Being on maternity leave made me see my job in a new light. I’d worked in fashion for so long, I’d forgotten how exotic and bizarre the industry can seem from the outside. The women I chatted to at playgroups and in cafes had so many questions about what I did. I realized that the smallest details could be fascinating or unexpected—from what type of chairs there are on the front row to how messy the fashion cupboard always is, or simply the day-to-day running of a fashion desk. I tried to write about the industry in a way that felt insidery but which also disabused a few notions of how glamorous it all is.
Q:
Did becoming a mother influence your depictions of motherhood in the book?
A:
Absolutely. I knew that having a baby would change the way I lived, but wasn’t prepared for how it changed the way I felt about myself and how I behaved with other people. Having my daughter made me simultaneously the weakest and strongest I have ever been, incredibly insecure but also much more confident. I doubt myself more than I ever have, but I also trust my judgment in a way I never used to. The roller coaster of emotions and identity reminded me of being a teenager, which is why the book looks at female friendships in school, too.
Once you’re in the cohort of people trying for and having babies, you also become so much more aware of how fraught the whole process can be—the fear, the pain, the struggle to conceive, the grief and trauma of miscarriage. I wanted Winnie’s story to stand for a side of motherhood that isn’t often discussed, but which can loom large in the mind of most women as they find their way in this new identity.
Becoming a mother was (still is) utterly discombobulating and I wanted to convey that in the book. I was already au fait with feeling impostor syndrome at work; I didn’t realize you could have it at home, too. I wasn’t prepared for the guilt, the nagging feeling that I was doing it all wrong and that someone was about to find out, the constant anxiety—and I count myself as someone who had a happy and fulfilling maternity leave with a pretty relaxed baby!
Q:
Do you feel a lot of pressure both as a mother and as a woman in the fashion industry? Is it difficult to be a mother in the fashion industry?
A:
I don’t think it’s more difficult being a mother in the fashion industry than in any other job. Whatever their profession, women are encouraged to hold themselves to impossible standards both at home and at work, and all too often this leads to a certain suspicion you’re failing on both fronts.
Fashion has a reputation for being bitchy and competitive—it can be, but more and more there’s a sense of solidarity, too. It’s rare to work in a majority-female industry and to see women, with children and without, in the top jobs. I’ve always had plenty of role models, not to mention supportive female colleagues and bosses; I can imagine being shocked at the lack of visibility of women in senior roles in other workplaces.
In my opinion, the biggest pressure on women and mothers comes not from the fashion industry but from social media—the bikini selfies, the endless holidays, the perfectly curated lives and feelings of inadequacy these apps can bring. Social media fuels the illusion that “having it all” is easy—and the norm. In my admittedly very privileged experience, having it all means having a partner who does just as much childcare as you do and splits household chores fifty-fifty, too.
Q:
You’re a journalist. How was writing fiction different? Did you like it more or less than writing nonfiction?
A:
As a journalist, I rely on facts and quotes to tell other people’s stories. As a novelist, I felt so much more exposed: my ideas, my imagination, my characters, my plot—all out there to be critiqued and weighed in the balance. The New Girl contains so many themes and strands that are close to my heart that, at times, putting it out there felt a little like one of those anxiety dreams where you’re inexplicably naked in the supermarket and everyone is looking.
As much as I love my job, I’m not sure this book would have happened without some time away from it. The daily deadlines and immediacy of writing for a newspaper do put a certain limit on one’s attention span, and it took months (thank goodness for all those buggy walks!) to flesh out a narrative and characters even before I began writing.
Once I’d started, I loved the freedom of fiction—the space and word count to work through thoughts at length, to linger over descriptions and invent the things that needed describing—but without the usual deadline or word count, I also found it vast and intimidating. I had to set myself chapter targets to hit so it felt less overwhelming and gave myself a completely arbitrary deadline to make sure I got to the end.
I’m not sure I could choose one medium over the other. I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl. Just like Margot and Maggie, I have always felt immensely lucky to make a living from words—I hope you enjoyed reading them.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
Much of the novel centers on female relationships and the way women interact with one another. Do you ever find yourself thinking some of the same thoughts that Margot, Maggie, and Winnie had when interacting with other women?
Margot is distressed at the thought of going on maternity leave and feels that it will leave her high-powered position vulnerable. Would you have had the same concern if you were in her position? Why or why not?
After Winnie and Charles lose their child, the primary focus is supporting Winnie through her grief while Charles is secondary. Why do you think that is?
What do you think Winnie stands for as a mother, even though she has no child? How do you think the loss affects her perception of herself?
As Maggie becomes increasingly successful in Margot’s position, she begins to resent the fact that she will be forced to give it up. Is it fair of her to feel this way? Would you feel this way if you were in her position?
Margot and Maggie are both seen struggling to balance their work and home lives. Margot is pulled between a career she spent years building and motherhood, and Maggie is pulled between the time it takes to build a career and the time it takes to build a relationship. Can you relate to their struggles to balance their lives?
Margot still carries guilt for what happened in high school. Do you think she bears any blame? Can you relate to her guilt, merited or otherwise?
Do you believe Margot, Maggie, and Winnie will continue their friendship beyond the end of the novel? Do you think tragedy ultimately bonds or breaks relationships?
Do you think Winnie and Charles’s marriage will survive after the events of the novel? Would you make the same choice that Winnie did about her marriage? Why or why not?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Harriet Walker is fashion editor of The Times. She has been a broadsheet journalist for more than a decade, and has also written for Vogue, the Financial Times, and The Guardian. She studied English at Trinity College Cambridge and lives in South East London with her husband and daughter.
harrietwalker.com
Twitter: @harrywalker1
Instagram: @_harrywalker1
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