THIS TRAUMA IS SPONSORED

Recognizing the toxic effects of her parents’ content creation, a teenager wants out.

Rosalie Solis is tired of being part of an influencer family and having all her private moments shared publicly. Her parents constantly film her and her little sister, Gennie, crafting storylines for their lives that include Rosalie pretending to date her best friend, Diego, even though neither of them is attracted to people of the other’s gender. Rosalie and Gennie are home-schooled in order to provide more opportunities for their parents to film them; when Stella, a non-influencer girl, joins their community because her fibromyalgia makes a regular school schedule difficult, Rosalie is taken with her. A scary run-in with a fan brings to a head Rosalie’s concerns about the effects of her parents’ prioritizing content over the emotional needs of their children, and she decides to take drastic action to reclaim their lives. This accessible novel in verse about the dark, sometimes dangerous effects of influencing will appeal to readers who consume social media, including those who may not have considered who’s harmed in its creation. While watching Rosalie come to terms with the damage her parents have done is difficult, the story’s heavier elements are offset by the sweetness of her developing romance with Stella. Rosalie and Gennie are white, Stella is of Chinese and Italian descent, and Diego was transracially adopted from Panama.

A sobering look behind the family vlogging curtain for reluctant readers.