Bridget Jones back in fashion with Gen Z, author Helen Fielding says - BBC News

"What's good now is that there's a new audience for Bridget that's young, that's Gen Z," Fielding said at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

"I'm really happy when 18-year-olds and 20-year-olds come with their books and talk to me about it and say that they find it comforting to laugh at these things."

Bridget Jones went straight to many women's hearts in the 1990s, but some think the floundering and flawed heroine, who's fixated with her weight and relationship status, is not the best role model.

Bridget Jones's Diary became a best-seller in 1996 and the character has featured in three more books and three film adaptations, with a fourth film due to be released early next year.

Fielding, 66, said she sees similarities between Bridget and some friends of her 18-year-old daughter.

"I spent the last two years surrounded by teenage girls, because they all came to my house, and I can see what they've got in common with Bridget," she said, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Martha Kearney at the event.

"They're the first generation who have gone through seeing the world fall apart [with the pandemic]. So they're quite fragile, and they're quite open about their emotions. They sort of cry in the bathroom and put it on TikTok.