JUNO DAWSON
The YA author tells us about her girl-powered new novel for adults
Words by Jonathan Wrigh
Brought
THE SFX AUTHOR INTERVIEW To Book
Portrait by Elvind Hansen
"I’ve tried to explain the Spice Girls to people who were not 13 in 1996"
BECAUSE OF THE 30-YEAR RULE, THE 1990S are back. For the uninitiated, this is the idea that even the most ephemeral pop culture of three decades ago can be brought back into the light by those who grew up with it. Just ask Juno Dawson.
“I’ve tried to explain the Spice Girls to people who were not 13 in 1996,” she says, “and it’s always kind of fallen on deaf ears, but I can’t really downplay the impact they had on me at the time, what they made me realise about myself in terms of my own queerness. At the time, I thought I wanted to be a Spice Girl. But obviously you can just be a girl, you don’t have to be a Spice Girl.”