Featured Friday: True Colors by Krysten Lindsay Hager
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About the book
Title: True Colors
Author: Krysten Lindsay Hager
Landry Albright gets pushed into trying out for the American Ingénue reality show modeling competition with her two best friends. She doesn't think she stands a chance, but she advances to the next level in the competition and her friends ignore her when they get cut.
Enter the gorgeous Devon, who also makes the first cut and includes Landry in her clique. Devon becomes the perfect best friend, but can their friendship survive the competition?
Landry hopes her big break could come at any moment, but soon sees there's much more to modeling than just getting your hair done and looking pretty. She begins missing out on being with new friends like Ashanti, a girl who truly has Landry's back. Landry also has the chance to have a boyfriend when she meets a boy named Vladi from another school.
Part of Landry wants to be famous (and have her hair look good for once), but part of her just wants to be accepted. She learns about friendships, being true to yourself, and that a good hair conditioner doesn't hurt.
Krysten Lindsay Hager is an Amazon Bestselling author and book addict. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in South Dakota, Portugal, and currently resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she's not catching up on her favorite shows (Hart of Dixie, The Goldbergs, Dallas, and Devious Maids, and she's a die-hard Detroit Lions fan). She's worked as a journalist and humor writer, and writes middle grade, YA, and adult fiction.
Why did you write this book?
I had just finished a creative writing independent study with a professor when he mentioned you should write the book you want to read. I thought back to a book idea I had when I was in the sixth grade about a group of friends and their loyalty/trust issues. So many of us deal with frenemies throughout our lives and I wanted to write about that and also about the mixed messages we get about ourselves and images from magazines, music videos, ads, etc. I wanted to incorporate all these things and use humor as well.
Anything in particular you'd like to share about this book or its creation?
The idea for the four girls as friends (Landry, Devon, Peyton, and India) came from when I was in the sixth grade and saw the cover of a Bangles’ album called, “Everything.” I started wondering what these four women were like as preteens/early teens. I put the modeling competition in the story because I feel so many of us have insecurities about our appearance and about how sometimes young girls feel that looks can gain them acceptance. I had done some modeling at that age (I started a little younger than Landry) and I saw how it impacted my views on things and I wanted readers to see it wasn’t what they (or Landry) thought it would be like.
What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I’m working on a sequel to TRUE COLORS that picks up right where the previous story left off with Landry getting off the train in Chicago with her mom to see her dad. I’m also working on another MG/YA novel, as well as an older YA one, and an adult novel. I have an essay about my grandmother coming out in a new anthology called Grandmothers Who Stand Watch During the Day and Howl at Night, which will be out later this year.
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