Masoumeh Ebtekar Vice presidency first term (1997-2005) What was significant about 1997? Ebtekar was the first woman to serve as Vice-President of Iran when the reformists came to power. What did she do in that office? During her tenure environmental awareness and support for civil society activism in this area was enhanced. What did she accomplish? On International Women's Day in 1998, as vice-president of environmental affairs, she made a speech condemning
What did she condem?
What did Masoumeh Ebtekar condem as Vice-President of Iran?
Ebtekar was the first woman to serve as Vice-President of Iran when the reformists came to power. Along with Zahra Shojaei, she participated in the first cabinet since the Islamic Revolution to include women. She has been described as a leftist in Mohammad Khatami's alliance. Ebtekar headed the Department of Environment for eight years, introducing major structural, organizational and directional changes enabling a re-engineering of the government body. During her tenure environmental awareness and support for civil society activism in this area was enhanced. Ebtekar's appointment led to the revelation of her past, and in the US questions were raised about whether President Khatami was aware of "how deeply" the hostage-taking and holding, and anger towards its foremost public defender, "affected both the American government and the American people." Many academics and literary critiques have written and expressed their views on her published memoirs. Following this, "some ambassadors" in Tehran reportedly stated they would no "longer meet with her" and would "discourage official contract with her office." In her memoirs published as the "Grapes of Shahrivar", Ebtekar repeatedly refers to her cordial and official contacts with not only Western Ambassadors, but also many European Ministers and Presidents as well.( chapters 8-16-23-26-30-32-33) On International Women's Day in 1998, as vice-president of environmental affairs, she made a speech condemning the oppression of women by the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan. Her performance caused comment by members of the Western news media in attendance as she herself was wearing a chador, a reminder of compulsory hijab in Iran which many in the West view as a violation of women's rights. In May 1999, the WorldNetDaily claimed that she and President Mohammad Khatami had been in the guest list of the 1999 Bilderberg conference held in Sintra, Portugal on June 3-6. This allegation was repeatedly denied by Ebtekar citing the fact that President Khatami had taken part in memorial ceremonies for Imam Khomeini on those days(3-6 of June) and on World Environment Day June 6 he had inaugurated the Provincial Center for Environment Research in Tehran. In March 2002, Ebtekar was a keynote speaker at the Meeting of Women Leaders on the Environment in Helsinki, sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. In September 2002, Ebtekar participated in the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. In May 2005, she chaired the International Conference on Environment, Peace, and the Dialogue Among Civilizations and Cultures, held in Tehran. This event was organized by Ebtekar's Department of the Environment and also by the United Nations Environment Programme. CANNOTANSWER
condemning the oppression of women by the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan.
Masoumeh Ebtekar (; born Masoumeh Ebtekar; 21 September 1960) is former Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, from August 9, 2017, to  September 1, 2021. She previously headed Department of Environment from 1997 to 2005, making her the first female member in the cabinet of Iran since 1979 and the third in history. She held the same level of office from 2013 to 2017. She is a full Professor at Tarbiat Modares University in the School of Medical Sciences, Immunology Department.

Ebtekar was nicknamed "Mary", when she was the spokeswoman of the students who took hostages and occupied the US Embassy in 1979. Later she became the head of the Environment Protection Organization of Iran during the administration of President Mohammad Khatami, and was a city councilwoman of Tehran from 2007 to 2013.

Education and family
Ebtekar was born in Tehran as Masoumeh, Niloufar Ebtekar in a middle-class family. Her first name translates to "Innocent Water Lily" in English. Ebtekar's father studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and she lived with her parents in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. During her six years in Philadelphia, she developed "near-perfect, American-accented English." Returning to Iran she enrolled in Iranzamin (Tehran International School). Later after graduation as a student, she became a supporter of the political Islam of Ali Shariati and began wearing a traditional black chador covering everything except her face.

Ebtekar holds a BSc degree in laboratory science from Shahid Beheshti University,  a MSc and PhD in immunology from Tarbiat Modares University in 1995, where she still teaches. Ebtekar is married to Seyyed Mohammad Hashemi who is a businessman in the private sector. They have two children.

Academic career
Ebtekar has served as faculty member at Tarbiat Modares University, which is a postgraduate academic center located in Tehran. As an associate professor in Immunology, she has taught, supervised and advised PhD and MSc students. Ebtekar currently teaches cytokines, viral immunology, HIV vaccines, aging, immunology of the nervous system and psychoneuroimmunology. She has currently filed 66 ISI scientific articles in the field of immunology in Scopus in her name. In her speech to the Eleventh International Congress of Immunology in Tehran, she mentioned the detrimental effect of sanctions on the advancement of science in Iran and noted that sanctions should not be directed against nations. Ebtekar is a member of several research board committees and a reviewer for two international and four national immunology journals.
Ebtekar was  promoted to full Professorship in Jan 2019 and elected as Immunology & Allergy Association in 2018.

Claims of scientific misconduct
On 7 October 2008, eTBLAST, a text similarity search engine on MEDLINE database, noted that 85% of a paper published by Masoumeh Ebtekar came from several previously published articles. The paper, on cytokines and air pollution, was published in 2006 in the Iran Journal of Allergy Asthma Immunology (IJAAI) 5 47-56:2006. A couple weeks after the eTBLAST report, Nature covered the story, quoting one of the authors of original papers, (Ian Mudway, a toxicologist at the King's College London) as saying, "the article is a veritable patchwork of other people's work, word for word, grammatical error for grammatical error." Nature also stated that Ebtekar had not replied to its emails.  In response, the editor-in-chief of the IJAAI issued a statement saying: "We regret for this duplication that appeared in the journal. We are working with the editors of the JACI journal [the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, a scholarly periodical that published three of the papers from which Ebtekar had copied] to find the best solution in this regard." In December 2008 Ebtekar's article was retracted.

The issue received some political and public attention in Iran. Ebtekar issued a statement admitting she had made a mistake and apologizing for it, but including a list of complaints such as eTBLAST's failure to inform her of their finding in advance, the fact that the article was a review article she was invited to write for the Journal, and that more than 76 references were given in the text.

President of the 12th International Congress of Immunology

In 2013 Ebtekar was elected as the President of the 12th International Congress of Immunology. The Congress was held on April 29, 2014. Ebtekar spoke in the opening ceremony and introduced Rolf Zinkernagel, the Nobel Laureate for Medicine, as the guest of honour.

Social and political career
In 1981, Ebtekar became the editor-in-chief of the English daily newspaper Kayhan International, selected by Khatami who was then the representative of Ayatollah Khomeini in Kayhan Institute. She served in the newspaper until 1983. In 1991 she co-founded the Institute for Women's Studies and Research. Since 1992, she has been the license holder and managing director of the journal Farzaneh Journal for Women's Studies and Research. Ebtekar was appointed as the Head of Women's NGO Coordinating Office and Vice Head of the National Committee to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Later, she was elected as the President of the Network of Women's NGOs in Iran.

Early activism and role in the Hostage Crisis
Ebtekar served as spokeswoman for the students in the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, where Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line occupied the US Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Selected because of her good command of English, she made regular appearances on American television as translator and spokeswoman for the students, where she presented the official positions of the students. She was referred to as "Mary" by foreign press, and "Tiger Lily" by the hostages, a play on the translation of "Niloufar".

Ebtekar wrote an account of the embassy takeover with Fred A. Reed titled Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture. Western media have systematically depicted Ebtekar's involvement in a negative manner, as Reed describes: "For twenty years the prevailing 'globalized' version of the embassy capture has cast the students at best as well-intentioned but naive young people manipulated ...and at worst as irresponsible extremists." Elaine Sciolino wrote about Ebtekar's own viewpoint: "Asked by an ABC News correspondent one day whether she could see herself picking up a gun and killing the hostages, she replied: 'yes. When I've seen an American gun being lifted up and killing my brothers and sisters in the streets, of course.'"
She is said to be remembered by many Americans (hostages such as David Roeder, Barbara Timm, the mother of hostage Kevin Hermening and those who watched her on television) with a great lack of fondness, in part because "her familiarity with America added profound emphasis to her rejection of it."
When asked by an American interviewer (Elaine Sciolino) in the late 1990s about her past as spokeswoman for the hostage-takers, why it did not appear on her resume, and why she had changed her name from Niloufar to Masoumeh, Ebtekar "had no apology and made no excuses" about her role, describing the hostage taking as "the best direction that could have been taken" by Iran at the time, but surprised the interviewer with her "chutzpah", insisting that the interviewer "not write much about these things." Sciolino published this article in the New York Times unaware of the fact that Ebtekar's book (Takeover in Tehran) was in print and would be published in 2001.

She was an advisor of Shahla Habibi, head of the 'Bureau of Women's Affairs' under administration Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the 1990s, and was reportedly the "main driving-force" behind the office.

In the 2012 film Argo, Ebtekar was portrayed by Nikka Far and called only "Tehran Mary" in the credits.

Vice presidency first term (1997–2005)

Ebtekar was the first woman to serve as vice-president of Iran when the reformists came to power. Along with Zahra Shojaei, she participated in the first cabinet since the Islamic Revolution to include women. She has been described as a leftist in Mohammad Khatami's alliance. Ebtekar headed the Department of Environment for eight years, introducing major structural, organizational and directional changes enabling a re-engineering of the government body. During her tenure environmental awareness and support for civil society activism in this area was enhanced.

Ebtekar's appointment led to the revelation of her past, and in the US questions were raised about whether President Khatami was aware of "how deeply" the hostage-taking and holding, and anger towards its foremost public defender, "affected both the American government and the American people." Many academics and literary critiques have written and expressed their views on her published memoirs.  Following this, "some ambassadors" in Tehran reportedly stated they would no "longer meet with her" and would "discourage official contract with her office." In her memoirs published as the "Grapes of Shahrivar", Ebtekar repeatedly refers to her cordial and official contacts with not only Western Ambassadors, but also many European Ministers and Presidents as well. (chapters 8-16-23-26-30-32-33)

On International Women's Day in 1998, as vice-president of environmental affairs, she made a speech condemning the oppression of women by the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan. Her performance caused comment by members of the Western news media in attendance as she herself was wearing a chador, a reminder of compulsory hijab in Iran which many in the West view as a violation of women's rights.

In March 2002, Ebtekar was a keynote speaker at the Meeting of Women Leaders on the Environment in Helsinki, sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. In September 2002, Ebtekar participated in the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. In May 2005, she chaired the International Conference on Environment, Peace, and the Dialogue Among Civilizations and Cultures, held in Tehran. This event was organized by Ebtekar's Department of the Environment and also by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Vice presidency second term (2013–2017)
Ebtekar served as vice president and Head of the Department of Environment during the first term of President Rouhani, 2013–2017. During this period in spite of immense challenges facing Iran's environment, and irrespective of the fierce opposition of rival political and special interests groups, great strides were taken to enhance environmental governance and stewardship. Twelve environmental bills, a strong chapter in the sixth National Development Plan and numerous directives and guidelines were implemented during this period, while national plans to enhance air quality were promoted through strong cross-sectoral, management leading to better air quality trends.

The national Low Carbon Economy Strategy was adopted; the Cabinet adopted its INDC and the Paris Agreement, which the Parliament also adopted. This led to important strides in renewable energy including more than 500 MW of new solar plants and much more underway. Restoration of wetlands according to ecosystem management schemes and local community participation was undertaken leading to revival of Houralazim wetland, designation of Hamoun as a Biosphere reserve and improvement of conditions in Urmia Lake and many other wetlands across Iran.

A major campaign to enhance environment education, inclusion of 56 cases of environment related text and publication of the first textbook "Humans and the Environment" are some of the steps taken in this regard.
A significant surge in the quantity and quality of civil society activism was the result of planning for enhanced nongovernmental organization participation in policy and oversight.  During this term private sector involvement in the management of protected areas and managing wildlife conservation was promoted through legislation and incentives. Introducing local legislation for management schemes of national parks and protected areas and for wildlife and endangered species conservation schemes for the first time. Nature Rangers enjoyed high quality training and education programs while awareness campaigns led to improvements in their social status. International diplomacy in collaboration with UNEP, UNDP, JICA, UNESCO led to many joint projects including participatory training for local farmers and villagers in Urumia basin area, Conservation of the Cheetah, Second International Seminar on Environment Religion and Culture, First UN Conference on Combating Dust and Sand Storms, Project for Restoration of Anzali Wetland, Project for Coastal Zone Management Projects and many others.

The fifth international Green Film festival  was revived, four rounds of International Environment Exhibition, four rounds of Green Industry Competition and Four Rounds of the National Environment Award was convened during this term. 20 Bilateral and multilateral MOUs were signed and implemented leading to more than 50 technical and educational workshops and sessions. Nationwide campaigns on "no to plastics", "reduction of waste", "and energy conservation", "no to food waste" and many others were supported and promoted. The National Committee on Sustainable Development was transformed into an efficient cross sectoral body to promote and monitor sustainability indicators at the national level.

Honors and awards
Ebtekar was named one of the seven 2006 Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Program as a prominent and "inspirational"  environmental leader who has made an impact at policy level in a region of the world. Ebtekar said that she believes the award was a team effort, earned by the scholars and experts that she assembled in her Department of the Environment. She names President Khatami as instrumental in stressing the importance of environmental initiatives. She was also named as one of 50 environmental leaders by The Guardian newspaper on January 5, 2008; the only Iranian or Muslim woman in the list.

In the 2012 edition of The Muslim500 Ebtekar has been named as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world. Under the political section of this yearbook, Ebtekar is described as "a considerable force in the reformist movement in Iran".

On 24 January 2014, Ebtekar was awarded the Energy Globe Foundation Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award in Tehran.

On 29 November 2014, Masoumeh Ebtekar won the Italian Minerva Award for her scientific achievements and successful career in political arena. Minerva Award is a nongovernmental award established in 2009 in the name of Madame Anna Maria Mammoliti, Italian journalist and social activist after her death.
The Minerva Award has been presented to famous figures active in different social, economic, political and cultural fields, and the receivers have been mainly women.

In May 2016 Ebtekar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Political Science by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea.

Post vice presidential activism
Ebtekar co-founded the Center for Peace and Environment in 2005, a non-governmental organization devoted to the promotion of just and sustainable peace and the protection of the environment. More than 120 experts and academicians are currently members of the center.

Ebtekar served as a moderator in June 2008 at the International "Women, Equality and Peace" Conference held in Oslo, Norway. The conference was sponsored by the Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilizations, Club de Madrid and the Oslo Center.

Ebtekar considered for running in the 2009 presidential election after Guardian Council indicated that there is no "legal restraint" against women doing so. However, she withdrew a few weeks before the election.

Ebtekar published her memoir as the first female Vice President of Iran, entitled the Grapes of Shahrivar on May 3, 2009. She has also published a collection of her essays and speeches on the environment and sustainable development, called Natural Peace. After leaving her government position in 2005, Ebtekar has spoken as inaugural or keynote speaker at many international events.

Membership in Tehran City Council
Ebtekar ran for and was elected to the city council of Tehran for the term beginning in 2007, coming in 9th out of 21 candidates, just after Parvin Ahmadinejad, the sister of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. She established and heads the Tehran City Council Environment Committee and currently runs 20 working groups on environmental issues.

After election to the City Council of Tehran in early 2007, Ebtekar began a weblog in Persian entitled "EbtekareSabz" under the free blog service Persianblog. In her blog she wrote 430 posts in environmental, political, social and women's issues, posted over 10,000 comments, the blog had one million viewers in 3.5 years. EbtekareSabz, which criticized the policies of the government and supported the reformist movement in Iran, was filtered by the Government once in early 2010 and again in June 2010. and finally obstructed with a judicial verdict in August. Citing the "right to freedom of expression in our constitution" as her incentive, she continued blogging by setting up a new blog.

In 2009, the New York Times described her as "informally represent[ing] the views of many of the former hostage-takers", supporting "engagement with the West" and a renewal of the "original ideals of the revolution, including justice and freedom," which many of her peers believe have been abandoned by the current regime.

In May 2013, Ebtekar signed up as a candidate for Tehran in the 2013 local elections, along with hundreds of reformist candidates. During the vetting process that is conducted by government and Majlis representatives, the majority of candidates, including Ebtekar were disqualified. Ebtekar mentioned her harsh criticism of government policies leading to air pollution and the deterioration of environmental standards as the main reason for her disqualification. Candidates who have objected to their disqualification will be considered for a final round in the Supreme Council for Election Regulation. She was also one of Reformists' candidates as Mayor of Tehran. However, Mohsen Hashemi becomes the final's nominate.

Reappointment as Vice President
After Hassan Rouhani elected as President of Iran, Ebtekar who supported Rouhani openly, was one of the candidates for the Ministry of Science. However, she was appointed as Head of Environmental Protection Organization on 10 September 2013, a position she had formerly served for eight years under Mohammad Khatami. On 1 August 2017, Ebtekar announced that she will be leaving her current position after the end of the first Rouhani government. She was appointed as Women Affairs's vice president in second Rouhani government.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, Iranian state media announced that Ebtekar had been diagnosed with COVID-19. The infection was described as mild and she was not admitted to hospital. On 11 March, Ebtekar tweeted that she had recovered from the virus.

Books
In 2010 Ebtekar contributed to Moral Ground a testimony of over eighty visionaries—theologians and religious leaders, scientists, elected officials, business leaders, naturalists, activists, and writers—to present a diverse and compelling call to honor our individual and collective moral responsibility to our planet. In her essay entitled "Peace and Sustainability Depend on the Spiritual and the Feminine" Ebtekar provides her views on the interrelated nature of peace and sustainable development. She also took part in a project to develop a book entitled Women, Power and Politics in 21st Century Iran. The book, published in 2012 by Ashgate, provides an objective perspective on the conditions of women in Iran. Chapter 10 titled "Women and the Environment" has been authored by Massoumeh Ebtekar. In 2011 Ebtekar also co-authored a chapter in the book Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells published by Springer. Chapter 3 "Characteristics of Cord Blood Cells" is a review performed by a team of researchers in Iran.

See also 
 List of scientific misconduct incidents

References

External links

 Masumeh Ebtekar's Blog in English – Called "Persian Paradox"
 Masumeh Ebtekar's Researchgate Page

1960 births
Living people
Environmental bloggers
Female vice presidents of Iran
Heads of Department of Environment (Iran)
Islamic Iran Participation Front politicians
Iranian environmentalists
Iranian immunologists
Iranian women physicians
Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line
People involved in scientific misconduct incidents
Tarbiat Modares University alumni
Tehran Councillors 2007–2013
Women bloggers
Women vice presidents
20th-century Iranian physicians
21st-century Iranian physicians
21st-century Iranian women politicians
Magazine publishers (people)
Vice presidents of Iran for Women and Family Affairs
What Katy Did is an 1872 children's book written by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name "Susan Coolidge". It follows the adventures of a twelve-year-old American girl, Katy Carr, and her family who live in the fictional lakeside Ohio town of Burnet in the 1860s. Katy is a tall untidy tomboy, forever getting into scrapes but wishing to be beautiful and beloved. When a terrible accident makes her an invalid, her illness and four-year recovery gradually teach her to be as good and kind as she has always wanted.

Two sequels follow Katy as she grows up: What Katy Did at School and What Katy Did Next. Two further sequels relating the adventures of Katy's younger siblings were also published—Clover and In the High Valley. There is also a short story about the Carr children, Curly Locks in a collection called Nine Little Goslings. The books were frequently reprinted and all are available online.

Coolidge modeled Katy on her own childhood self, and the other 'Little Carrs' on her brothers and sisters. The title is a play on the katydid, a family of insects – which explains the insects on the first-edition book cover.

Plot summary

12-year-old Katy Carr lives with her widowed father and her two brothers and three sisters in Burnet, a small Midwestern American town. Her father is a very busy doctor who works long hours; the children are mostly in the care of his sister Aunt Izzie, who is very particular and something of a scold. Bright, headstrong Katy can hardly avoid getting into mischief almost daily under these circumstances, but she is unfailingly remorseful afterward. She behaves somehow kindly to the children and also she dreams of some day doing something "grand" with her life: painting famous pictures, saving the lives of drowning people, or leading a crusade on a white horse.  She also wants to be "beautiful, of course, and good if I can." When her mother died four years earlier, Katy promised to be a little mother to her siblings: in practice, she is the kind of big sister who is sometimes impatient or cross with them but leads them into all sorts of exciting adventures.

When Cousin Helen, an invalid, comes to visit, Katy is so enchanted by her beauty and kindness that on the day of Helen's departure she resolves to model herself on Helen ever afterward. The very next day, however, Katy wakes in an ill humor, quarrels with her aunt and pushes her little sister so hard that she falls down half a dozen steps. Afterward, sulky and miserable, Katy decides to try out the new swing in the woodshed although Aunt Izzie has forbidden it. Had Aunt Izzie actually explained that the swing was unsafe because one of the staples supporting it had cracked, "all would have been right," but she believes that children should unquestioningly obey their elders. Katy swings as high as she can and then, as she tries to graze the roof with her toes, the staple gives way. She falls hard, bruising her spine.

The lively Katy is now bedridden and suffering terrible pain and bitterness. Her room is dark, dreary, and cluttered with medicine bottles; when her siblings try to comfort her, she usually drives them away. However, a visit from Cousin Helen shows her that she must either learn to make the best of her situation or risk losing her family's love. Helen tells Katy that she is now a student in the "School of Pain" where she will learn lessons in patience, cheerfulness, hopefulness, neatness, and making the best of things.

With Cousin Helen's help, Katy makes her room tidy and nice to visit and gradually all the children gravitate to it, coming in to see her whenever they can. She becomes the heart of the home, beloved by her family for her unfailing kindness and good cheer. After two years Aunt Izzie dies and Katy takes over the running of the household. At the end of four years, in a chapter called "At Last", she learns to walk again.

The book includes several poems that the characters wrote.

Characters
Katy Carr: the eldest of
the Carr children and the novel's protagonist. At the beginning of the book she is a twelve-year-old tomboy who much prefers running around outdoors to quiet 'ladylike' pursuits and so tears her clothes and is always untidy; however, she longs to be good.

Clover Carr: the second-eldest sister adores Katy and follows her in everything she does. Clover is pretty and clever with a sunny disposition; she is described as loving everyone and is loved by everyone in return.

Elsie Carr: the third sister, an awkward child at the beginning of the book, too old to play with the 'babies' and too young to be included in Katy and Clover's games. She tries her hardest to join in, but is usually ignored.  After Katy is injured Elsie proves very helpful and considerate, and she and Katy finally grow close.

Dorry Carr: a stolid boy and great eater, the fourth Carr is the eldest son. He develops a certain mechanical skill over time.

Jonnie Carr (short for Joanna): the fifth child, a tomboy. She and Dorry are great friends.

Philip Carr: the baby of the family, who is only four years old at the book's beginning.

Cecy Hall: a pretty and tidy girl, the daughter of a nearby neighbour.

Imogen Clark:  a classmate of Katy and Clover; a silly, affected girl. Initially she enthralls Katy with her romantic imagination, but she proves dishonest and self-centered and, as her father predicted, Katy grows disillusioned with her.

Papa (Dr Philip Carr): the children's father, a very busy doctor who has been a single parent, firm but understanding, since his wife's death when Katy was eight.

Aunt Izzie: Papa's sister, an old-fashioned woman who raises the children after their mother dies. She is very particular and often scolds because she does not understand the children's ways, although she has a heart of gold. 

Cousin Helen: Papa's niece; she cannot walk because of an accident years ago. Despite her suffering she is amusing, cheerful, and kind; just what Katy wants to be. After Katy's accident, Cousin Helen helps her adjust to her illness.

Themes

Susan Coolidge shared her publisher, Roberts Brothers, with Louisa May Alcott, and What Katy Did helped satisfy the demand for naturalistic novels about girlhood that followed the 1868 success of Little Women. Like Alcott, Coolidge heightened the realism of her novel by drawing on her own childhood memories.

What Katy Did also illustrates social shifts. First the novel depicts the treatment of serious injury in the 19th century. After her accident, young Katy is given much love and care; however, she is sad, confined to an upstairs room, and, although she has a wheelchair, she never goes further than her bedroom window. The possibility that she could leave her room is barely considered and no-one thinks of moving her to the ground floor. She copes by making herself and her room so pleasant that everyone comes to her. Early on, she goes out in a carriage, but finds the experience so painful that she never tries it again. Thereafter, she lives in her bedroom, makes the best of things and waits, hoping to outgrow her injury. There is no physical therapy – instead Katy is warned to avoid too much movement lest she "set herself back". Cousin Helen manages to travel a little, and even goes for a hydrotherapy water cure at one point, but it is made clear that she has no hope of ever walking again.

Extract

Adaptations
Two TV movies and a brief TV series have been based on What Katy Did. The most recent film (1999) starred Alison Pill as Katy, with Kevin Whately as Papa, Megan Follows as Cousin Helen, Michael Cera as Dorry, Bryn McAuley as Joanna, and Dean Stockwell as "Tramp".  A 1972 UK movie adaptation, Katy,  starred Clare Walker, and the 1962 eight-part TV series made in the UK, also called Katy, featured rising star Susan Hampshire in the title role.
In 2015, author Jacqueline Wilson wrote her novel Katy, which is a modern retelling of What Katy Did; in 2018, the Wilson novel was adapted into the CBBC TV series Katy. The August 2016 edition of Storytime featured a new illustrated adaptation with illustrations by Italian artist Marco Guadalupi.

Sequels
What Katy Did was followed by four sequels: What Katy Did at School in which Katy and Clover attend the fictional Hillsover School (set in Hanover, New Hampshire); What Katy Did Next, in which a new friend of Katy's takes her on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe; Clover, in which Katy is married and Clover accompanies her brother Phil to Colorado after he falls ill; and In the High Valley, which shows the lives of a handful of young people living in the High Valley in Colorado, including Clover, Elsie and their husbands.

References in popular culture
"What Katie Did" is the name of a song by the Libertines that may have been inspired by the book. The lyrics refer to the characters, e.g. "Hurry up Mrs. Brown". The group Babyshambles later released a song entitled "What Katy Did Next". Both were written by Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty.
"What Kate Did" is the name of the ninth episode of season 2 of Lost.
"What Kate Does" is the name of the second episode of season 6 of Lost.
A character named Katy Carr appears in the first volume of Alan Moore's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. As Katy beats a student at Ms Coote's school, the headmistress says she believes in the "School of Pain".
Idahoan songwriter Josh Ritter includes a reference to What Katy Did in his song "Monster Ballads" on his album The Animal Years.
 In the movie Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch, a Steve Coogan fan says her name is Katy and he answers "What Katy did next".
The protagonist of Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle introduces her own story by saying "This is no 'Story of a Bad Boy,' no 'What Katy Did,'" to indicate that she is not remorseful for her unladylike behavior.

Footnotes

External links

 
 
 Full text of What Katy Did at A Celebration of Women Writers, with the original cover and illustrations and some Roberts Brothers advertisements for Coolidge's other works.

 What Katy Did  (1999) at the Internet Movie Database.
 

Katy series
Fiction set in the 1860s
1872 American novels
American children's novels
American novels adapted into films
Novels set in Ohio
American novels adapted into television shows
1870s children's books Helen Shivers is a fictional character in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise. She was created by American writer Lois Duncan and originates from Duncan's 1973 suspense novel I Know What You Did Last Summer as a young woman involved in a hit and run accident. In this version, she is known as Helen Rivers.

She was portrayed by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar in the Kevin Williamson scripted feature film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) as the Croaker Queen of the Southport 1996 Beauty Pageant. Her chase sequence with the killer of the film has been deemed iconic and has been described as toying with the audience's expectations.

While the film itself received middling reviews, Gellar's performance as Shivers was met with critical acclaim and the character has obtained a cult following in recent years. In 2018, she was portrayed by Greer Grammer in the musical parody I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Unauthorized Musical that premiered at the El Cid in Los Angeles.

The character is particularly notable for challenging horror film tropes of the time, in which the characters (in most cases teenage victims) were left underdeveloped and without a substantial story arc. Shiver's storyline has often been referred to as a highlight of the film.

Appearances

Literature
Helen originates from Lois Duncan's 1973 suspense novel I Know What You Did Last Summer. She is depicted as a high school drop out from a large family who manages to launch a successful television career as an actress. She was involved in a hit-and-run accident of a cycling boy with her boyfriend Barry Cox, and friends Julie James and Ray Bronson. A year later, Julie reveals a letter to Helen that says "I know what you did last summer". The next day, while tanning at her apartment complex she meets Collingsworth Wilson who moved into one of the vacant apartments the day before. She later finds a magazine cutout of a boy riding a bicycle taped to her apartment door. After a series of bizarre encounters with the anonymous figure toying with them, Helen is confronted by Collingsworth at her apartment. She locks herself inside her bathroom and escapes through her window as he tries to break the door down. Later, Helen calls the police and sends them to Julie's house, who was Collingsworth's next target.

Film
Shivers makes her cinematic debut in the 1997 film. On the Fourth of July, Helen wins the Fourth of July Croaker Beauty Pageant and reveals aspirations as a New York-based actress. Afterwards, she goes to the beach with her friends Julie James, Barry Cox, and Ray Bronson. While driving on the byway, they accidentally run over a pedestrian. They decide to dump the body into the sea and to never talk about what happened.

A year later, she is revealed to have failed as an actress and now works at her family's store. When Julie receives a letter with no return address, stating, "I know what you did last summer!" she tracks her down and the duo reunite with Barry and Ray. The rest of the group begin to receive taunting messages from the mysterious assailant. One morning, Helen wakes up to find her hair cut off and "Soon" written in lipstick on her mirror.

At the Croaker Beauty Pageant, Helen witnesses the murder of Barry on the balcony. With his body nowhere to be found, a police officer escorts a hysterical Helen home, but the killer murders him in an alleyway. Helen breaks out of the back of the police car and is chased to her family's store. The killer enters through the unlocked back door and murders her sister Elsa. Helen is chased to the third floor of the building and jumps out of the window. She manages to make it a few feet away from the parade, but the killer appears behind her and begins to slash her, her screams being obscured by the parade. Her corpse is later discovered by Julie.

Shivers makes a cameo appearance in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) in a photograph through use of Sarah Michelle Gellar's personality rights.

Development
 The character originates from American writer Lois Duncan's 1973 suspense novel I Know What You Did Last Summer as one of the main characters involved in a hit-and-run accident. In this version she is named Helen Rivers, her family is poorer and (possibly) larger than in the film, and she isn't murdered. Her aspirations as an actress are found with greater success in the novel than in the film adaptation. Gellar was the last of the lead actors to be cast. In the 1997 film, she has been described as a "local beauty-pageant winner who wants to become an actress". Shivers is initially depicted as a vapid, egotistical beauty queen, but over the course of the film she is shown to be a very affectionate person despite her dysfunctional home life and overt loneliness.

Alexandra West attests that the film constantly alludes to her physical attractiveness and superficial vanity, writing that "Helen is constantly framed in doorways and mirrors, lending to the notion that she is an object to be looked at and that her looks are her most indelible quality." However, she notes that this is a stark contrast to her profound personal struggles that are revealed later in the film:
 "Director Jim Gillespie makes it clear that Helen is completely and utterly alone with no true connections, so much that she appears almost relieved when the notes that says, "I know what you did last summer" begin appearing, as it gives her an excuse to reconnect with her friends. Her death is equal parts tense and tragic."

Popular culture
The character was spoofed in the form of Buffy Gilmore (a nod to Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy The Vampire Slayer), a character portrayed by Shannon Elizabeth in the Keenen Ivory Wayans directed parody film Scary Movie (2000) and by Julie Benz in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.

In 2018, Greer Grammer was cast in the musical parody I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Unauthorized Musical that premiered at the El Cid in Los Angeles.

Reception
Gellar's performance in the film was met with acclaim. Her portrayal earned her a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – Horror and a MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance.

Years since the release of the 1997 film, Shivers has been frequently referred to as a breakout character. In an article for Rotten Tomatoes, April Wolfe states, "The key to Helen Shivers’ success as a sidekick is her unabashed and shameless vanity. Sarah Michelle Gellar's portrayal of the character paints her as the beauty queen with depth, the most likely to succeed. She's the woman with the plan to track down the killer and the guts to charge into the crowd of the Croaker Queen Pageant talent competition to save her friend. Unfortunately, luck just wasn't on her side."

Chris Eggertsen of Uproxx described the character as being complex. Eggertsen praised Gellar for giving a "compelling" performance and for being able to transform Helen from a vapid self absorbed beauty queen to a fully realized and sympathetic character. Similarly, writer Sara Century of Syfy Wire described her as a "compelling character" and is notably different from other horror film characters due to her intimate character arc, "Helen is a compelling character especially in horror, a genre that traditionally fails to give emotional backing to its doomed teenagers. On the surface, she's shallow, obsessed with beauty pageants and trips to New York. Yet there's something haunted in Helen from the very beginning, and it gives her character a lot more weight than what we see at face value. There have been full essays written on her death scene alone, and she has remained surprisingly influential." West states that her story line is the most visible out of the four central characters.

References

Works cited
 
 
 

Female characters in literature
Female horror fiction characters
Fictional actors
I Know What You Did Last Summer (franchise)
Literary characters introduced in 1973