[Claire Halliday]

It’s sad news about the co-author of Puberty Blues, Gabrielle Carey passing away.
Remembering my first reading of that iconic Australian coming-of-age novel takes my back to those twinges of teenage excitement and dread about discovering the world around me – with all the risks and heartaches that included.

Reading Puberty Blues felt a bit naughty – one of those books that you felt you had to hide under the covers from your parents. But, of course, teenagers rarely imagine that the parents we see as strict, or uptight, or difficult to talk to were once also teenagers themselves!

Growing up in Adelaide, though, the gritty tales of the beach and surfing scene that Gabrielle Carey co-wrote about with author Kathy Lette, felt like a world away from me – both geographically and emotionally. And they were fascinating…

I’m sure I’m not alone in having memories Puberty Blues – famous, in part, for being written when both Carey and Lette were still teenagers.

I read that Gabrielle Carey once told novelist and academic Debra Adelaide that she didn’t want her role co-writing Puberty Blues to be her legacy – but it would probably be on her gravestone.

Vale Gabrielle Carey.

Do you have memories of Puberty Blues? If you grew up in the Sydney beaches surfing scene, did you think the story captured what it was really like?

[Author]

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