MODERN MARLENE
48 pages, ages 8-12
1,023 words
genevievebormes@gmail.com
This is the true story of Marlene Dietrich, a boundary-smashing actress who changed the world with her daring style.
As a young girl in Berlin, Marlene was supposed to be prim and proper. Instead, she talked A LOT, skated too fast, and loved to dance. She dreamt about how to make a name for herself, and once she found her place on the stage, she never looked back.
Marlene catapulted to fame in the 1930’s and she shocked audiences when she wore a suit and hat and kissed a woman on screen. She became an activist when she turned her back on her home in Germany in order to protest the Nazis and help Jewish people during World War II. She went against society’s strict rules about how she should express her gender and who she should love, and in doing so, she revolutionized the way women were seen in culture. And, crucially, she managed to have a swell time doing it all.