but people don't really explain themselves. (Margaret doesn't, either—people keep asking her why she got divorced, and she never has any idea what to say.) When she finds the courage to ask what is maybe the most important question in the book, the answer she gets is profoundly insufficient. I think some readers might find that frustrating, and would rather the book build up to a final confrontation and resolution. But that's not what I was interested in. I think trying to understand, failing to understand, knowing a little more, knowing yourself better—that's what it's about. Walt: The first part of Sleep is set in a place—wealthy suburban New Jersey—where social class has an infinite number of near-invisible gradations. It reminds me a lot of where we grew up, on the Main Line outside Philadelphia. You manage to sneak in so many small details—of decor, especially, but also of social decorum—that reveal these distinctions. They make sense to me, the child of a reporter, whose family never quite fit into the whole milieu. And I recognize myself a little in Margaret—she's not entirely comfortable among the heirs and heiresses. But of course the book is also very tender, in its way, to the people in it. Why write about this place, these people? What did you learn? Honor: The thing that really marks her as an outsider in this social world and class happens when she grows up and gets divorced. But she's always felt like an outsider and an observer, as you say. I wanted to show how, as a child, she's learning about class as if it's just another language. Why does her mother care so much about this particular neighbor? What are they conveying by having this particular pet? It was fun to write about all this signaling from people who are quite incapable of communicating in other ways. Walt: One scene that sticks in my mind—that really keeps me up at night, sometimes—is the one at the party in Brooklyn where we almost suspect that Margaret's child might be in danger. There's genuine suspense there, even some terror. Honor: I think the big question of this book is: How do you raise a child to be safe without raising them to be afraid? What's the right amount of vigilance? Should you—can you—trust the world? I think this feeling of domestic horror will be familiar to a lot of parents. It's a lovely day on the playground, and then suddenly you look up and you can't find your kid. He's fine! He's just behind a tree or whatever. But immediately you're aware of the worst-case scenario. Terror is always an option, and those darker feelings lie right up against the joy and fun of parenting. I think there's a lot of the latter in the book, too. Walt: Does fiction have an ethical responsibility when it comes to representing a moment, or repeated moments, of trauma? What is that responsibility? Honor: If there's anything I think fiction shouldn't tolerate, it's squeamishness. In Sleep, for instance, I had to say what happened to Margaret. I had to describe it in simple language. It had to happen in the beginning of the book. Her particular form of trauma is quieter than many others—there is no violence, for instance. But it's still insidious. Margaret might not understand what's happening, but I wanted the reader to know. You could imagine a different story: a divorced woman's self-doubt, a mystery unfolding, a revelation of memory … but I could not have written that book. It would have felt dishonest. The mystery isn't what was done to her—it's what she does with herself after. Related: 'Skin a rabbit': a short story by Honor Jones 'How I demolished my life' Here are three new stories from The Atlantic: The debate that will determine how Democrats govern next time Adam Serwer: Due process is a right, not a privilege you get for being good. Good on Paper: The myth of the poverty trap Today's News The Trump administration announced a nearly $142 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. In return, Saudi Arabia would invest $600 billion in America's industries. President Donald Trump declared that he would lift sanctions on Syria, ahead of his visit with Syria's new president. Russian and Ukrainian delegations are set to meet this week for their first face-to-face talks since 2022. Evening Read How Part-Time Jobs Became a Trap By Adelle Waldman Several years ago, to research the novel I was writing, I spent six months working in the warehouse of a big-box store. As a supporter of the Fight for $15, I expected my co-workers to be frustrated that starting pay at the store was just $12.25 an hour. In fact, I found them to be less concerned about the wage than about the irregular hours. The store, like much of the American retail sector, used just-in-time scheduling to track customer flow on an hourly basis and anticipate staffing needs at any given moment. My co-workers and I had no way to know how many hours of work we'd get—and thus how much money we'd earn—from week to week. Read the full article. More From The Atlantic America is the land of opportunity—for white South Africans. ChatGPT turned into a Studio Ghibli machine. How is that legal? What the U.K. deal reveals about Trump's trade strategy Is the AfD too extreme for democracy? Weight-loss drugs aren't really about weight. Culture Break Watch. These are 25 of the best horror films you can watch, ranked by scariness, David Sims wrote in 2020. Discover. Gregg Popovich, former head coach and current president of the San Antonio Spurs, shared his life lessons with Adam Harris. Play our daily crossword. Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter. Explore all of our newsletters here. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
A Novel About Motherhood, Childhood, and Secrets
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Honor Jones's debut novel, Sleep, starts with a child's perception of the world around her. I've known Honor, a senior editor at The Atlantic, since we were both children, and reading the book was a little like immersing myself in our own long friendship. I asked Honor a few questions about Sleep, which is out today. You can buy it here. Walt Hunter: I think I was one of the first people to read the whole novel—is that right?—which is an incredible gift for an editor, not to mention a friend. You're an editor, too, and a journalist. What are the differences, for you, between writing fiction and writing nonfiction? Honor Jones: You were! And you gave me the most brilliant notes. We go back: I'll remind you and everyone else here that you also read and advised me on my thesis in college! I see how the idea of moving from fact to fiction could feel really unmooring, but I basically think that writing is writing—you're always thinking about voice, about structure. What really matters is that you have a purpose: something that needs to be said or done in the text. If that's the case, then there's always something dictating what the story needs, even if, instead of news or history, it's only the demands of the story itself. That said, it was hard—and exciting—to try to leave my journalist self out of the sentences. I had to go through and cut like a thousand commas out of the book. During the editing process, I also accidentally called the book title 'the headline' so many times that it started to get embarrassing. Walt: When I think about the novel, the first thing I think about is your style. What does a novel allow you to do that a news story doesn't? Honor: One thing it lets you do is write what a character is thinking and feeling about what's happening, even when she doesn't understand what's happening. This was important because the beginning of the book is told from the perspective of a child. I also felt that I was often exploring an idea that I couldn't argue or defend. A novel is a good place for that, especially if the idea is weird or perverse or otherwise hard to talk about. Walt: The main character, Margaret, is a sharp observer of her world—someone 'on whom nothing is lost,' to borrow a phrase from Henry James. We start the book in the dampness under a blackberry bush—such a tangible detail! Honor: I knew that I didn't want the child in this story to be special or precocious. She has no exposure to the world of art or ideas. She knows next to nothing about history or politics. She's growing up in the '90s, and I have this line about her education lying entirely on a foundation of American Girl–doll books. She simply has no context for what happens to her. But she's trying really hard to make sense of it anyway. She's naturally probably a perceptive kid, but she's also that way because she has to be, because she learns that she has to protect herself. And I think that sense of watchfulness defines her as she grows up. In the sections that follow, she changes in all these ways while remaining fundamentally the same person. I was interested in that—how she can't shake her own history, how many of her choices as an adult are defined by the events of her childhood, how she has to learn to be a mother while remaining a daughter. Walt: The novel is also psychologically astute in any number of ways. For example, we watch the friendship between Margaret and Biddy as it develops over a long period of time. And Margaret's relationship with her family members is, of course, at the center of the book. What are you exploring with these long-term ties? Honor: I loved writing this friendship! You can probably recognize aspects of the girls we both grew up with in the character of Biddy. She's sort of a composite of all the best friends I've loved through life, while also being her own person—ballsier and bolder than any of us were at that age. Biddy really is Margaret's family, the person who stays alongside her through all the years. One thing I find freeing about their relationship is that, even though Margaret keeps this terrible secret from Biddy, in some ways, it doesn't matter. The novel is so concerned with the danger of secrets and the power of disclosure, but Biddy just loves Margaret. She is the one character for whom the truth would change nothing. A lot of the book is about Margaret trying to understand the people around her, but people don't really explain themselves. (Margaret doesn't, either—people keep asking her why she got divorced, and she never has any idea what to say.) When she finds the courage to ask what is maybe the most important question in the book, the answer she gets is profoundly insufficient. I think some readers might find that frustrating, and would rather the book build up to a final confrontation and resolution. But that's not what I was interested in. I think trying to understand, failing to understand, knowing a little more, knowing yourself better—that's what it's about. Walt: The first part of Sleep is set in a place—wealthy suburban New Jersey—where social class has an infinite number of near-invisible gradations. It reminds me a lot of where we grew up, on the Main Line outside Philadelphia. You manage to sneak in so many small details—of decor, especially, but also of social decorum—that reveal these distinctions. They make sense to me, the child of a reporter, whose family never quite fit into the whole milieu. And I recognize myself a little in Margaret—she's not entirely comfortable among the heirs and heiresses. But of course the book is also very tender, in its way, to the people in it. Why write about this place, these people? What did you learn? Honor: The thing that really marks her as an outsider in this social world and class happens when she grows up and gets divorced. But she's always felt like an outsider and an observer, as you say. I wanted to show how, as a child, she's learning about class as if it's just another language. Why does her mother care so much about this particular neighbor? What are they conveying by having this particular pet? It was fun to write about all this signaling from people who are quite incapable of communicating in other ways. Walt: One scene that sticks in my mind—that really keeps me up at night, sometimes—is the one at the party in Brooklyn where we almost suspect that Margaret's child might be in danger. There's genuine suspense there, even some terror. Honor: I think the big question of this book is: How do you raise a child to be safe without raising them to be afraid? What's the right amount of vigilance? Should you—can you—trust the world? I think this feeling of domestic horror will be familiar to a lot of parents. It's a lovely day on the playground, and then suddenly you look up and you can't find your kid. He's fine! He's just behind a tree or whatever. But immediately you're aware of the worst-case scenario. Terror is always an option, and those darker feelings lie right up against the joy and fun of parenting. I think there's a lot of the latter in the book, too. Walt: Does fiction have an ethical responsibility when it comes to representing a moment, or repeated moments, of trauma? What is that responsibility? Honor: If there's anything I think fiction shouldn't tolerate, it's squeamishness. In Sleep, for instance, I had to say what happened to Margaret. I had to describe it in simple language. It had to happen in the beginning of the book. Her particular form of trauma is quieter than many others—there is no violence, for instance. But it's still insidious. Margaret might not understand what's happening, but I wanted the reader to know. You could imagine a different story: a divorced woman's self-doubt, a mystery unfolding, a revelation of memory … but I could not have written that book. It would have felt dishonest. The mystery isn't what was done to her—it's what she does with herself after. Here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Today's News The Trump administration announced a nearly $142 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. In return, Saudi Arabia would invest $600 billion in America's industries. President Donald Trump declared that he would lift sanctions on Syria, ahead of his visit with Syria's new president. Russian and Ukrainian delegations are set to meet this week for their first face-to-face talks since 2022. Evening Read How Part-Time Jobs Became a Trap By Adelle Waldman Several years ago, to research the novel I was writing, I spent six months working in the warehouse of a big-box store. As a supporter of the Fight for $15, I expected my co-workers to be frustrated that starting pay at the store was just $12.25 an hour. In fact, I found them to be less concerned about the wage than about the irregular hours. The store, like much of the American retail sector, used just-in-time scheduling to track customer flow on an hourly basis and anticipate staffing needs at any given moment. My co-workers and I had no way to know how many hours of work we'd get—and thus how much money we'd earn—from week to week. More From The Atlantic Culture Break Watch. These are 25 of the best horror films you can watch, ranked by scariness, David Sims wrote in 2020. Discover. Gregg Popovich, former head coach and current president of the San Antonio Spurs, shared his life lessons with Adam Harris. Play our daily crossword. Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.
