Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl: Short Stories to Help You Understand Yourself

Before you is a collection of short therapeutic fairy tales, “Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl.” In the heroine of these tales, everyone can recognize themselves, because the stories are full of metaphors. You’ve likely encountered these short texts both in large resources (like adme.ru) and in small ones. Perhaps you even got the impression that this is folk creativity. But despite that feeling, the fairy tales have a specific author. That author is me, Aglaya Dаteshidze. In September 2017, in Altai, I was sitting and painfully searching for a form through which I could briefly and metaphorically tell about myself—gather moments of life that surprise, delight, disorient, and make you think. That’s how the first “ЖБД” was born—and then it really took off. Thousands of people recognize themselves and think I’m spying on them. Hundreds try to imitate. Dozens imitate quite successfully. I don’t mind, but I’m not spying. I’m simply trying to adapt to the paradoxes of this world by framing them every day in a short ironic form. And I’m grateful for the chance to talk to you from the pages of this book. When I started editing the texts, many stories were reworked and, for the first time, collected together in this way. Open and savor every line.