I Just Wanted to Fit In

I Just Wanted To Fit In is a YA novel built around a compelling story of anorexia nervosa but also of friendship, love, creativity and self-confidence. The candid and very personal blog of a 15-year old girl becomes the main canvas where all other narratives (parents’, friends’, social media acquaintances) are woven into, in order to create a book that reflects the real complexity of modern adolescence.

Zoey is 15 years old and completely unprepared to face the realities of her life: a new school, a new financial situation for her family, an old unrequited love and the complexities of her changing body are enough to make her reach for any solution that seems remotely likely to help her win new friends and gain control of her life. Her love for films, her friendships and her family ties cannot keep her afloat when everything she has ever cared for seems to collapse around here, and so Zoey turns to the only way she had ever known to feel powerful again: while trying to change her appearance and tame her bodily needs, Zoey almost loses herself, her dreams and her life. It takes a long journey of ache, self-discovery, therapy and love to get her to respect herself again, but it is one that also help her realize a few important truths for the people around her too: that no one is left untouched by insecurities and that getting those out in the open is the surest way to not let them ruin your life.

Built as a mosaic of personal blog posts, online conversations, the parents’ oral narrative as well as photos, letters, QR codes and Zoey’s drawings, I Just Wanted to Fit In is a novel designed to interactively converse with teens about the most important issues that often seem too frightening for them to even fathom.

After a journey of 2+ years in the Greek market, I Just Wanted to Fit In has appealed to the hearts and minds of thousands of young adults who repeatedly report that they had been waiting for years for a book that would read as if I had been written by one of their own.