Editing Chick lit (section)

==Chick lit globally==
Though chick lit originated in the UK and U.S., it rapidly became a global publishing phenomenon - and indeed may have been one of the first truly global publishing trends.

===Saudi Arabia===
{{see also |Girls of Riyadh}}
In a book published in 2011, and in an article in [[Le Monde Diplomatique]], academic Madawi Al-Rasheed discussed the emergence of Saudi "chick lit" over the preceding decade. Highlighting books from Saudi women authors including Raja Alsanea ([[Girls of Riyadh]]) and Samar al-Muqrin, Al-Rasheed characterises the books - which were first published in the more liberal Lebanon - as "novels that deal with women as active sexual agents.. ..rather than submissive victims of patriarchal society."<ref name=Madawi>{{cite news |newspaper=Le Monde Diplomatique |title="Saudi chick lit: the girls are doing it" |date=May 2011 |url=https://mondediplo.com/2011/05/05saudisexnovels}}</ref> 

"Girls of Riyadh" has been published in English and is still in print in 2023; Publishers Weekly summarises the book as describing, "Four upper-class Saudi Arabian women [who] negotiate the clash between tradition and the encroaching West in this debut novel by 25-year-old Saudi Alsanea. Though timid by American chick lit standards, it was banned in Saudi Arabia for its scandalous portrayal of secular life."<ref name=PW2>{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781594201219 |title=Girls of Riyadh (summary and promotion of book)|website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> The book is widely distributed, being sold in stores from U.S. to Europe. In the reader's guide to novel, Alsanea notes that she wants to enable her Western readers to connect with Saudi culture, seeing that the girls in the novel had the 'same dreams, emotions, and goals' as them.<ref name=Readers>{{cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300281/girls-of-riyadh-by-rajaa-alsanea/9780143113478/readers-guide/|title=Girls of Riyadh Reader's Guide|website=Penguin Random House|access-date=18 February 2020}}</ref>

===India===

In India, [[Rajashree (novelist)|Rajashree]]'s ''[[Trust Me (novel)|Trust Me]]'' was the biggest-selling Indian chick lit novel.<ref name=Alley /> The popularity of novels like ''Trust Me'',<ref>[http://www.ibnlive.com/news/trust-me-to-spill-beans-on-bollywood/top/33834-8.html?xml "Trust Me to spill beans on Bollywood"], ''[[CNN-IBN]]'', 18 February 2007.</ref> [[Swati Kaushal]]'s ''Piece of Cake'' <ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/22/AR2007112201415.html?hpid=sec-world India's Cheeky "Chick Lit" Finds An Audience]</ref> can be seen in the context of the rise of regional varieties of chick lit.<ref>Asha Menon [https://web.archive.org/web/20121026082326/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/02/12/stories/2007021201260800.htm "Indian chick lit?"]</ref> In an interview with the ''New York Times'', [[Helen Fielding]] said, "I think it had far more to do with [[zeitgeist]] than imitation." If the chick lit explosion has "led to great new female writers emerging from Eastern Europe and India, then it's worth any number of feeble bandwagon jumpers."<ref name="pandemic" /> Sunaina Kumar wrote in the ''[[Indian Express]]'', "Ten years after the publication of ''[[Bridget Jones's Diary (novel)|Bridget Jones's Diary]]'', the genre of fiction most recognisable for its pink cover art of stilettos, martini glasses and lipsticks, is now being colourfully infused with bindis, saris, and bangles." Indian chick lit is sometimes referred to as 'ladki-lit'.<ref>Sunaina Kumar [http://www.indianexpress.com/story/14234.html "The Rise of Ladki-Lit"], ''[[The Indian Express]]'', 8 October 2006.</ref>

===Brazil===
In Brazil, chick lit in translation is categorised as "Literatura de mulherzinha." ''-inha'' is the Portuguese diminutive form, so this means, literally, "little-women's literature." One Brazilian commentator notes, "The diminutive is not by accident. Just as its not by accident that the covers of books by women writers are usually, stereotypically feminine. With covers that suggest a light and romantic, commercial plot.. ....books by female authors arrive to the a reader with a series of biases which ensure that these authors remain on the cultural bottom rung."<ref name=Martins />