The release of The Baby-Sitters Club prequel got me to thinking: what are the girls doing now?
They’d be in their early 30s, I believe. But beyond that, it’s all up to our imagination.
Lots of women my age grew up reading — and, in my case, writing — because of the BSC. And I bet they would mob bookstores if author Ann M. Martin came out with a BSC reunion story, a Where Are They Now book. But Martin says she’s not interested in writing one; none of the stories I’ve read about Where Are They Now potential really explain why. (Ann, if you’re reading this, please chime in! The blogosphere is awesome like that.) Maybe she doesn’t want her characters to grow up. Maybe she’s worried a reunion book would disappoint. Or maybe she doesn’t want to write an adult book — because that’s how I envision the reunion: an adult read, a grown-up version of the series’ young-adult voice.
Hm. If that’s the case — if Martin simply doesn’t want to write the book herself — maybe she’d be cool with someone else writing it. Someone like me.
That would be fabulous, wouldn’t it? A long-time fan writes the reunion book? That would go hand-in-hand with other ways fans have kept the BSC dream alive, including blogs like Claudia’s Room, What Claudia Wore, and The Baby-Sitters Club Revisited.
Who was your favorite BSC character, and where would she be today?
I’m gonna say Claudia (who, admittedly, is the reason I want to name one of my daughters Claudia. Yes, I want to name my child after a hip fictional character) now designs and makes jewelry for a living. She’s not married (yet) and has no kids, unlike the other BSC members… Wait a minute. I’m giving away my reunion plot!
Your turn.
A reunion book would be a lot of fun. When I invision this group today, I think about the movie “Now and Then”. It just has that vibe of friendship to me.
Sweet Valley is having an adult book series come out, and really, I am very curious about it. I wrote about my thoughts about it and the upcoming Diablo Cody movie here:
http://natashamheck.blogspot.com/2010/02/world-of-sweet-valley-revisited.html
In the blog post, I totally gave away what I thought the characters should be like in the future. I know it won’t happen, but hey! It is was fun writing it.
Now I wonder if I should do the same for the BSC! And maybe even Babysitter’s Little Sister series with Kristy’s stepsister, Karen. I read a lot of those too.
Favorite Character: Unsure, really. I tried to think of my favorite books, and they were about the various characters (mostly the original five). The first nine books, and then “Mary Anne + Too Many Babies”, “The Mystery at Claudia’s House”, “New York, New York!”, and “Starring the Babysitter Club”.
I think the reason why I liked these so much is I owned them and I read the rest of them from the library. I still have them boxed away and am now tempted to break them out tonight.
BSC Forever!
-Natasha
Whoops! I could do some predicting, but will do the original characters to keep it short and I could be waayyy off (haha!)!
Kristy- Married with five kids and the coach for her kids various sport teams. Her husband is a fireman.
Mary Anne- Married with two kids and lives next door to Kristy. She has an at home daycare. And, yep, she is a Derby Girl.
Claudia- Has her very own art studio/coffee shop. No kids, and just got out of a serious relationship.
Dawn- Lives in CA works for an enviromental non-profit group. She is single mom with a young son.
Stacy- Married Logan after running into him in NYC. They run a business that they are trying to keep off the ground and are too busy for kids.
Great question! My favorites were definitely Kristy and Claudia. I wanted to be like creative, rebellious Claudia, but I was probably more like bossy, tomboyish Kristy. I’d like to think Kristy is living in a big city and working as a lawyer or journalist. And of course, she plays sports in a co-ed intramural league.
Remember the movie? Wow, it came out 15 years ago…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112435/
I love this post, Alexis. I loved BSC. My favorite book was Logan Likes Mary Ann, although, I can’t remember why. I also remember wanting to be Dawn. I’m going to have to read some of them again to remember what it was that I loved so much!
i love how much you guys remember! i remember loving the books but i have forgotten a lot of the characters at this point 🙂 I also enjoyed that moving “Now and Then” and think you could easily do a revisit of the girls as adults that would be fun to read!
Eeek! I LOVED Babysitter’s Club. Hmmm, I always admired Claudia, Stacy, Dawn and Kristy for their strong personalities, but I felt closest to MaryAnn because she made me think of myself (although, I was actually probably more of a Kristy or Claudia).
That would be SO awesome if there was a reunion story…
Kristy works with a girls’ softball league and is married to a pro athlete with 3 kids,living in Stoneybrook.
Mary Anne married childhood sweetheart Logan right after graduating from NYU.But the marriage was short-lived.She has since remarried and has 4 kids,working as a therapist in Stamford.
Claudia is a cartoon artist in Manhattan,married and is currently expecting her 1st child.
Stacey is a stockbroker in Long Island,got married,had a baby,became a widow,and married Kristy’s brother,Sam.
Dawn is in environmental lawyer,splits her time between California and Stamford,and is a single mother to 5-year old twins.
After his marriage to Mary Anne ended due to his wandering eye,Logan moved back to Kentucky where he is a high school coach.He is currently single with an 8 year old boy.
Mallory is a writer in Boston and is single with no children.
Jessi is a dancer/counselor in New Jersey.She is married and has 7 children.
Shannon is a Duchess in Europe and is married to a Prince and has an infant daughter.
Abby is an Olympic triathlete,resides in Philadelphia,and is married with no children.
My fave is a tie between Jessi, Mallory, and Stacey, obviously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jessi- a prima ballerina in Paris, a single mom with an adopted daughter named Mallory (after her BFF) from Ghana.
Mallory- a novelist for young adults and children, enjoys Percy Jackson, lives next door to Jessi.
Stacey- a fashion designer who lives in Milan, single but is seeing Charlie.
Kristy: Owner and C.E.O of adoption business. Not married. Has no kids.
Mary Anne: Married middle-school sweetheart Logan. Currently a stay-at-home mom with 3 kids.
Stacey: Fashion designer struggling to make ends meet (That’s what you get in this economy.) Is currently living with her bartender boyfriend, Eight.
Claudia: Artist in Paris. Is married to the ‘nice’ boy her parents set her up with. Has 4 kids, which she uses as models for her paintings.
Dawn: Ecologist. Married to co-worker. Both are very persistent in protesting animal cruelty. Has 2 children she named Rain and Meadow.
Abby: Wannabe Olympic athlete. Actually a high-school track coach. Is divorced, with one son, whom she trains with every day.
Mallory: Librarian. Writes in free time, trying to get published. Leaves husband Ben Hobart to watch their 4 kids.
Jessi: Dancer in the NYC company. Single, but did adopt a child from Kristy’s adoption company.
Shannon: Travel writer. Major workaholic. Has 2 grown children. Is pretty hard to reach.
Logan: Married to Mary Anne. Works as a manager to a major-league baseball team.
Ok couple of things before I write my summary. I loved the BSC books and I still do. I’m even starting to read them all again and collect them. However in reading them again in my adulthood I am noticing major continuity errors. There is no way they would be in 8th grade that long. So as I read them I age them as I see fit. The series (in my mind) goes from 7th-12th grade. Ok so by this logic this would make the babysitters 30 (Mallory and Jessi 28) now since the series ended in 2000. Kristy was my favorite but I loved them all. Oh and these are pretty detailed lol
Kristy- went to Southern Connecticut State University and roomed with Abby and Mary-Anne. She is now a 4th grade teacher at SES and also coaches softball still. She is married to Jack Bartlett, a middle school bio teacher who also coaches football. They have 2 kids Brad, 4 Paisley 2 and 1 on the way, a son to be named David, so far but they are thinking 5 total. She also has 2 dogs Scout (a golden retriever) and Jojo (a sheepdog mutt) and an orange cat named Stripes. She, Mary-Anne, and Mallory teach a babysitters training course every Saturday at SMS.
Claudia- opted against college (to her parents disappointment) and is traveling all over the world soaking up life and pouring it into her artwork. She isn’t married yet but is looking to settle down in the next 3-5 years. She’s not quite done being adventurous yet. She’s currently living in Tokyo but has been to Paris, Barcelona, Mumbai, Beijing, Amsterdam, New York City, Chicago, and San-Francisco.
Mary-Anne- as I mentioned went to SCSU with Kristy and is now a kindergarten teacher at SES. She and Kristy live next door to each other again. She is married to a psychologist named James Lawrence who has helped her with a lot of her insecurities. They’re a great match. They have 2 kids Alma 3 and Lily 6 months and a grey cat named Layla. They are planning to have one more in the next 2 or 3 years. She and Dawn see each other regularly despite the distance. Dawn comes to Connecticut every year from 2 days before Thanksgiving to the day after New Years Day and Mary-Anne spends Memorial day till July 6th in California. They email and Facebook daily too.
Stacey- went to NYU and is now working at a big fashion merchandising company with Laine (who was her roommate in college and they became BFFs again) They are taking over the fashion world. She is currently married to Sam Thomas and has one daughter Julianna age 2.
Dawn- she went to Berkley and roomed with Sunny Winslow. After college she and Sunny went into the Peace Corps for 2 years and were stationed in Costa Rica. Afterwards they went to Washington DC to lobby and protest environmental issues. Dawn met Trent the love of her life in the Peace Corps and he followed her to Washington. They got married after returning to Palo City. They have 1 daughter Lalaine 2 and they have a child on the way a son to be named Connor. She and her husband run a health food and vitamin store (medical marijuana sold there)
Abby- after freshman year Abby quit SCSU to play for the US women’s soccer team. She came out as a lesbian that year in college and is now in a relationship with teammate Tori. They have been together for 8 years now and will marry once retired. They hope their last world cup tournament in 2 years they will win since 2 years ago they lost at the final game.
Mallory- went to Harvard to study English Lit and Creative Writing. She is now an author and illustrator and a librarian at the Stoneybrook Public Library. One of her books has already been published and another one is in the process of being published. In the next 5 years she hopes to start a series about a girl and her horse. Every year she does a library tour of America reading her book and books by her favorite authors to kids around the country. She isn’t married or seeing anyone right now and lives alone with her cat Emmanuel.
Jessi- went to Julliard to study ballet. She and Anna Stevenson (Abby’s twin) have become quite close and she and Stacey hang out from time to time. She has had a minor role in Swan Lake and has worked on Broadway in musicals such as Dreamgirls and West Side Story. She has a boyfriend named Pablo whom she met working on West Side Story. They’ve been dating almost a year but aren’t quite ready to settle down yet.
Shannon- went to Yale to study French, Theater, and Education. Her third year she studied abroad in Paris and met JeanLuc. However she had to return to Yale to finish her senior year so they dated 2 years and 1 was long distance. After graduation she went back to Paris to marry JeanLuc. She worked in a Cafe for 2 years and a boutique another 2 years and recently found a job at an all girl’s boarding school running the theater department and teaching English. She has a daughter named Cherie 3 and a son Pierre 4 months. They have a Bernese Mountain dog named Valjean (after the lead in Les Mis their fave Broadway musical)
Logan- was crushed when Mary-Anne dumped him. He intended to go to SCSU with her but instead joined the army and fought in Afghanistan for a year. He met Yaka there. Her family had been killed and she felt oppressed by her government. He took her back to the states (Stoneybrook) and they married. They now have 3 children Muhammad 7, Yasmin, 6, and Angela 3. They have a child on the way a son to be named Barack. They also have a black lab named Eisenhower and a black cat named mystery. He and Mary-Anne mended their friendship 2 years ago. He said that their relationship ending seemed like the worst thing that ever happened to him but it was really for the best and now he couldn’t be happier. Mary-Anne agreed and now they are close friends.
Oh yeah and Logan currently works as a pewee football coach and also is the manager of a Dicks Sporting good store. Yaka is a stay at home mother.