Sophie Kinsella, best-selling author of the universally loved Shopaholic series, tells Women on the Page about her literary heroines, including, for a time, being Harriet the Spy.

I grew up with them. I think of them often. I refer to them when I’m unsure in life. I love them, admire them, cringe with them and weep with them. They’re my literary heroines. And the fact that they’re imaginary doesn’t make them any less influential on my life than if they were real. In fact, it makes them more influential.

Whom have I known in real life as long as I have known Milly-Molly-Mandy? Not many people, that’s for sure. But her adventures are etched in my brain as surely as if she were a family member. There was the day she unselfishly gave up the one remaining length of flowered dress fabric for another girl. There was the time she made…