Y2K is back — and it’s everywhere. Stores are pushing early-aughts trends hard, from the nostalgic revival of digital cameras to the questionable comeback of low-rise jeans.
Jewish author Jennifer Weiner is riding the wave with her new novel, “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits,” which follows two sisters grappling with the legacy of their once-famous pop band, two decades after their final performance.
While TikTok is awash with the glossier sides of the early 2000s, Weiner digs deeper, exploring the darker realities of female stardom. In “The Griffin Sisters,” she pulls back the glittery curtain to expose the exploitation, body shaming, and relentless pressures young women faced in the spotlight — echoing the cultural reckoning we’ve seen around Britney Spears and other women who were chewed up by fame and forced to fight for their own narratives.
In a recent conversation, Weiner shared the inspirations behind “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits,” discussed the book’s refreshing take on Jewish representation, and explained why stories of female empowerment, resilience, and sisterhood feel especially urgent today.
Jennifer Weiner brings readers back to the early 2000s
In “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits,” Weiner delivers a heartfelt exploration of sisterhood, fame, and the enduring power of music. Cassie and Zoe Grossberg, once the sensational pop duo known as The Griffin Sisters, ruled the early 2000s music scene with their contrasting personas — Cassie, the introverted musical prodigy, and Zoe, the charismatic starlet craving the spotlight. Their meteoric rise was as dazzling as their sudden breakup was mysterious.
Two decades later, the sisters are still estranged, leading separate lives far from the limelight. When Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, sets out to uncover the truth behind the duo’s split, long-buried secrets resurface, forcing each woman to confront her past and the choices that defined their paths.
Cassie was the first character of the Griffin Sisters’ world that Weiner imagined. While vacationing in Alaska with her husband, she noticed how many people there seemed to have left previous versions of themselves behind. Inspired by this sense of reinvention, Weiner began crafting the story of a woman who had fled fame and retreated into a reclusive Alaskan life—managing Airbnbs via text message to avoid human contact. Building Cassie Grossberg’s backstory also gave Weiner a chance to weave in her own lifelong passions for music and pop culture.
The writing process kicked off around the time the “Free Britney” movement to end Britney Spears’ conservatorship was going viral. Weiner decided that Cassie would be a former member of a famous band. After she developed the character of Zoe, she began reflecting on Wilson Phillips — particularly how Carnie Wilson, often dressed in pantsuits and pushed to the background because she wasn’t as thin as her bandmates — inspired her to make Cassie a plus-size character. This allowed Weiner to directly address the intense body shaming that defined the era.
“It was sisters, it was music, it was that particular era. It was that moment. It was also the beginning of the pendulum swing back from body positivity to Ozempic for all,” Weiner told Unpacked of her inspirations.
But Weiner emphasized that for many issues, the pendulum hasn’t swung nearly as much as we might think. In the novel, Zoe is determined to protect Cherry from the objectification and abuse she herself faced as a young pop star. Cherry, meanwhile, argues that the world has changed for the better — a claim Weiner deliberately wants readers to question.
“I wanted to make it very clear that Cherry sees the world differently from her mother. I want my readers to see Cherry saying, ‘Oh no, it’s better now.’ And a question, ‘Well, is it?’” she said.
Weiner, whose bestselling titles include “Mrs. Everything” and “The Breakaway,” began her career as a pop culture journalist. Having long been fascinated in the rewards and pitfalls of fame, writing “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits” gave her the opportunity to interrogate not only the industry’s treatment of women but her own role in how such stories were told.
“I’ve been thinking about this book a lot as a way to recenter some of the plus-size stars that got marginalized or erased or pushed to the back,” Weiner said. “I wanted to give them their moment in the spotlight, give them their moment in the sun, but also this is a little bit of me examining my own life as a pop culture reporter and somebody who was complicit in these stories.”
Stripping stars of their Judaism
As she often does in her novels, Weiner made her protagonists Jewish. In “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits,” Cassie and Zoe Grossberg are told to reinvent themselves as Cassie and Zoe Griffin, advised that their clearly Jewish last name won’t appeal to a wider audience.
This decision echoes a long-standing trend in Hollywood, where Jewish celebrities have historically changed their names to seem less identifiably Jewish. “Mamas & the Papas” singer Cass Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen before adopting her stage name; Bob Dylan also anglicanized his name, Robert Zimmerman. Jewish movie star Winona Ryder was born Winona Horowitz, and Jonah Hill was originally Jonah Feldstein. Actress Allison Brie, comedian Jon Stewart, and singer Troye Sivan dropped their Jewish surnames, opting to use their middle names instead.
For Weiner, weaving this reality into her story wasn’t just about historical accuracy—it was crucial to highlighting the persistent, underlying antisemitism in the entertainment industry.
“I wanted to address it because it’s reality, and I don’t know how many people who aren’t Jewish don’t understand that this continues to happen,” she said.
Within the novel, Cassie and Zoe’s Jewishness becomes yet another way they experience alienation. Cassie struggles with social interaction, craving privacy and authenticity, while Zoe, hungry for fame, lacks the raw musical talent her sister possesses. Both sisters navigate the harsh comparisons, but their Judaism presents another invisible barrier: something Zoe must downplay to chase fame, and something Cassie embraces as part of why she feels she doesn’t quite fit anywhere.
Importantly, Weiner’s portrayal of the sisters’ Jewish identity is deeply authentic without being overly didactic. The Grossbergs are culturally and religiously Jewish. They practice and acknowledge it, but their Judaism isn’t their sole defining trait.
“Cassie is not in cantorial school. She’s interested in classical music, and then gets sort of shoved into the pop world, because I think that there are all kinds of ways to be Jewish in the world. And I think this story for these characters, this felt authentic to them,” Weiner explained.
Centering sisterhood and women
What sets “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits” apart from other band-centered books like “Daisy Jones & The Six” and “Songs in Ursa Major” isn’t just its early-2000s setting — it’s the story’s deep focus on sisterhood.
At the heart of the novel are the complex bonds between Cassie and Zoe, as well as between Zoe and her daughter, Cherry. Watching her own daughters grow up and build their relationship has made Weiner increasingly fascinated by the dynamics of sisterhood. In her view, sisters are mirrors: they share DNA, a childhood, and a history — yet often develop wildly different perspectives on the world and make divergent life choices.
Cassie and Zoe’s relationship is marked by fierce loyalty and intense rivalry. Cassie is a gifted musician with undeniable stage presence; Zoe, less musically talented, relies on her good looks and charm to navigate the world more easily. As Zoe rises to fame as a sex symbol, Cassie quietly becomes a hero to misfits who see themselves reflected in her. Like the media-fueled rivalries between stars such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera or Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, Cassie and Zoe find themselves pitted against one another — yet they are also utterly dependent on each other for success.
“The two of them really need each other. And I think that was something I was interested in talking about: The way that sisters can need each other and can have to lean on each other to get through the world,” Weiner said.
“The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits” leans more heavily into coming-of-age themes than many of Weiner’s previous novels. Although parts of the book focus on Cassie and Zoe in middle age, much of the story — and all of Cherry’s sections — captures the experience of transitioning from adolescence into adulthood.
“I was thinking so much about what it means to leave childhood behind and enter adulthood, and how fraught those times can be and how challenging and rewarding and wonderful it is to figure out who you are and what you want to do with your life. You get your one wild, perfect, amazing life, but also get your heart broken. You will want something and not get it,” she explained.
Weiner also uses the novel to spotlight the pressures young women face today. With diet culture resurging and anti-aging products now marketed to girls barely into their teens, she wanted to examine how companies continue to profit from female insecurity — and how those pressures are cyclical, not new.
Ultimately, Weiner hopes that young women who read “The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits” will feel empowered to use their voices to support one another, to call out injustice, and to advocate for change. She sees that responsibility as especially significant for Jewish women.
“As Jewish women, we are called to do the work of repair. We are called to name injustice when we see it, and do what we can to address it. I want this story to be entertaining and engrossing. I want it to be fun and familiar. I want women to think about their own relationships with their moms and their sisters and the music and performers they love,” Weiner said. “But I also want them to think about what our world does to women.”
