Girls make sense: girls, celebrities and identities

Combining intertextual, audience and feminist perspectives, this article investigates how young girls make meaning from celebrities. Based on focus group interviews with Dutch girls aged 12—13, it argues that girls' talk about celebrities functions as an identity tool in the reflexive project of the self. Alternating three repertoires (identification, makeability and authenticity), the girls appropriated narratives of celebrities to themselves and others in their everyday lives. The article adds knowledge about the reception of celebrities in Dutch multicultural society, intervenes in feminist discussions about girls and their agency, and contributes empirically to the literature about audiences and celebrities, more specifically to the notions of reflexivity and identification.