Fangirl

Content Warning: This section contains references to stigmatizing language about mental health conditions.

Cather is the full name of Cath, the main character. Her twin’s name is Wren. “Cather” and “Wren” are the name “Catherine” broken in two halves. Wren says, “Our mother didn’t know she was having twins […] And she didn’t feel like coming up with another name” (79). She split one name, “Catherine,” in two. Their mother’s unwillingness to come up with two different names foreshadows her eventual abandonment of her daughters as well as the way the girls will struggle to develop identities separate from one another.

Going into college, the twins see Coming of Age and Exploring Identity differently. Wren thinks the “whole point of college is meeting new people” (6). She wants them to meet new people and find out who they are individually. Wren thinks that unless she and Cath start pursuing individual activities, people at their new school “will treat [them] like [they’re] the same person” (7). Cath does not see this as a negative thing. She still sees them as two parts of a whole, like their names. She thinks the “whole point of having a twin sister […] is not having to worry” about meeting new people (6).