"I don’t have a defective version of what you’ve got": Literary Representations of Neurodiverse Girlhoods

This essay analyses a selection of texts written about and by girls, who because of their neurodivergence are unable to learn the complex, often unstated, rules that govern the language, representations and social interactions on which participation in contemporary society is contingent. Research into cultural representations of girls who are unable to fulfil their socially mandated roles due to a variety of reasons, including neurodiversity, suggest they are at best stereotyped, at worst completely ignored. Caitríona Lally’s Eggshells (2015) and Alice Franklin’s Life Hacks for a Little Alien (2025) interrogate the language and spaces of girlhood as sites of restriction and coercion for their neurodiverse protagonists. However, the novels suggest that the marginal status that results from this exclusion from the mainstream can also render visible the often invisible strategies by which social roles and identities are constructed, facilitating a significant site of critique. The novels suggest that the liminal, unnarrated social spaces occupied by their protagonists are where the potential to forge new and inclusive modes of girlhood will be found.