I am laughing, because not only was I an orphan girl, not only did my parents take me to the Laura Ingals Wilder house in Mansfield MO for summer vacation (they had to bribe my brother with a side trip to an amusement park), not only did I run around in a sun bonnet my mom had sewn for me, not only did I imagine myself to be put-upon Sara Crewe whenever I had to do chores, but my favorite childhood game—which I invented—was actually called Orphanage.
And yes, I graduated to a goth and drama-club phase in high school. So glad to hear I’m not the only one!
I love this. I was a "Victorian orphan girl" too - I stuck with it until I was about eleven. I actually knew several girls like this, probably because I went to a private school where 80% of the girls had at least one American Girl doll. Did you ever see "FairyTale: A True Story" from 1997? It's not exactly a "Victorian orphan movie," but it's got one girl with a dead mother and one girl with a dead older brother, circa WWI. Plus lots of pinafores and hair ribbons. (Minor quibble: I never read the book "A Little Princess," but I don't think Sara in the movie imagined all the stuff in her room, because later on, Miss Minchin could see it. Aren't we supposed to conclude it's from the mystical Indian guy next door?)
The 1993 version of "The Secret Garden" was awesome. It was only moderately successful at the box office, though, because that was the summer when kids whose parents offered to take them to see a movie all wanted to see "Jurassic Park" for the third time.
I have claustrophobia but was still so drawn to the cupboard under the stairs vibes so I can totally appreciate the draw of the hidey hole 😂
I would curl up in a blanket and shiver there while I imagined the cruel world outside me, where my parents were corpses in the Atlantic and whoever the hell was making spaghetti in the kitchen was merely the orphanage cook”
I loved reading this so much. I read these same books when I was younger. I wasn’t quite as intense as you but I had many fantasies of running away, hiding in small spaces, and also wrote stories/recorded films where the main character always died in this dramatic horrible way 😂 thanks for prompting me to reminisce!
This is hilarious and so relatable to me! Loved A Little Princess and Secret Garden, and “Orphanage” was an absolute standby game in my childhood. My imaginative Victorian workhouse world was informed mostly by Joan Aiken’s books set in an alternate-history England, the main one being The Wolves of Willoughby Chase—two cousins, one an orphan, one *told* she’s now an orphan, spirited away to an orphanage by an evil governess that they have to outwit. (So much food for the imagination.) I also loved creating dynastic character outlines for stories I never ended up writing.
I also did the drama club/mall goth thing in high school, though my heart was never quite in it. The main aesthetic tendency that spun off from my forlorn orphan phase was a desire for very plain, understated “serviceable” fabrics and aesthetics—plaid, visible mending, humble looking things. My parents briefly lived in a Tudor style house when I was in college and I kind of gloried in the tiny whitewashed pitched-eave bedroom I ended up with, that I left monastically under-decorated. (It horrified my former boyfriend, and I secretly judged him for being soft. We broke up, lol.) Brilliant job capturing the zeitgeist retroactively for us former Victorian Orphan Girls!
This was deeply relatable, I was not exactly this kind of Victorian Orphan Girl (I was the Wolf Girl archetype) but the way you described your fantasies and how they played out maps perfectly over to how mine did (and in the exact same era!) The quote "There was always an ominous moment when you’d bring a bunch of printer paper downstairs and staple it into a book" hit me SO hard because I remember going down to the Stack of Scrap Paper (which was the stack of tractor feed printer paper my mom got free from her work because they were switching printer types at the time) and bundling them together to make Animorphs rip-off comics.
Also, A Little Princess, obsessed with that film as a kid, likely also for the 'losing yourself in fantasies' theme.
This was such a nostalgic read, even though I wasn't this exact archetype! :D
You've probably read them, but if you haven't, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden are both really good books. And if you like the Barbour-jacketed Englishwoman style maybe you would like Jilly Cooper? There's a television series based on one of her books on Disney+, Rivals.
I remember a while ago there was some discussion on Twitter about the 90s Bow Girl archetype that I found very relatable. The vibes feel very Victorian Orphan Girl-adjacent
I am laughing, because not only was I an orphan girl, not only did my parents take me to the Laura Ingals Wilder house in Mansfield MO for summer vacation (they had to bribe my brother with a side trip to an amusement park), not only did I run around in a sun bonnet my mom had sewn for me, not only did I imagine myself to be put-upon Sara Crewe whenever I had to do chores, but my favorite childhood game—which I invented—was actually called Orphanage.
And yes, I graduated to a goth and drama-club phase in high school. So glad to hear I’m not the only one!
The Victorian Orphan to Goth pipeline is real!
Relevant SNL clip: https://youtu.be/eWBNCnU_PK0?si=3hmdhIxGIfOEsyVl
Somehow I knew what it was even before I clicked! LOL
I love this. I was a "Victorian orphan girl" too - I stuck with it until I was about eleven. I actually knew several girls like this, probably because I went to a private school where 80% of the girls had at least one American Girl doll. Did you ever see "FairyTale: A True Story" from 1997? It's not exactly a "Victorian orphan movie," but it's got one girl with a dead mother and one girl with a dead older brother, circa WWI. Plus lots of pinafores and hair ribbons. (Minor quibble: I never read the book "A Little Princess," but I don't think Sara in the movie imagined all the stuff in her room, because later on, Miss Minchin could see it. Aren't we supposed to conclude it's from the mystical Indian guy next door?)
The 1993 version of "The Secret Garden" was awesome. It was only moderately successful at the box office, though, because that was the summer when kids whose parents offered to take them to see a movie all wanted to see "Jurassic Park" for the third time.
This was the article that made me decide to become a paid subscriber
I have claustrophobia but was still so drawn to the cupboard under the stairs vibes so I can totally appreciate the draw of the hidey hole 😂
I would curl up in a blanket and shiver there while I imagined the cruel world outside me, where my parents were corpses in the Atlantic and whoever the hell was making spaghetti in the kitchen was merely the orphanage cook”
My goodness, I also participated in the American Girl doll video competition!
I loved reading this so much. I read these same books when I was younger. I wasn’t quite as intense as you but I had many fantasies of running away, hiding in small spaces, and also wrote stories/recorded films where the main character always died in this dramatic horrible way 😂 thanks for prompting me to reminisce!
This is hilarious and so relatable to me! Loved A Little Princess and Secret Garden, and “Orphanage” was an absolute standby game in my childhood. My imaginative Victorian workhouse world was informed mostly by Joan Aiken’s books set in an alternate-history England, the main one being The Wolves of Willoughby Chase—two cousins, one an orphan, one *told* she’s now an orphan, spirited away to an orphanage by an evil governess that they have to outwit. (So much food for the imagination.) I also loved creating dynastic character outlines for stories I never ended up writing.
I also did the drama club/mall goth thing in high school, though my heart was never quite in it. The main aesthetic tendency that spun off from my forlorn orphan phase was a desire for very plain, understated “serviceable” fabrics and aesthetics—plaid, visible mending, humble looking things. My parents briefly lived in a Tudor style house when I was in college and I kind of gloried in the tiny whitewashed pitched-eave bedroom I ended up with, that I left monastically under-decorated. (It horrified my former boyfriend, and I secretly judged him for being soft. We broke up, lol.) Brilliant job capturing the zeitgeist retroactively for us former Victorian Orphan Girls!
This was deeply relatable, I was not exactly this kind of Victorian Orphan Girl (I was the Wolf Girl archetype) but the way you described your fantasies and how they played out maps perfectly over to how mine did (and in the exact same era!) The quote "There was always an ominous moment when you’d bring a bunch of printer paper downstairs and staple it into a book" hit me SO hard because I remember going down to the Stack of Scrap Paper (which was the stack of tractor feed printer paper my mom got free from her work because they were switching printer types at the time) and bundling them together to make Animorphs rip-off comics.
Also, A Little Princess, obsessed with that film as a kid, likely also for the 'losing yourself in fantasies' theme.
This was such a nostalgic read, even though I wasn't this exact archetype! :D
You've probably read them, but if you haven't, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden are both really good books. And if you like the Barbour-jacketed Englishwoman style maybe you would like Jilly Cooper? There's a television series based on one of her books on Disney+, Rivals.
I remember a while ago there was some discussion on Twitter about the 90s Bow Girl archetype that I found very relatable. The vibes feel very Victorian Orphan Girl-adjacent
https://x.com/rachsyme/status/1364963666886541312?t=CshhC6F3KtQgaLHhm1exUQ&s=19