At Last, Teenagers Get Some Credit

After reading Dave Gardetta’s article about Marjorie Light, (“Some Misplaced Joan of Arc,” Aug. 1), I wasn’t sure whether to be delighted or angry. It’s about time someone gave credit to teenage girls, not all of whom haunt our malls, buying into a frivolous, appearance-oriented culture. Plenty of brilliant and articulate girls are being dismissed as “weird” or “angry young women” (although anyone young or female has reason to be angry, and anyone who is both has reason to be furious).

I’m glad a girl like Marjorie was shown in a positive light to such a widespread readership, but I worry that readers might believe that girls like her are few and far between. They are not.

Amy Kaufman

Chatsworth

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I recall the thrill of hot photocopies and their semi-illicit distribution, the anti-high school ranting and the wonderful contradiction of being a counterculture valedictorian. It’s nice to know that a tenuous tradition still exists, that high school students are still smarter than the media gives them credit for being, and that young people’s published words and emotions remain powerful, albeit rough-hewn.

Marjorie’s mosaic of ideas and fashions is different from what mine was (I railed against jocks, drugs and apathy, instead of airing the ethnic-cultural issues and feminism of the ‘90s), but the process is the same.

Jeff Booth

Irvine