Why I want to be Nancy Drew when I grow up

I first picked up a Nancy Drew book when I was about seven or eight years old. My mother bought me a copy of The Secret of Shadow Ranch. I had never read a mystery before. My reading up till that point had consisted of Amelia Bedelia, Ramona and Little House on the Prairie books. In fact, the book scared me a little, and it took a while before I picked up another Nancy Drew. Once I finally did, I was totally hooked.

I read all 58 Nancy Drews that had been published at that point. Nancy was who I wanted to be when I grew up. She was confident, smart, poised, had a great sense of humor. She could do anything, play the bagpipes, fly a plane, pretend to be a puppet, tap dance. Whatever was required to solve the mystery, she was some how able to do. She had two best friends, Bess and George who were devoted to her, and who despite their own concerns and fears, were right there with her in the thick of things. She had a loving, devoted Dad who thought the world of her, a housekeeper who treated her like a daughter, and a cute dog. Not to mention, a boyfriend who had endless amounts of patience to wait for her to find time to spend with him. She traveled around the world solving mysteries in exotic places like Peru, Hawaii, India, Scotland (trust me Scotland was exotic to a nine year old, and if you've ever been there you'd know what I mean).

Her father never questioned her judgement, he just gave her the money and let her go. I loved that. Plus she didn't have to go to school, and adults came to her to solve mysteries even though she was only 18. I thought when I'm eighteen, I'm going to be that fabulous!

My love of Nancy Drew extended to wanting to be her. I used to make my friends play Nancy Drew. Of course, I was Nancy and they were Bess and George. Playing Nancy helped me make the decision that I wanted to act when I grew up. I loved Nancy Drew so much that I was so pissed off when they cast Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy instead of me (even though I would look horrible as a blonde). Of course, the show sucked (and not just because they didn't cast me). It was as if the producers had no understanding of what made the books so great. Plus the Ned Nickerson was so not hot (you just knew Ned was a hottie).

My first rejection letter as a writer came when I attempted to come up with my own mystery series starring a teen detective named Kerri (surprise, surprise) who solved mysteries. I submitted it to Grosset and Dunlap, who sent me a very nice rejection letter. If RWA Pro existed back then, I would have had my pin at the ripe old age of ten.

So I have Nancy to thank for my twin careers as actress and writer. Of course, I don't solve mysteries, but Nancy taught me to think for myself, and to trust my own judgement and instincts. She made every girl who read her believe that they could do anything, if she did it.

Sometimes I find myself thinking in a certain situation, 'What would Nancy Drew do?' How would she solve this problem?

Last year, Nancy turned 75 years young, with a new look, and a new series of adventures. Nancy's kept up with the times. She's gone to college, become an interactive computer game, and now she's so hip, that's she even become Manga!

Two books have come out recently that share my love of Nancy Drew. The first is Girl Sleuth by Melanie Rehak, an excellent history of the Stratemeyer syndicate and the three people who were largely responsible for who Nancy became, Edward Stratemeyer who came up with the concept, his daughter Harriet who carried on leading the company and was responsible for revising the first 36 books, and Mildred Wirt Benson who actually ghost-wrote the books for the first 25 years of the series.

The second is Susan Kandel's Not A Girl Detective, the second in her Cece Caruso mystery series. This one deals with a missing painting of the woman who modeled for the covers, and has lots of fun, interesting facts.

So, I raise a cyber class of champagne to Nancy Drew for helping mold me into the woman I've become.

Thanks for stopping by.

EKM