Annie on My Mind

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Senior high school student Eliza Winthrop had her future planned. She was going to graduate Foster Academy, get a degree from MIT and become an architect. While strolling through New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art she meets Annie Kenyon. They have an instant connection. Both want to spend more time together, but it is difficult due to living on opposite ends of the city. Eliza finds herself constantly distracted thinking about Annie, so she falls short on her job as student-council president putting her in the hot seat with Mrs. Poindexter the headmistress of the private school. As time goes by Eliza and Annie spend every possible moment they have available together. The closer they become, the more confused Eliza gets. She knows she has fallen in love, but does loving Annie mean that she is gay? When Eliza volunteers to look after her teachers’ cats, she realizes she has a private place to spend time with Annie and finds herself giving into her feelings for Annie physically. They are caught in the act, and Eliza is brought to a trustees’ hearing for immoral behavior. Fortunately, Eliza was cleared from expulsion, but her teachers, Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer, were exposed as a gay couple and fired for their influence on student behavior. Annie on My Mind clearly demonstrates societal views toward homosexuality and the bullying that results from sharing that truth. Annie finds peace and hope for her future in the end by outwardly living her truth, and her story can help give others courage who may be struggling with coming to terms with their own sexuality.