title: The New Girls
text: # The New Girls
  
  The New Girls is a 1979 novel by American author Beth Gutcheon.
  
  The novel, which describes the experiences of five young women in 1960s America, was based on Gutcheon's experiences at Miss Porter's School. Some characters experience anorexia over the course of the novel. It also describes the head of school's adverse reaction to the use of the term "diaphragm" in a student play.
  
  Spieler likens it to works such as The Secret History, Gilmore Girls, and Gossip Girl, as all these texts revolve around an outsider entering into an elite boarding school environment.
  
  Lisa Birnbach, in a follow-up to The Official Preppy Handbook, includes The New Girls on "the true prep master reading list".
  
  