May 20, 2025 by Dial Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Hadley's mother has been a mommy blogger for ten years, and went viral after a potty training video of Hadley crying about her poop sliding. Clearly, this is embarrassing now, but her mother still embraces her frenzied, disorganized, "parenting is so hard" brand, and has turned this into a lucrative career. The family, which includes older brother Colton and younger siblings Nash and Quinn, has recently moved from Brooklyn to a big McMansion on Long Island, where her mother continues to post embarrassing content to her PhoebeAndJay channels. Willow, on the other hand, has a lifestyle blogger mom who romanticizes motherhood on her Moonbeams and Marigolds blog. Willow has to wear clothing to match her family's and be perfect all the time. When the two girls meet up at a Women in Content conference, they both share how frustrated they are that their mothers don't respect their privacy. Willow is hopeful that now that her younger brother is getting older, her mother will stop, but finds out at the conference that her mother is expecting, and hopes to monetize the new baby. On a school supply run, Hadley is filling her basket with binders, and runs into Ava, whose mother doesn't want to spend the money. Hadley's mom comes up and tells Hadley to put some items back, because they've just gotten a whole box for free. When Hadley meets Ava at her new school, she doesn't want her new friends to know about her mother, since it's embarrassing. She and Willow have their own private channel called "We are not content", where they show the truth behind some of the posts their mothers make. It is hard to hide her family from her new friends, but Hadley tells them that her mother is a different influencer. Of course, this only lasts so long, but Hadley digs up dirt on the others because their parents post embarrassing things on Facebook. Eventually, both girls want to find a way for their mothers to stop posting about them, and make comments that cause a lot of problems. Both influencers lose followers, but gain national attention for the role of parents and kids on social media. Will Hadley and Willow's mothers find a way to still earn a living while not involving the girls?
Strengths: There are a lot of parents who have their children as their profile picture, and this has always worried me. Children should not be discussed in such a public and lasting forum, and this book points out a lot of the reasons why in a spectacular fashion. Willow and Hadley have very different experiences with their mother's content, but it all comes down to the same issue: not every aspect of life needs to be shared. It's easy to understand the allure for the mothers, especially Hadley's. Her father has even been able to leave his job and start a bookstore because of the social media success. I liked that the two of them were able to have each other to bounce ideas off of. They make fairly desperate attempts to get their mother's attention, but this book makes a great point. Young readers will be enthralled with the details of being in the social media spotlight, but also sympathize with Hadley and Willow's desire for privacy.
Weaknesses: Clearly, I have failed at monetizing my blog. After 19 years, all I have to show for my social media is a lot of copies of books that I donated to my school library. I would have liked some statistics on how many people actually can make a living being a social media influencer, since my students think this is a realistic career goal. Even a failed attempt like my blog takes a LOT more time than I think they envision.
What I really think: This is another intriguing choice for readers who like to explore different facets of social media in books like Parks's Averil Offline, Parra's The Quince Project, Wilson's Sparkle, or Yang's Finally Heard. Tanya Lloyd Kyi's Better Connected: How Girls Are Using Social Media for Good is a good nonfiction title to read along with this story.
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