‘Bridget Jones’ Author Has Found Gen Z Following Amid Body Positivity Movement

As Bridget Jones prepares to return to the big screen next year, a whole new generation is identifying with the beloved films’ literary source material.

Author Helen Fielding recently opened up about her newfound fanbase at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and how the titular character has become even more relevant to friends of her 18-year-old daughter, amid the age of TikTok and the Body Positivity Movement.

“What’s good now is that there’s a new audience for Bridget that’s young, that’s Gen Z,” she said, according to BBC. “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.”

Fielding added, “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. 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.”

Inspired by Fielding’s column and books, the Bridget Jones films follow the single 30-something woman (Renée Zellweger) in London as she navigates life, love, sex and a timeless obsession with body image.

The author sees similarities between Bridget’s friends and her daughter’s group, with their “little rituals and ways of taking care of themselves and loving their friends.”

“With Bridget, it was about the gap between how you feel you’re expected to be and how you actually are – this idea that whatever you’re like, it’s not quite good enough and there’s something you’ve got to fix,” explained Fielding. “And for them, it’s a million times worse because they go on TikTok and they’re looking at people who are filtered, and they’re looking at all these impossible things that they’re supposed to be, and they’re still worrying about their bodies.”

Fielding noted that despite the Body Positivity Movement, young women are “still worrying about their weight and what they look like,” adding: “But at the same time, there’s an another layer of feeling guilty because of the Body Positivity Movement. So they also feel a failure for even thinking about whether they’re the right shape. So it’s complicated for that generation.”

What started as a 1995 column in The Independent launched Fielding’s book series with Bridget Jones’ Diary (1996) — loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice — which then became the 2001 film starring Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant.

It was followed by Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), which was based on Fielding’s 1999 book and inspired by Austen’s Persuasion; and Bridget Jones’ Baby (2016), based on the Independent column’s 2005 return.

Fielding’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2013) has been adapted into the fourth installment in the rom-com franchise, premiering on Valentine’s Day. In addition to returning cast members Zellweger, Firth, Grant, Patrick Dempsey and Emma Thompson, the sequel also stars Leo Woodall, Chiwetel Eijofor, Isla Fisher, Josette Simon, Nico Parker and Leila Farzad.