Cover of Beauty Queen by Libba Bray

On Thursday, October 30th my group met with one of Libba Bray, the author of Beauty Queens. We met with her in the LREI library. She came to interview some students my group included, about girls books vs. boys books. After she interviewed us, we asked if we could interview her. She said yes and sat and talked to us for about ten minutes. We asked her why she chose to write a book about young women. She answered, “Well, I think it is because I care very much about feminism and gender issues.” Later we started to talk about what made her interested in the portrayal of women in the media and how it affects young girls and their self esteem. Libba shared, “I think it is impossible not to have these things affect your self esteem, for all the reasons that you have said. We look at these photoshopped bodies and faces and think, ‘that’s what I’m supposed to look like?? I think being constantly bombarded with these images of what beauty looks like, which is almost always unrealistic, really takes a toll on young girls.” Our discussion with Libba really made me start thinking about my topic and really got me thinking on the right track on what we really wanted to look into deeper.