Girl, ultra-processed

A searing look at diet culture and all its ugly consequences, from the talented writer of Influential . New year, new me! That's what Saffron Saldana tells herself as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve. Her resolution is the same every year: lose weight. Because Saffron has it hard-wired that weight loss equals happiness. It's what she's been told her whole life - online, in magazines, especially by her own diet-obsessed mother. But dieting is hard. So to escape her own reality, Saffron creates Sydney, a super-slim, AI-generated 'perfect' version of herself. Boys online love Sydney, and for Saffron, it's just a bit of harmless fun. Until the boundaries of her life online and offline begin to blur . . . And one boy in particular makes her question her desire to be someone she's not. Can Saffron find a way back to herself, and learn to love who she actually is? Girl: Ultra-Processed explores what it is like to be a teenage girl in our current body-obsessed world while juggling family drama, friend dynamics, dating, betrayals and major life changes.