Photo by Guoda Kavaliauskaitė

Kristina Gudonytė (b. 1949) is a one-woman show. After graduating in acting and spending ten years in the theatre, she realized it was too narrow for her. She is an artist who still believes that art has no limits. She creates books, writes plays, scripts and song lyrics, directs plays and films, paints, designs scenography and clothes, and works as a producer. She opens up a new side of her personality with every creative domain she enters. Life itself pushes her to discover new niches: she started writing after she broke her leg. The extreme and problematic teenage age group is emotionally closest to her, so she writes for teenagers. In her work, she explores topics that are relevant for all young people: children-parent relationships, love, envy, trust and betrayal, death and eternity. This choice is not accidental. The artist claims that she still feels like a troublemaker stuck in adolescence.  

Blogos mergaitės dienoraštis (The Diary of a Bad Girl) – Vilnius: Laisvos valandos, 2009, 2011, 223 pp;  Vilnius: Tyto alba, 2019, 200 pp.  

This is probably Kristina Gudonytė’s most popular book, which has now been made into a television series under the same name. The writer came up with the idea of writing the book when going through her own teenage diaries. Fifteen-year-old Kotryna lives a crazy life – she keeps getting caught up in all kinds of adventures. Serious ones, too: she lies about being pregnant, elopes from home, and gets involved in a crime. She’s a headstrong, sharp, rebellious teenager. She’s not mean, but she lacks a moral compass in life – her parents are divorced and incapable of properly taking care of their daughter, and her teachers are untrustworthy. The girl’s life is turned upside down, and for the better, only when she gets to know someone else’s grandmother. The Diary of a Bad Girl was selected the young adult Book of the Year in 2009 and included in the list of the 100 most significant Lithuanian children’s and young adult books.