Back in my youth, I read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries. I was introduced to this series of girl-detective novels by my Aunt Helen, who read them when she was a child.
This comes to mind reading that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was an avid reader of the Nancy Drew mysteries and was inspired by the character. A little more research and I see that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner read the mysteries, too.
I loved Nancy Drew. She had her own car, a convertible, that allowed the wind to fluff her blond hair. Her pals were George (a girl), Bess and Ned. Her mother died when she was young and her father, Carson, was a lawyer. Hannah was the housekeeper. The setting for stories, written by Edward Stratemeyer under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, was River Heights.
As a teen-ager and a girl, Nancy was very independent. She spoke her mind. Nancy reinforced the idea that girls could do anything and that it was perfectly all right to push the conventions of society when it came to females. The books were a lot of fun and exciting to read. She was, indeed, an inspiration.
