Monstrous Teen Girls: Peers and Periods in Carrie and Jennifer's Body

In horror fiction, the truism "hell is high school" has a long history of being made literal. Today we look at the bodily abjection and the complex social worlds of two infamous monstrous teen girls: Carrie White and Jennifer Check. How do gender and age intersect in the monstrosity of these two horror icons? Want to participate in more scholarly monster opportunities? Check out Youth Monsterology: Educational Mentorship and Peer Literary Discussion or my adult and teen Monster Book Clubs at https://themonsterandthechild.com/programs. Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/TheMonsterAndTheChild Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 03:28 - Plug It Up: Embodied Monstrosity 28:43 - High School Evil: The Social Worlds of Teen Girl Monsters 51:41 - Conclusion Transcript: https://kathleenwriting.com/2026/06/14/transcript-monstrous-teen-girls-peers-and-periods-in-carrie-and-jennifers-body/ Media discussed: - Carrie by Stephen King (1974) - Carrie, dir. Brian de Palma (1976) - Jennifer's Body, dir. Karyn Kusama (2009) References: - Creed, B. (1993). The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Routledge. - Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Columbia University Press. - Paszkiewicz, K. (2019). Genre, Authorship and Contemporary Women Filmmakers. Edinburgh University Press. - Pulliam, J. (2014). Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror Fiction. McFarland. - Schillace, B. & Wood, A. (2014). Introduction: Our Monstrous Ways. In B. Schillace & A. Wood (Eds.), Unnatural Reproductions and Monstrosity: The Birth of the Monster in Literature, Film, and Media, Cambria Press, pp. 1-11.