Netflix Orders a 10-Episode Baby-Sitters Club Series

Okay, sometimes we have reboot fatigue. Scratch that—most of the time. However, we couldn’t help but smile Thursday upon hearing that Netflix has picked up Ann M. Martin’s beloved Baby-Sitters Club series for a contemporary, live-action TV adaptation. Break out your scrunchies and the various treats hidden around Claudia’s bedroom.

For those of you who didn’t devour the 100+ novels, the books follow a group of five best friends who form the Baby-Sitters Club in the sleepy town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut. There’s Kristy Thomas (the jock), Mary Anne Spier (the wet blanket), Claudia Kishi (the artist), Stacey McGill (the sophisticate) and Dawn Schafer (the hippie). Their adventures range from the deeply personal, like dealing with divorced parents, to the slightly outrageous (Baby-sitters’ Island Adventure comes to mind). Most importantly, though, the books’ common thread is the value of female friendship.

This latest adaptation (the books spawned both a film and a TV series in the ‘90s) promises to be “family-friendly,” according to Netflix. There’s a skilled team behind the 10-episode show, with GLOW’s Rachel Shukert serving as showrunner, and Broad City’s Lucia Aniello directing and executive producing. Walden Media, Michael De Luca and De Luca Productions’ Lucy Kitada are executive producing as well. Martin and Walden Media’s Naia Cucukov are set to produce the series.

We can’t help but wonder how the show will update The Baby-Sitters Club for the 21st century. Will the super-heteronormative series introduce some LGBTQIA characters, especially considering that Martin herself is queer?

Melissa Cobb, vice president of Kids & Family at Netflix, touched on possible changes briefly in a statement:

The themes of The Baby-Sitters Club still resonate 30 years after the original book series was released and there has never been a more opportune time to tell an aspirational story about empowering young female entrepreneurs. Together with Ann M. Martin and the team at Walden Media, our ambition is to contemporize the storylines and adventures of this iconic group of girlfriends to reflect modern-day issues.

Okay, let’s just hope that they don’t go all Girlboss on this. The point of The Baby-Sitters Club was always friendship, not fiscal gains.