I Didn't Expect "The Baby-Sitter's Club" Books To Be So Relatable In My 30s, But Guess What, They Are
Shortly after Netflix announced the cancellation of its Baby-Sitter's Club series, I read an interview with showrunner Rachel Shukert that basically reached through the screen and punched me in the gut.
The Baby-Sitters Club showrunner @RachelShukert on the expectations of stories about girls on TV: https://t.co/wgcy5b7Qo6
It's so common for our culture to look down on things that mainly young girls enjoy, but that doesn't mean that they don't have value. I couldn't stop thinking about the interview, and I started to wonder what I'd find if I gave my once-beloved The Baby-Sitter's Club books another look.
TBH, I've also been trying to cut down on my doomscrolling time, and this seemed like a nice wholesome diversion. And it certainly was!
I went to the library and visited my favorite used book store to round up a nice stack of BSC classics. And I realized these books are full of stories about balancing work and life that actually still feel really relevant to me today.
In total, I read seven classic BSC books — one from the point of view of each club member. Here are the books I read, along with the things I noticed about each main character, and why they all still inspire me as a thirtysomething:
1. Kristy Thomas | Kristy's Great Idea
First things first, Kristy is iconic because she's a great leader, and she's not even a tiny bit shy about it.
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Sure, other characters sometimes criticize Kristy's "bossiness" (and in an extremely heated moment, Mary Anne even calls her "the biggest, bossiest know-it-all in the world!"), but Kristy doesn't respond to these critiques by making herself smaller. She simply has great ideas, and she likes making things happen.
You might remember the Ban Bossy campaign in 2014 that pointed out that women and girls tend to get labeled as "bossy" for behaviors that are praised as "assertive" in men and boys. These kinds of messages can be super discouraging for young girls and make them feel like they don't have the right to take charge or show leadership. But not Kristy.
Whether she's coaching a softball team or starting a union for freelance child laborers, Kristy's very comfy in the driver's seat. I would love to bottle her confidence and add a drop to my morning coffee every day.
And Kristy's "great idea" (the BSC, obvi) *is* so great because she figures out a way to solve a problem that a lot of people experience.
At dinner time one night, Kristy watches as her mom makes phone call after phone call trying to get a babysitter for her youngest brother David-Michael. As her mom's food gets cold, Kristy gets inspired. What if she could gather a group of reliable sitters and streamline the process of finding childcare? She enlists her friends Mary Anne and Claudia, plus Claud's new friend Stacey, and the BSC is born.
Noticing a problem and finding a creative way to solve it is how a lot of entrepreneurs get their start. And as a babysitter and a family member, she's chosen a problem to solve that she's very familiar with. If you told me that Kristy went on to found a big business like Care.com or Sittercity, I would believe it 100%.
2. Mary Anne Spier | Mary Anne Saves the Day
Mary Anne is always described as shy, sensitive, and timid, but actually, she stands up for herself and her friends a lot. She might not be the life of the party, but Ms. Spier is no doormat.
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In the beginning of the series, Mary Anne is a bit overshadowed by her more talkative friends and her overprotective dad. But even though she's painted as a wallflower, I noticed Mary Anne knows how to speak up when it's important, and she kinda does it a lot.
In the course of the books I read, our quiet queen helps confront the Baby-sitter's Agency (basically the BSC's Warios), calls out all the other club members after they call her "babyish," stands up to her uptight dad, and handles it like a pro when a child in her care has a 104-degree fever and needs to go to the hospital.
In fact, because Mary Anne tends to be more reserved, I think her words hold even more power when she does speak up.
It's always clear that it's not so easy for Mary Anne to speak her mind. Other characters always notice she's a little out of her comfort zone when she has to raise her voice. And I think that in a weird way, this gives her more power. She's not always chatting, so when she talks people know it's important — and they listen.
Her character reminds me a lot of the lessons in Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Our culture is so obsessed with extraversion, but introverts have their own kind of power and bring something unique to the table that shouldn't be ignored.
3. Claudia Kishi | Claudia and the New Girl
Claudia is an artist, and she's fearless when it comes to expressing her vision.
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Full disclosure, Claudia was my very favorite club member as a kid, and I still adored her in this re-read. You just know that whenever she comes on the scene you're going to get an outfit description rivaled only by Aria Montgomery in terms of how wild it is. Plus, she always has snacks, and she has her *own* phone line in her bedroom — a very big deal in 1988, when the series started.
Claudia is always making things, from her own funky earrings to illustrations for BSC marketing materials. And she always seems to find a lot of joy in doing so. As we get older, it's so easy to lose this kind of excitement. I know when I sit down to write or draw, there's always a little bit of anxiety that what I'm creating won't be any good.
But Claudia really embodies a more fearless and joyful mode of making that can be so freeing to experience. Claudia, I am here for all of your lessons, please!!
And she also deals with the tension that can come up when the work you do for money is not the same as the work that you want to do for joy and fulfillment.
I think most creative people can probably relate to this conflict. For example, in Claudia and the New Girl, Claud befriends Ashley, the titular new girl. Ashley attended a prestigious art program, and Claudia is a little bit in awe of her. Throughout the story, Ashley encourages Claudia to ditch the BSC so she can give more time to her art, implying that the club is stunting her creative growth.
Who hasn't wondered what they could create or achieve if they didn't have to have a day job? Claudia's situation is a little different because she doesn't need her babysitting cash to survive. And she does waver in her commitment to the club — even missing a meeting.
In the end, Claudia decides that her best life is a balanced one, which I found really relatable. As much as many of us would love to devote more time to our crafts, we also need to live. Finding balance can be tricky, but Claudia's example can remind us that it's worth it.
4. Stacey McGill | The Truth About Stacey
Of all the BSC girls, Stacey goes through the most changes. Her life is basically a roller coaster (v. relatable for anyone who's living through a pandemic), and Stacey is the uncontested queen of rolling with the punches.
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She moves to Stoneybrook, then back to New York, and then back to Stoneybrook again. Her New York friends shun her, then they like her, then they don't like her again, and on and on.
And on top of it all, she's recently learned she has type 1 diabetes, and then her parents get divorced. That's so much change and stress! But Stacey handles it all with remarkable poise and cool. While her parents go into denial and drag her from doctor to doctor trying to find some kind of "magic cure," Stacey stays practical and insists that she's already doing everything that can be done by watching her food choices carefully and staying on top of her insulin shots. When things change, she accepts her new reality and keeps on moving.
Stacey is a character who really feels wise beyond her years because of her ability to accept and work with such drastic changes. Oh, and did I mention that she has a PERM?!? She's definitely the most sophisticated BSC-er.
The way Stacey comes to terms with her diabetes is also really important because of how it normalizes living with a chronic illness.
For kids with diabetes especially, Stacey's story can be really helpful (though some of the details in the books aren't 100% correct). And I think that anyone with a chronic illness or condition can also relate a lot to what she goes through.
Stacey's diabetes is on her mind a lot, whether she's babysitting or hanging out with the girls. Food is such a big part of the way we socialize, and Stacey can't always eat the same things that others do. Sometimes this causes misunderstandings, like when the BSC initially thinks she's on an extreme diet because she turns down candy. And she doesn't pretend that it's always easy for her.
It's really refreshing to see a character with a chronic illness in children's literature — not just existing, but leading a full and active life. Diabetes is one part of her, and it's important, but she also does so much more.
5. Dawn Schafer | Dawn and the Big Sleepover
Dawn is someone who really wants to make a difference in the world, and her stories can show us ways to marry our work with our ideals.
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In the books, Dawn is a passionate environmentalist. And in the recent Netflix series, her character's gotten an update so she's now passionate about social justice. In either case, Dawn wants to contribute to the world in a positive way. And even though she's really young, she still finds a way to make a difference.
In Dawn and the Big Sleepover, she organizes a massive fundraising effort when her babysitting charges tell her that their penpals' school burned down. The whole BSC gets involved, and the fundraiser finishes with a giant celebratory slumber party.
IRL, one big cause of burnout can be when your job and your ideals don't align. I think the way that Dawn combines babysitting with making a difference is a great example of how we can tie what we do professionally to the things we care about in the wider world.
We also see Dawn juggling school, sitting jobs, and some pretty tough family stuff, like her parents' divorce and her brother leaving to be with their dad.
In one of the books I read, Dawn even has to put her babysitting clients in a wagon and pull them to school so she can talk to her brother's teacher when he's in trouble. This seems to me like way more responsibility than an eighth-grader should probably have, but maybe it was more normal in the '80s? Gen X'ers, please weigh in.
At any rate, Dawn certainly goes through some turbulent times, and she's not always OK with it. And you know what? That's normal too.
6. Jessi Ramsey | Jessi's Secret Language
The Ramseys are one of only a few Black families in Stoneybrook, and Jessi is really honest about the racism that she unfortunately experiences when she moves to town.
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I was really surprised by how open these books are about Jessi's experiences with racism. She talks about not being welcomed when her family moves to Stoneybrook, and she also mentions worries about backlash when she gets a leading role in a ballet.
At one point, she evens questions if she should be in the BSC because what if their clients don't want to hire a Black babysitter? It's heartbreaking. The girls have her back though; Kristy says that if anyone doesn't want to hire Jessi, then none of them will sit for them either.
It's a very real and important conversation, and Jessi and the BSC handle it well. As much as we might wish that young people (and people in general) didn't have to think about racism, it's still present in our culture, and we need this kind of honesty if things are ever going to change.
Jessi also works to make her community more inclusive overall. She knows how it feels to be left out and doesn't want others to go through it, and she truly makes a difference.
Of the BSC books I've re-read so far, I loved Jessi's the most. First of all, as someone who used to dance, I loved living vicariously through her getting her first pointe shoes. But even more than that, I loved how she went out of her way to make a kid feel more welcome in town.
In Jessi's Secret Language, a new client contacts the BSC. One of their kids is Deaf and uses sign language to communicate. Jessi spends extra time with the family learning sign language and shares what she's learning with the other sitters and other clients. She makes it fun for the other kids to learn how to sign by telling them it's a secret language, and signing becomes a fad with Stoneybrook's kids.
But that's not even all! She's cast in a ballet, and makes arrangements for her Deaf client's class to come to the performance and has someone narrate the action between acts in sign language to make the performance more accessible. Her efforts at inclusion bring a lot of people together, and it's such a great reminder that when we accept and accommodate each other, beautiful things can happen.
7. Mallory Pike | Hello Mallory
We meet Mallory as one of the kids the club sits for. When she later joins the BSC, she has to work extra hard to prove herself.
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Reading about Mallory's struggle to be accepted as a valid member of the club really reminded me a lot of what I felt like early on in my career. Being young and sometimes the only woman in the room, I often felt like I had to work extra hard to prove myself and show what I can do.
But the thing is, Mallory already has the skills. Even before she becomes an official BSC member, she helped the girls out on jobs and babysat for her numerous siblings at home. Her struggle is all about figuring out how to make other people see who she already is.
Mallory is a total underdog, and I, for one, am rooting for her.
Truth be told, I didn't see a ton of Mallory storylines in the books I read, but I remember as a kid feeling like Mallory has a lot of bad luck, and she always seems to be struggling. Plus, she's awkward, has braces, glasses, and a nose she hates, and longs to be cooler.
In my informal research (chatting with my pals about who everyone's favorite BSC-er was), nobody said Mallory was their go-to gal. I think it's because she represents so many of our insecurities, which can be really hard to face as a kid. But as an adult, I kinda love her.
Mallory may not be cool, but she's so incredibly real. Who didn't feel like a complete hot mess when they were 11 (and maybe even still)? She reminds me so much of other characters who I love because of how perfectly they embody my tweenage angst, like Tina Belcher from Bob's Burgers and Barb from Stranger Things.
Side note: As a red-headed kid, I felt a certain kinship to Mal, so imagine my surprise when she describes herself in Hello, Mallory as having dark brown hair! What in the what? Someone needs to investigate.
Finally, I'm so glad that I gave these classic childhood reads another look. I definitely didn't expect these novels about middle school babysitters to be so relevant to my adult life in 2022, but they absolutely are.
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At the end of the day, Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Jessi, and Mallory are working women trying to make a little cash, have some fun, figure out their lives, and put some fun little outfits together. Who wouldn't relate to that?
