I've Learned a Lot From Fancy Nancy by Edith

Edith's entry into Varsity Tutor's October 2025 scholarship contest

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I've Learned a Lot From Fancy Nancy by Edith - October 2025 Scholarship Essay

When I was younger, I was absolutely obsessed with Jane O’Conners easy reader book series, ‘Fancy Nancy.’ It was about a little girl (nicknamed Fancy Nancy, as the series title suggests) who ran around having girlish adventures and wearing absolutely everything that she could possibly put on and turn into an accessory. She was outspoken, joyful and loved being completely herself throughout all the ups and downs of her life, and I loved it. I thought she was an inspiration, and I wanted to be just like her. She showed me that I could be who I wanted to be without doubts, and all it did was spark my creativity and make me more of an artistic genius than I already had the potential to become.
For a bit, around late elementary school age, I had a phase where I denied every part of myself that wanted to be pretty and creative. For if I didn’t, I was simply “too girly” (which is a phrase used to insult many young girls as they get older, leading them to perceive their natural and beautiful femininity as something negative, something cringy, and even something to wholly deny and stamp out entirely.) Despite my drive to not become a “female cliche,” those lessons of individuality and personal enjoyment stayed in the back of my head. Because of that, it wasn't long before I rediscovered Fancy Nancy and realized once again that it was much more important to be unapologetically me than to avoid becoming a “stereotype.” She helped me come into my femininity and work past the “tomboy” stage where I felt like I had to wear more masculine clothes and talk about more male-gaze centered things to be perceived as intelligent and unique.
The Fancy Nancy books helped shape my personality as a small child, and that stuck with me no matter how many other things I dealt with growing up, or no matter how many times I rejected her alongside anything else I considered “too princessy” (such as Barbie, makeup and dresses, or even just the color pink.) As I got older, the lessons I learned from her as a kid started bubbling to the surface again, and I began to let who I was on the inside shine through and show on the outside. I accepted me for me and started wearing clothes and putting on makeup and accessories that made me feel good in my body. I started being more outspoken and talking about my actual interests again. I surrounded myself with things and topics and people that genuinely made me happy, made me finally feel like myself, and all of it helped me entirely rediscover myself in the most positive way one can possibly imagine.
The amount of self love and creative expression Fancy Nancy taught me to have has truly changed the course of my life, and I do not believe I would be where I am today without reading the books about her as a child. I would not be as far in my artistic journey and self exploration as I am without the amount of time I spent soaking up the easy reader books about the adventures of a little girl that I could relate to so much.
Even though I first read these stories so long ago, they remain incredibly close to my heart. Fancy Nancy taught me to love and express myself wholeheartedly and without shame, and for that I thank both the character herself and the author that wrote that character into the world.

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