ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did any real-life experience from your days as an intern make its way into the book?
Like my protagonist Harper, Ive experienced the giddy highs and surprising lows of having a story go viral.
Like most women on the internet, Ive been a victim of antagonistic trolls.
Granted that wasnt during an internship I was a staff reporter!
Your character comes from California to New York City, not unlike yourself.
Did you find New York overwhelming when you first arrived, and did that inform the character of Harper?
New York is totally overwhelming, but thats one of the reasons I wanted to move here.
Its the meeting point for so many different cultural events, people, beliefs, styles, and foods.
Youve written on a variety of topics including current events, feminist issues, as well as live-tweetedThe Bachelorette.
How did you decide on a YA fiction work for your first novel?
with zero game whatsoever, who suddenly has to write about dating for all of the internet to see.
At the end of the day, I just love telling stories.
And I write them in whatever voice best brings them to life.
Tell us about Harper and her fake-it-til-you-make-it philosophy.
Harper feels like she doesnt belong in her small, water-polo-obsessed suburban town.
And maybe, if she plays this character long enough, shell start to absorb her better selfs confidence.
Harpers goal is to fake it until she feels it.
Check out the excerpt below.
); and memorizingShiftrules so I can be the best intern McKayla has ever had.
But even though her hair is gray, the reporters face is really young.
And not in a Botox-y way.
Comparing your superiors hair to your grandmas should not be a compliment.
But in the world ofShift, this geriatric dye job is clearly intentional, and apparently popular.
How long have you worked here?
Five years longer than McKayla, Granny Hair says.
Since back in the day, when a person could write maybe one story a day.
Under McKayla, make that more like six if youre on the viral news team.
But Ive survived since her takeover, so thats something.
Six stories arent challenging for me!
And theres the interesting factoid about overambitious Jamie.
She thinks that if she wins the magazine intern profile, theyll have to hire her.
My eyes go from girl to girl as I match them up to their fun facts.
(She showed us the videos.)
Gigi is a rising high school senior like me but at a boarding school in SwitzerlandThe French part.
Shes half Filipina and half Nigerian, and has lived on every continent except Antarctica.
She once owned a pet peacock.
(Trenton Boshs kids went to Holland Prep too.)
Why am I lying?)
My favorite spot by far is theShiftopen kitchen.
(The calories dont count if it was sent by a PR person, right?
people ask, staring longingly at rows of uneaten, designer brownies.)
The most intimidating office feature hangs literally over our heads in the bullpen.
Projected on an always-on television set is something called the Leader Board.
With real-time data updating every seven seconds, the Leader Board shows the ten best-performing articles on theShiftwebsite.
This is our key to the magazine feature.
You want to make this board, Granny Hair warns.
And this is how you get there.
Its McKaylas own religious doctrine.
Yes, even more than the writing.
Because if your headline is bad, who will even read the story?
Sell your story and yourself, even if you have to embellish.
Any clicks a good click.
Buttering them up by means of buttery treats.
To the untrained eye, it would look like shes goofing off.
But watching crazy YouTubes is actually a big part of her job.
One hundred fifty words tops.
Ive gotta prove that Im fast so McKayla will hire me.
She puts out her hand to accept the cookies-and-cream-flavored cupcake without even looking at it.
Her eyes never leave her computer monitor when she pops it into her mouth and starts to chew.
Theyre very different things.
Gigi asks in an accent as silky as her gorgeous dress.
I thought it would be fun to
Fun?
Do you know whats not fun, Harper?
Given how many people suffer from gluten intolerance, I find this action to be very insensitive.
Shes chomping on sunflower seeds rather than cupcake.
That doesnt sound right, Brie says.
In my sorority, like, one in every three girls cant eat bread.
My big, my big-big, and my big-big-big
Well it is, Abigail says, seriously and severely.
Im pitching a listicle about gluten intolerance for the health section, and Ive done my research.
Regardless, Gigi cuts her off.
This is very rude, Harper.
She drops the red velvet in the trash.
