An Over-Achiever or An Inspiration?

Nancy Drew's "The Ringmaster's Secret" is all about a mystery at a circus. There are several events being held under the big top and one of these is bareback horse-riding. One of the circus regulars becomes injured and Nancy is encouraged to step in and take her place. Nancy was taking trick riding lessons from the former owner of the circus, and a current circus employee noticed how well she did and asked her to be a sub.

My first impression of this was, sure right, now Nancy is an expert at trick horse-back riding on top of being an expert female-sleuth. Seems a bit far-fetched that she's an expert at everything she tries to do! This is unrealistic, but then I thought more about the audience that reads Nancy Drew books.

Instead of making Nancy an over-achiever, I think the author was trying to make Nancy an inspiration - that is, a good role model for young girls. The message is that girls can be good at anything they want to do, whether it be sailing, swimming, horse-back riding, flying a plane or solving mysteries.



Photo courtesy stock.xchng