Chapter IX. Meg Goes to Vanity Fair

By Dee Anne Anderson

Little Women is the book of my older childhood. Some people have Anne of Green Gables, the Nancy Drew series, or other books about intrepid and plucky young women. But for me, it will always be the March sisters. I read and re-read Volume 1 of the novel throughout upper grade school. (Volume 2 was not as interesting to me at that age, and so I often skipped it and just returned to the beginning.)

Of course, Jo was the character with whom I most closely identified and wanted to imitate. She was brave and fierce and deeply loyal to her sisters. But as I entered those awkward middle school years, one bit of Little Women came to mind often. When “Meg goes to Vanity Fair” in Chapter Nine, I went with her. Meg wanted to fit in with the cool girls, and she wanted…