Female Magician: Advice for Parents of Girls Who Want to Learn Magic

Female Magician: Advice for Parents of Girls Who Want to Learn Magic

A child announces she wants to be a magician, and the usual parental response is to buy a boxed set of a hundred tricks. Most of those sets sit in a cupboard within a month, not because the child lost interest but because a hundred tricks is the opposite of how anybody learns this.

It starts considerably smaller than that. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist, and I want to set out how a child genuinely begins, and what it's like coming up as a female magician in a field that has been overwhelmingly male.

One Trick, Practiced Properly

Start with the thing that matters most. A magician's first real progress comes from learning one effect and performing it until it's genuinely good, not from owning many.

That's unglamorous and it's the whole discipline. A child who can do one thing well and knows it feels considerably more like a magician than one with a box of forty half learned props. If she's just starting, help her pick one, practice it in a mirror, and perform it for the family until it works every time. Everything else builds on that habit.

What's Worth Buying

Practical, since the market is confusing. A pack of playing cards, a book written for beginners by a working magician, and almost nothing else for the first several months.

Boxed sets of many tricks are generally poor value and teach the wrong lesson. Individual props bought later, once she knows what she enjoys, are a better use of money. And a great deal of good instruction exists in books, which are cheap, thorough, and don't require a subscription. Save the spending until she's shown what direction she's going.

Online Sources Vary Enormously

Worth knowing, since that's where children look first. There's excellent free instruction online and a great deal that's poorly taught, badly explained, or simply exposes methods without teaching performance.

Look for material by people who actually perform, and be wary of anything that's only a method reveal. It's also worth talking to her about not spoiling things for other people, since knowing how something works and telling everybody are different choices, and the second one ends the fun for everybody including her.

Clubs and Conventions Exist

Worth exploring when she's ready. Many cities have magic clubs, some run youth sessions, and conventions frequently have lectures and sessions aimed at younger or newer performers.

That's where children go from doing tricks to being magicians, since they meet people who do this seriously and see what good actually looks like. Check any club or class properly first, exactly as you would with any organization working with children, and ask about their safeguarding arrangements and whether parents can attend. A reputable club will answer that straightforwardly.

She Will Usually Be the Only Girl

The honest part. Magic has been overwhelmingly male for its entire modern history, and a club meeting, a convention, or a lecture room will frequently contain very few women and sometimes none.

That isn't necessarily hostile and it is noticeable, particularly to a teenager. Most people in those rooms are welcoming, and some will assume she's somebody's sister rather than a performer. Being prepared for it helps considerably more than being surprised by it, and it's worth saying plainly rather than letting her discover it alone.

What That Does and Doesn't Mean

Worth putting in proportion. Being unusual in a room is tiring occasionally and it's also an advantage professionally, since audiences remember a performer who wasn't what they expected.

What it doesn't mean is that she needs to be exceptional to belong there. The skill is learnable by anybody willing to practice, and the people who succeed at it are the ones who kept going rather than the ones who were naturally suited. If she wants a female magician to look at, there are plenty working professionally now, which wasn't true a generation ago.

Family Is the Real Practice

The most useful thing you can offer. A child needs an audience, and performing for relatives, family friends, and anybody who'll sit still is how technique becomes performance.

Be a genuinely good audience: watch properly, react honestly, and don't ask how it's done. If something goes wrong, let it go rather than making it a moment. Children learn performance by performing, and the household that gives her twenty small audiences is doing more than any equipment purchase would.

Failures Are the Curriculum

Worth preparing her for and preparing yourself for. Everything goes wrong at some point, usually in front of people, and a card is dropped or a method is spotted.

The response that matters is carrying on rather than stopping, and that's a learnable skill rather than a personality trait. Don't rush in to rescue her, and don't treat it as a disaster afterwards. Every working magician has a long list of these, and the ones who kept performing are the ones still doing it.

Support It Without Taking It Over

The balance worth striking. Enthusiastic parents occasionally become managers, booking shows, pushing practice, and turning a child's interest into a project.

That ends interests faster than neglect does. Provide the cards, the book, the lift to the club, and the audience, and let her set the pace. If she wants to perform at a school event or a family party, help her prepare and let it be hers. It's a hobby that occasionally becomes a career, and the ones that do are the ones that stayed enjoyable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should we buy a magic set?

Generally not, since boxed sets of many tricks are poor value and teach the wrong lesson, which is that owning tricks matters. A pack of playing cards and a beginner's book by a working magician is a better start, with individual props bought later once she knows what she enjoys.

What's the first thing she should do?

Learn one effect and perform it until it's genuinely good, since that's where real progress comes from rather than from owning many. A child who can do one thing well feels considerably more like a magician than one with forty half learned props, and every habit worth having builds on that.

Is online instruction any good?

It varies enormously, with excellent free material alongside a great deal that's badly taught or simply exposes methods without teaching performance. Look for people who actually perform, and talk to her about not spoiling things for others, since knowing how something works and telling everybody are different choices.

Should she join a club?

When she's ready, since clubs and conventions are where children go from doing tricks to being magicians, meeting people who do this seriously and seeing what good looks like. Check any club properly first as you would with any organization working with children, and ask about safeguarding and whether parents can attend.

Will she be the only girl?

Frequently, since magic has been overwhelmingly male throughout its modern history and a club meeting or lecture room may contain very few women. Most people are welcoming and some will assume she's somebody's sister rather than a performer. Being prepared for it helps more than being surprised by it.

Does that mean it'll be harder for her?

It's tiring occasionally and it's also an advantage professionally, since audiences remember a performer who wasn't what they expected. What it doesn't mean is that she needs to be exceptional to belong, since the skill is learnable by anybody willing to practice and there are plenty of women working professionally now.

How can we help most?

Be her audience, since a child needs people to perform for and that's how technique becomes performance. Watch properly, react honestly, don't ask how it's done, and let a mistake go rather than making it a moment. Twenty small family audiences does more than any equipment purchase.

What should we avoid?

Taking it over, since enthusiastic parents occasionally become managers, booking shows and pushing practice, which ends interests faster than neglect does. Provide the cards, the book, the lift to the club, and the audience, and let her set the pace, since the hobbies that become careers are the ones that stayed enjoyable.

Give Her Cards, a Book, and an Audience

A child who wants to learn magic needs remarkably little: one effect practiced until it works, a pack of cards, a decent book, people willing to watch, and permission to get it wrong in front of them. Everything else, including clubs, conventions, and eventually paid work, follows from that.

And it's worth telling her honestly that she'll frequently be the only girl in the room, since knowing that in advance is considerably easier than discovering it at thirteen. There are more of us than there were, and there's room for her.

Reach out if you're ever booking something for a school or family event, and I'm always glad to say hello to a young magician.