The author analyzes the creation of two heroines of canonical texts of so-called novels for girls – Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) and Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908). She reads them as proto-girlhood predecessors of Pippi from Astrid Lindgren’s novels. She examines the way in which the heroines are socialized and how they negotiate their independence and otherness. For context, she uses the film and series adaptations – Little Women (2019, directed by Greta Gerwig) and Anne with an E (2017-2019, created by Moira Walley-Beckett).

keywords: Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, girlhood studies, girlhood, novel for girls, adaptations