what do you think a modern version of Samantha’s story would look like? Labor laws in the us regarding kids are very different now, and kids aren’t working in factories (some are, as my dad told me) but the regulations are wishy washy depending on the state? Would Nellie be changed? I wanna know your thoughts! Also unrelated which one of Samantha’s outfits would you wanna wear?
okay, so it took me a hot moment to hunt down the post that i was thinking of, but @queer-nanea-mitchell has this post from a few years ago that brings up the idea of a modern samantha storyline looking at foster care instead of child labor. i love this idea, since i think it allows samantha's stories to keep its core themes in an updated fashion. for me, then, the stories look like this:
samantha's parents are still dead (look, the drowning backstory can exist in precisely the same manner, i fear), she's still living with grandmary, attending private school, etc.
nellie's parents have been deemed to poor to properly care for their children, so nellie and her sisters have been sent to the rylands (and uh. the rylands suck as per usual). i'm not exactly sure what to do with the jessie storyline, but i think maybe it could be a moment of exploring how unaffordable/inaccessible childcare in the us is (so jessie still initially steps away from the edwards/parkington household after having nathaniel)?
book one ends with nellie's parents having gotten themselves into a better situation, so the girls can go home, but samantha is now all too aware of how precarious that situation is, so grandmary still helps them find a better job and living situation in mount bedford
nellie is still struggling in school by book two because of being in and out of foster care; i don't think we can have quite the same type of speech moment, but i imagine there's something similar that reveals the nuances of the foster care system (and is, unfortunately, foreshadowing for book six)
book three can go on basically the same way but in an updated setting + more nellie. uncle gard is probably really into electric cars (NOT tesla jfc) and he's met aunt cornelia through his law firm, where she is a new colleague that has just graduated from a very prestigious program (and she went to a hwc for undergard--i will die on this hill!!)
book four can also be pretty similar (but with more nellie); i'd personally like to see cornelia involved with the pro-choice movement, but that seems to be pushing the boundaries of what is allowed in the ag world, so we can also just have different-waves-of-feminism tension between her and grandmary, which would still be a neat way to explore how that movement has evolved
book five! yeah, they're still going to the adirondacks and exploring samantha's familial trauma. also, there's absolutely a mention from grandmary about how everyone needs to "unplug" while they're up there (that woman is NOT allowing wi-fi at her adirondack camp, and gard is going to be bouncing off the walls)
book six is a return to the foster care storyline. nellie's parents have died (i'm down for it still being an illness, but also an accident that parallels sam's parents also works), and the girls have been placed in an abusive foster care situation back in new york city. samantha manages to track them down, and nellie explains how she's been trying to advocate to get them out of their current situation, but there's the chance they will be split up. samantha still gets the o'malley girls hidden away in the attic, but there then starts to be an investigation into where the girls have gone. since that reveals the abusive conditions of their former foster care placement, the o'malley girls finally get placed with the edwards:)
nellie's book then remains her trying to adjust to the wealth of her new household and her desire to protect her sisters. instead of the settlement house, we have her introducing cornelia and samantha to a community center. uncle mike still crops up (booo), but overall this book stays very much the same (it's truly one of the best in the series, so it totally deserves to) (my one goofy addition is that bridget, jenny and gard really bond over playing mario on the nintendo switch)
that's my initial thoughts! as for what samantha outfit i'd most want to wear these days, i think it comes down to either the plaid cape or the velvet dress. i love a lot of samantha's outfits, but these are some of my favorites that i also think i could most get into with my current style!
