Blair Thornburgh

Blair Thornburgh reimagines classic social comedy through contemporary fiction for teen readers. A University of Chicago graduate, she wrote Who’s That Girl and Ordinary Girls, both published by HarperTeen. Ordinary Girls reworks elements of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility through the relationship between sisters Plum and Ginny Blatchley. Quiet, observant Plum measures herself against her dramatic older sister while their family faces the loss of income connected to their late father’s books. Questions about college, money, first love, and individual identity unsettle the sisters without erasing their loyalty to one another. Thornburgh places literary references inside a firmly contemporary family story, allowing Austen and the Brontës to become part of how the characters interpret their circumstances. The novel emphasizes sisterhood, self-awareness, and the cultural value of books about young women. Ordinary Girls thus combines a classic framework with modern concerns about authorship, household finances, and growing beyond a family role.