šĀ 10 Books about #Girlboss Influencers
Hello, and welcome to Pleasure Reading. I'm your host, Amelia Hruby. And this is a podcast about the pleasure of reading, where I share curated reading lists, author rankings, chats with my bookish friends, and more. If you too take pleasure in reading, I hope that you will subscribe and share the show with a friend. Cheers to your next best book.
Amelia Hruby:Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of Pleasure Reading. I'm Amelia Hruby, your fellow reader, book lover, and host of this new podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. For this first episode, I wanted to begin with a curated book list that collects all of the things that I have been reading about hashtag girl boss influencers over the past few years. Obviously, the rise and fall of the, quote, unquote, girl boss has been highly documented by our media.
Amelia Hruby:1st, through the success of CEOs like Sofia Amorusso of Nasty Gal or Audrey Gellman of The Wing, there was this whole rise in the late 20 tens and even into 2020 of women who were running fast growing VC funded companies, particularly in the spaces of wellness and lifestyle. Sophia Amorusa herself even coined the term girl boss by writing a memoir of the same name. And then we saw kind of starting in 2020, there were these public critiques of these women. They were often removed from their positions as CEOs of their companies. And some of those companies are still around and doing well, and others, like the Wing, have shut down and are no longer operational, at least in the same sense as they were at the height of their popularity.
Amelia Hruby:So as a business owner myself and as someone who, full disclosure, did join the Wing for a year in Chicago in, gosh, it must have been like 2018 now, I have always been fascinated by the role of the girl boss, both in an intriguing, alluring way and in a totally repulsive critical way. And I think that tension is really what led me into reading a lot of books about girlbossinfluencers over the past few years. So in this episode, I have collected 10 books about girlboss influencers, and let's go ahead and dive in to the books themselves. We're gonna start with 4 fiction books on this theme, and then I will share a few nonfiction books as well as a little TBR. So we'll go from books I have read and enjoyed to books that I hope to read in the future, and hopefully, you'll hear about some new reads or find some camaraderie about books you've already read along the way.
Amelia Hruby:The first book I wanna talk about is Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks. This came out in August 2023, and it follows Harper Cruise who is a writer struggling to make it work in New York City. And after she loses her job in publishing, she applies for a new very well paid media role with an influencer and self help icon named Charlotte Green. Now Harper doesn't really know much about Charlotte. She was kind of, like, just online and submitted her resume haphazardly.
Amelia Hruby:But for some reason, Charlotte, like, hand selects Harper out of this pile of thousands of applications and chooses her for the job immediately and then kind of pressures her to take it and to move to Nashville, like, I think it's literally the next week, like, as soon as physically possible. Nashville is Charlotte's home base. And when Harper moves there, she moves into what they call the greenhouse, get it, Charlotte Green, the greenhouse, which is basically this compound where everyone who works for Charlotte lives. It's very much giving, like, industrial revolution. We live next to the factory, so we can always be on call to go in and work there.
Amelia Hruby:Like, that's very much the vibe of what's happening at the greenhouse with Charlotte. And essentially the book unfolds from there. There are plenty of influencer shenanigans. There are missteps that Charlotte makes, ways that Harper tries to intervene in the situations to help Charlotte succeed. Harper comes to many of her own questions about what's actually going on here.
Amelia Hruby:And, overall, I really enjoyed the story. I thought Harper was smart and funny. I thought Charlotte's character was the right blend of satire and over the top. But I will say I didn't necessarily love the ending. I really wanted this book to, like, take a stronger stance on some of the events that happened.
Amelia Hruby:I wanted it to have more of, like, a POV, a point of view on influencers more broadly. And I felt like it kinda just, like, wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow at the end. So overall, good read. I do recommend it even if I thought it could have done a little bit more. And, honestly, maybe I just thought that because the blurb for this book is that it's the devil wears Prada meets the assistants.
Amelia Hruby:And I feel like the devil wears Prada has, like, a really strong point of view on media and fashion. And this book just kind of lacked that POV about influencers. So I'm gonna give this, like, 3 out of 5 girl bosses. Like, on a scale from not at all a girl boss to totally giving me the girl boss iconic ich, we're gonna go with 3 out of 5 girl bosses. Next up is A Special Place For Women by Laura Hankin.
Amelia Hruby:This book came out in May of 2022, and it is centered around Jillian Beckley. She is a New York City journalist, another NYC girl, who, in a moment of, let's call it career desperation, tells her editor that she has an in at this super exclusive women only social club in the city. This club is very obviously the wing coded. Like, it is totally meant to have that vibe. They talk about how Rihanna's been there.
Amelia Hruby:They talk about how it costs a $1,000 a month to join, which is, like, wild and definitely more than the wing cost when I joined in Chicago. But, anyway, this club is full of influencers, celebrities, and definitely lots of girl boss characters, particularly the people who founded the club and are running it when our emcee, Jillian, joins. So she gets herself invited into this club, but the deeper she gets in, the more she realizes that there might be something more magical and also potentially sinister happening there. I don't wanna give anything else away, but I did think that this book was really fun. I loved the sort of, like, secret agent journalist setup that they had because when she joins, she doesn't disclose that she's a journalist writing a piece about this club.
Amelia Hruby:Right? She tells them she's, like, working on a book, and she wants to be a member, but her goal is to do an expose. So I I like that sort of setup. It, like, adds a nice narrative tension to the mix. And I really liked the very witchy themes that came in and how all of that played out even bringing in some, like, family history stuff along the way.
Amelia Hruby:So I enjoyed this one. I would absolutely give it 4 out of 5 girl bosses, heavy on the witchy girl boss. From, like, soft girl to the bossiest girl, this one's pretty far up there. We have a lot of good girl boss potential in A Special Place For Women by Laura Hankin. Okay.
Amelia Hruby:My 3rd book that I recommend about girl boss influencers is maybe my favorite of this list or second favorite perhaps, but it's called Followers by Megan Angelo. And this book came out in November 2020. I'm pretty sure that I got it at Costco, like, during the pandemic, and it was a real sleeper hit in my reading that year. This story is told in 2 timelines. We are in 2015, 16 New York City, and 2051 New York City, as well as 2051 Constellation California.
Amelia Hruby:And Constellation California is a closed California community where, this is on the back of the book, government appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera. So we're definitely in this sort of, like, dystopian future where instead of influencers being just on our phones, like, sharing at their will, they are appointed by the government and shared all the time. It's, like, basically, like, if all of life was Love Island. But in this book, the story is about Orla Cadden, who is a budding novelist. Are you noticing this trend?
Amelia Hruby:Like, everybody's a writer, and they are stuck in a dead end job as Orla is. And it's also about Floss, who is an influencer and a quote unquote wannabe a lister in the 2015 time line. So Orla and Floss become friends, and that has all of these implications and things unfold. And then in the second time line, we're following Marlow, who is one of those government appointed celebrities in 2051, and she's gonna go on this journey from to New York City. And I don't really wanna say much else for fear of spoiling anything for you, but I will say that this book is giving Don't Worry, Darling.
Amelia Hruby:It's giving Stepford Wives. It's giving Love Island. And as I'm recording this, it is on Kindle Unlimited. So if that is your vibe, you can find it there. Highly recommend.
Amelia Hruby:This is a 4.5 out of 5 girl bosses for me, and I was super into it. My 5th fiction rec for our girl boss influencer books is going to be self care by Leigh Stein. So this came out in June 2020, and I will just say at the outset that I am a big fan of this book. It takes on all of the inconsistencies and hypocrisy of the wellness industry. It is full on satire.
Amelia Hruby:And after I read it, it was, like, one of those books that I was, like, pressing into the hands of my friends being, like, please read this. Please read this. If I have ever been to a yoga class with you, I've probably mentioned this book. It is one of my favorite reads about influencers, hashtag girl bosses, wellness culture, etcetera. The story of the book is about this company called Ritual, r I c h u a l, which is intended to be the, quote, most inclusive online community platform for women to cultivate the practice of self care and change the world by changing ourselves.
Amelia Hruby:But as you might expect, ritual does not live up to that mission behind the scenes, And so the novel follows this cast of characters that includes Ritual COO, Maren Gelb, her friend and Ritual CEO, Devon Avery, Ritual employee, Khadija Walker, and others. And it's just a jolly good time, my friends. So if you love Reddit snark about influencers or you're just into super smart satire of the, quote, unquote, wealth and wellness world, this book is absolutely for you. I give it 5 out of 5 girl bosses. It is full on girl boss iconic ich, and I think that you'll love it.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. Next up, I wanna share 2 nonfiction books on our girl boss influencer theme. The first one is called swipe up for more, inside the unfiltered lives of influencers by Stephanie MacNeil. This book came out in June 2023. And in it, journalist Stephanie MacNeil takes this perspective of, like, how have influencers shaped the lives of millennial women.
Amelia Hruby:And to do that, she speaks to 3 major influencers, Caitlin Covington, Myrna Valerio, and Shannon Byrd. And those kind of cover the, like, fashion and lifestyle space, the running and fitness space, and the sort of, like, mommy blogging space. And so 70 does all of these interviews with these kind of 3 iconic influencers and talks about how they have, quote, unquote, built their empires, and in the process, like, reflects on the role of the influencer in millennial culture. I thought this book was interesting. I would say it was definitely like a skim for me, primarily because it's it's really a book about influencers, and it doesn't quite take on that girl boss lens of, like, how do we uplift them and critique them at the same time?
Amelia Hruby:It's not really unraveling any of that. I think this book has a lot of empathy for influencers. It's really trying to make the case that being an influencer is hard work, which I agree with. But I also wanted it to maybe kind of be open to, like, yes, this is hard work, but maybe also there are some harms here that we should unpack and talk about. So swipe up for more got 2 out of 5 girl bosses from me.
Amelia Hruby:If you wanna see more of the behind the scenes on influencer lifestyle, this is your book for sure. And my second nonfiction book pick for Girlboss influencer books is glossy, ambition, beauty, and the inside story of Emily Weiss's Glossier by Marissa Meltzer. This came out in September 2023, and it is this behind the scenes look at the rise of Glossier and how Emily Weiss built this company. I thought it was really interesting how Marissa Meltzer charted the rise of the company, like, looking at Emily's early entry and internships in the fashion world, how she started into the gloss, the blog that became this, like, basically, all of this research and monetized content that then allowed her to launch Glossier and have it become the beauty brand that it has become over the past decade. I think that the book kind of reads like a really long New York Times profile, and I really felt like she was trying to stay, like, so clearly in her journalistic ethics, which I admire and also, like, did not make for a lot of drama.
Amelia Hruby:So if you are wanting, like, behind the scenes drama, this is probably not your book. But if you, like me, are building your own business and you're just, like, really intrigued by how the sort of business and marketing of all of this worked, it definitely delivers on that. So I gave this book 3 out of 5 girl bosses. I think that it does do both the, like, uplifting the success of Emily Weiss and Glossier while also, like, critiquing some of the culture around that. And for me, that is, like, the hallmark of the girl boss concept, and it's what I like to see in all these books.
Amelia Hruby:Right? So my favorites are the ones that manage to do both. They can uplift and celebrate while also being critical about both the, like, cultural milieu that this happens in and some of the questionable individual actors in these spaces. So that wraps the 6 books that I have read and recommend about girlboss influencers, particularly, I guess, New York City girlboss influencers since that's where they're all based, which honestly, it might just be a bias of mine. I'm way more East Coast than West Coast in my own, like, personal taste, and so probably I just haven't read the West Coast influencer books yet.
Amelia Hruby:And as I wrapped up this episode, I just wanted to share 4 more books that are on my Girlboss TBR and that I hope to read maybe in the upcoming months. So the first one is People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd. This came out in 2022, and from my understanding is a kind of psychological suspenseful thriller about a mom who is also an influencer and the toll that that takes on her family, but also maybe she's being stalked by somebody who's, like, looking at all her public content and, like, making her actually unsafe seems to be there in that description. So looking forward to more of a thriller in this vein. I feel like of the ones I've read, Followers kind of goes the most in that direction.
Amelia Hruby:Maybe a little bit A a special place for women has some, like, suspenseful moments, but this seems, like, solidly in the suspense category. So I really look forward to reading People Like Her by Ella Rae Lloyd. I also wanna read their book, The Club, which I've heard good things about and have not read yet, so more books for my TBR. The second book on my Girlboss TBR is A 100 Other Girls by Iman Hariri Kia. That came out in 2022, and that book is about Nora, an aspiring writer and amateur blogger in New York City.
Amelia Hruby:I bet you guessed it. And she spends her time tutoring rich Upper East Side kids before she lands this highly coveted job as the assistant to this iconic magazine editor. So in very, like, Devil Wears Prada style, that goes totally wrong, and we get to see how that unfolds alongside this sort of insider take on the media industry and friendship and what it means to chase your dreams. All this good stuff, definitely looking forward to reading a 100 Other Girls. The 3rd book on my Girlboss TBR is City of Likes by Jenny Mullen.
Amelia Hruby:This just came out in 2023. It's got a really cool cover with a bathtub full of bubbles on it. And here we're going back into the world of momfluencers, particularly through the lens of this woman named Meghan who is looking for a fresh start, moves her family to New York City and befriends another woman named Daphne who is a very well known momfluencer and starts, like, showering Meghan with gifts and praise and prestige. And then as Meghan starts to lose track of what may actually matter to her, we unravel what is perhaps really going on here. So that's city of likes by Jenny Mullen.
Amelia Hruby:And the final book on my girlboss TBR is Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid. This book is one that I can't believe I haven't read yet. It came out in 2020 and is very much along the themes of many of these other books. So Such A Fun Age is about Alex Chamberlain, who is a very successful woman, and her child's babysitter, Emira Tucker, takes Alex's child to the grocery store, and the store's security guard accuses Emira of having kidnapped the child because Emira is black and the child is white, and the security guard is obviously racist. And after this happens, Alex resolves to, like, make things right, but this perhaps might be embroiled in white savior complex.
Amelia Hruby:And as the description says, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves and each other. So I think that Such A Fun Age really brings the lens of race to these conversations. I should say that Alex, the wealthy white mom in this book, is the influencer, and so we really see how that role of public perception becomes a part of this story from what I understand. And I think that I really gotta read this. I need to put it at the top of my TBR so that I actually get to it maybe even before the year's end.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. So those are my 10 books about girlboss influencers, which is both, like, a very specific category. And, also, there were so many other books I could have included here. So just to do a very brief recap, I have read and loved Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks, A Special Place for Women by Laura Henkin, Followers by Megan Angelo, Self Care by Leigh Stein, Swipe Up For More by Stephanie McNeil, and Glossy by Marissa Meltzer. If I had to pick one of those books that I was, like, go get this now, it would definitely be Self Care by Leigh Stein.
Amelia Hruby:Again, just such a good satirical take on the wellness industry and how influencers sell us a lifestyle that is unattainable even for them. And then we also talked about my little baby girlboss TBR, which includes People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd, a 100 other girls by Eman Hariri Kia, a city of likes by Jenny Mullen, and such a fun age by Kiley Reid. All of those books are linked in the show notes, and I have used bookshop affiliate links. So if you hear about a book that you love here and you make a purchase with that link, I will receive a small affiliate payment. That is a little thank you for the book rec.
Amelia Hruby:I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode and to join me at the very beginning of this show. For now, I will just say that it has been a pleasure reading with you. Here's to your next best book.