Girlhood is back - even for women well past their adolescence. Injecting a dose of fun into everyday life is the aim, with women wearing feather boas to see Harry Styles at Wembley Arena. Taylor Swift fans crafted and swapped friendship bracelets at the Eras tour in 2024. High-street shops catering to adult women have added pretty, girly bows to everything from clothing to water bottles.But is this all a distraction from the global erosion of women’s rights? Roe v Wade in America was overturned in 2022, while a slew of 'manfluencers' across the globe spout hatred about women. These misogynistic influencers form the manosphere - a network of forums and social media sites where users encourage a disregard for feminism and women’s rights.This is the question that writer Jess Bacon grappled with in her debut book I’m Just A Girl: How Reclaiming Girlhood Can Define Womanhood. She asked: “Are we actually trying to find comfort and a sense of safety at a very unsafe, unstable time?”Bacon, who works as a culture journalist interviewing stars like Margot Robbie, told The Mirror’s resident book critic Dr. Aimée Walsh that it is not a distraction but a reaction to widespread misogyny. For women, seeking solace in adolescent hobbies is a form of joy created in direct response to the rise in the manosphere.‌On these misogynistic sites, women are referred to as “girls” as an “insult” to belittle and degrade them. Bacon argued that even the term feminist is received in some quarters as a “dirty word” - especially as “externally if you label yourself a feminist, there's still [the sense that] the far right would have a very strong opinion about that.”“The resistance there is still so volatile I think as well that actually we need to unpack why that is and why we're so afraid of both strong women and women wanting a seat at the table and wanting equality.”But, Bacon argued that there is an active resistance to misogyny through women reclaiming the term to refer to their peers as a term which expresses both affection and community. Reclaiming the term does not negate the political weight of being a woman.‌Bacon added: “You can never shrug off the identity of being a woman. The political identity of being a woman is something we all have to own and we all have to coexist with… Womanhood and being a woman is a much heavier thing [than girlhood]."She explained that “anger” comes with this, adding, “you can't leave your house without being sexualised or you worry about walking home at night when you should be thinking about just getting home to your tea and watching your programme or reading your book.”For meaningful resistance, there must be community, and many are finding it in their childhood hobbies. But returning to childhood innocence - where joy and fun were given primacy - is difficult for many women, as they were forced to grow up too soon. Bacon’s own childhood was marred by the ‘before and after’ moment when her father died in her teenage years.She said: “My dad [was] diagnosed when I was 15 with brain cancer. At the time we didn't use the word terminal but we knew it was very serious. He passed away when I was 16. It felt like there was a severance between who I was and who I am now.‌“Actually there was so much grief and rage and depression that I was actually trying to be this joyful bubbly girl that thought anything was possible [with] her whole life ahead of her. [But] I couldn't really resonate with that anymore. I didn't know how to be around my friends and I didn't know how to just be myself again.”She added: “It felt like that person had died with my dad.”It took many years for Bacon to find her way back to joy after her father’s passing, as she doubted how she could continue being her authentic self after such heart-breaking news. She added that “[women’s interest in hobbies is] conditioned out of us as we become more self-conscious of ourselves."“There's an element of performance, being expected to behave certain ways in different scenarios [and] making yourself more palatable [by] censoring yourself so that men don't sexualise you.”‌Giving up on performing a role that does not serve her pleasure was life-changing for Bacon, as she now thinks there is a double-standard between the sexes. She said: “Men can love the World Cup and they can love football and they can play Lego and they can do Pokémon cards but if women love Taylor Swift it's kind of like 'oh, she's a Swiftie'. Like there's kind of like a different connotation. It's seen as, ‘that's very embarrassing’.”Girlhood, for Bacon, is about “being playful [and having] fun”, as she dresses in clothes with pop vibrant colours, while watching Marvel movies, and reading whatever her heart desires.She explained that this approach to life has to to online connections which became real-life friendships. When we first meet, she is with writer Lucy Rose, author of the best-selling novel The Lamb, whom she met originally through social media.Community building - whether that is through swapping bracelets at a Taylor Swift gig or meeting up for a book club - is key in a world where women’s rights have been eroded. Bacon said: “In order to keep going in the world how it is right now, in order to show up at protests and continue to fight for women's rights, we also need to be mentally well enough to do so... these enjoyable hobbies that you've come back to have a lot of great mental health benefits."‌Love reading? 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