How Hollywood devoured Hayden

I enjoyed reading Noel Streatfield’s beloved children’s classic Ballet Shoes recently, with my primary-age daughter. But revisiting the text as an adult, the ending landed less pleasantly than I remembered from my childhood reading. The story recounts the story of the “Fossil sisters”, three girls adopted by an eccentric British collector who then leaves them in the care of his great-niece and a nanny, with dwindling funds. The three girls begin careers on the stage, while still children, in order to pay the bills. Near the end of the book the most beautiful, Pauline, is offered a Hollywood contract. She accepts it, in order to pay for her sister Petrova, a talented dancer, to train in Europe. As a child it was a satisfying ending. As an adult, knowing about Harvey Weinstein, it read like