“I never expected that. » Catherine Girard-Audet, author of The complicated life of Léa Olivieris grateful for her success. the Duty reached her by telephone, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of her series. A “dizzying” round number, by his own admission.
It must be said that the lot of his achievements and the multiple avenues that the project has taken have generated their share of strong emotions. In ten years, the author has published 23 volumes, translated into 12 languages and read in twenty countries. Added to this astonishing production are a dozen comic strips and a television series, the second season of which is due to begin on February 24 on Club Illico: “We even worked — well, it’s sure that with the pandemic, it’s took another turn — on a theatrical adaptation. I admit that there, apart from an adaptation in puppet theatre, I think we did what we could with Léa. »
The woman of letters, also known for her girl’s abc, is a woman full of promise and wants to reassure us. She’s not done with her heroine: “I haven’t finished telling what Léa has to go through at CEGEP, but it’s clear to me that I don’t want to make her age beyond a certain point. age. And after that, I’ll still have plenty of other teenage stories to tell. This will not be my end as an author. »
Over the years, Léa has aged and, on the verge of adulthood, her directing poses some challenges: “Léa is 17 years old. Me, in my head, she has to experience 17-year-old things. But among my readers, some are 10-11 years old, so I have to be careful what I bring to life for my characters. “A hassle that did not arise at the start, but that she does not see as a brake on creation: “The important thing is that I remain faithful to my character. »
The writer does not budge from her initial will and wants to inspire her readers “to learn to respect each other. It is, in a way, the transmission of her heritage: “I was raised by a feminist, I will always be a feminist, and yes, I write for girls, but I think we can avoid to be cliché. »
CEGEP, a serious party
Thus, in the most recent volume of the series — the party —, Léa Olivier is entering CEGEP: “Even if my plan was not established from the start, it was quickly obvious to me that the life of a teenager does not end at the prom, which is always disappointing like a New Year’s Day. And above all, I wanted to approach CEGEP, because it’s a very important period of transition. »
Marilou, the great friend of Léa Olivier, leaves her village there to go to Quebec. For the woman from L’Ancienne-Lorette, the uprooting of these young people who go to the cities to continue their studies should not be trivialized: “It’s a huge shock. Of course, someone who flees the war and arrives in Canada is more traumatic than someone who leaves Abitibi to come to Montreal, but it’s still an uprooting that happens to many young Quebecers, and I find it important to address it. »
In high school, the author left her hometown for Montreal, an experience that transformed her and which she wanted to testify: “Basically, I took what I knew. »
Léa Olivier and her acolytes come up against the vagaries of human relationships — life is complicated or it isn’t. Their experiences are plural, painful or happy, but almost all of them are emancipatory. Youth is a force of transformation. Something to inspire a lot of people.
The threads of all the frolics are held back by the tight knits of friendship. Shaken by betrayals or carried away by emotions, the characters of The complicated life of Léa Olivier are lucky to count on friendly voices. A solidarity that does not go unnoticed and which offers a good echo, according to Catherine Girard-Audet, of the crying needs that this pandemic is raising: “As long as we can have support, anything can happen. We can get away with it all. It’s true that we are privileged, but we all live difficult days and by clinging to our hard core and the small pleasures, we can get through it. »
Three titles under the cloak