Such a Fun Age Themes

Such a Fun Age features many characters who behave in ways that contradict what they feel on the inside. This phenomenon features most prominently in Alix Chamberlain, a social media influencer, businesswoman, and champion of female empowerment (she heads a business called LetHer Speak) who employs college graduate Emira Tucker to babysit her two-year-old daughter Briar. The closest thing the novel has to an antagonist, Alix is the embodiment of performative white feminism…

Throughout the novel, Emira encounters many characters who are determined to empower and improve her. And while many of these characters believe (or want to believe) that they are acting purely out of concern for Emira’s wellbeing, it’s more often the case that guilt and self-interest motivate their acts of goodwill. After a grocery store security guard racially profiles Emira while she is watching Briar and accuses her of kidnapping the toddler, Alix is overcome…

In Such a Fun Age, characters who come from privileged backgrounds—such as Alix Chamberlain, her career-driven mom friends Jodi, Tamra, and Rachel, or Kelley Copeland—enjoy (and take for granted) opportunities that people who come from more modest origins or experience racial prejudice, such as Emira, rarely experience. Alix and her husband’s economic stability, for instance, allows Alix to hire Emira to look after her children while Alix attends…