Criticism of Alice

Question:

I was going through your blog and began noticing how much negativity I saw. I read through your blog regularly and have never really seen so much criticism at once. I think you are a brave and amazing person to actually reply to these emails instead of just deleting them because that’s most definitely what I would do. The one email that bothered me the most was the one about letting her eight year old daughter reading your books…is this person completely clueless? Your books are for teenage girls (mostly) and they really helped me get through so many complicated situations. It was like Alice made me feel like I wasn’t the only one. And I know for a fact your books are not placed in the “kids” section, some of you’re earlier ones like, The Agony of Alice may be placed there, but most of them are in the “Young Adult” section where they should be. Your books are amazing and you really understand how TEENAGE girls work, not eight years olds. Thank you so much for getting me through the hard times in my life.

Phyllis replied:

I think perhaps some of the critcism comes from parents who are themselves not ready to discuss sexual topics with their children.  And they become angry with me when their daughter reads something in an Alice book about sex and then asks them about it.    But I know how you, the readers, respond, and that makes it all worthwhile.