A young podcaster and wannabe-influencer takes on her school principal to stand up for the climate.
Emily is the ringleader for her school podcast, Cedarview Speaks — Sponsored by CoastFresh! But her plans for middle-school fame and social media influence are derailed when Amelie joins her eighth-grade class. The new arrival has a seemingly endless supply of confidence and a gift for leading people. Or leading them astray, as far as Emily’s concerned.
Emily puts her old-fashioned sense of etiquette into practice. Rather than confronting Amelie, she focuses her energy on creating a podcast story about an upcoming climate march. But her story is censored by the school principal. When she protests, Emily gets cut from the podcast crew . . . and Amelie takes her place!
Can Emily use her influence to spread the news of the climate march, reclaim her place on the podcast team and expose the flaws of CoastFresh? Can she balance her impeccable manners with twenty-first century activism? And how will she ever manage to work alongside Amelie?
With a light touch and plenty of humor, Emily Posts explores issues of social media, influence, corporate sponsorship . . . and the fraught waters of middle-school friendship.
In my middle-grade novel, Emily Posts, my main character desperately wants to be a social media influencer. Emily is sure she’d have millions of followers and adoring fans, if only her mom would let her post photos of herself. How is she supposed to promote hoop earrings and combat climate change (not necessarily in that order) without photos? Her influencer career — her entire future! — is stunted by her mother’s rules.
My daughter, Julia, would be firmly on Emily’s side. She was horrified when I wouldn’t let her have her own Instagram account in eighth grade. (It didn’t take her long to win that battle.) A couple years later, when I started a non-fiction book about positive things girls were doing online, Julia ended up co-writing it. Her exact words were: “How can you write a book about social media? You don’t even understand TikTok.”
Ouch.
In my opinion, Emily’s mom is completely reasonable. But here’s what I learned as Julia and her high-school friends navigated the online world: Yes, it can be dangerous. It can also be transformative. It connects ordinary people who have big ideas to celebrities and world leaders who have audiences and influence. Used wisely, social media can help girls change the world. And that’s exactly what Emily sets out to do.