Grrrls on the Side

In 1994, Tabitha Denton is looking for a place where her anger and loneliness might make sense to someone else. A Riot Grrrl zine introduces her to a community built around music, feminism and the conviction that girls should be heard. Meeting Jackie Hardwick, an eighteen-year-old who becomes her crush, gives that discovery a more personal urgency. Yet joining a movement does not mean understanding everyone within it. Tabitha must confront the ways race and privilege affect the experiences of the people she wants to stand beside. Her search for friendship and love becomes a lesson in listening as well as speaking, with belonging dependent on more than shared slogans.