Saffron

A searing look at diet culture and all its ugly consequences, from the talented writer of Influential, Saffron 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.

I will be happy this year. I make a note on my phone and write down how I'm gonna make that happen:

1. Do minimum 30 mins of exercise EVERY DAY

2. Definitely no refined sugar. 1 piece of fruit at breakfast acceptable

3. Aim for 1000 calories per day. 1200 absolute max

Saffron Saldana welcomes in the New Year surrounded by strangers, wishing she was as confident, glamorous and desirable as them. Her best friend Poppy has disappeared into her new life at the University of Bristol with her cool flatmates and mysterious new beau, Mr Management Consultant, leaving Saffron stranded at her family home where she has missed out on the first term of freshers' parties, boys won't stop ghosting her on dating apps and her SlimIt coach mother keeps suggesting she would feel better if she only lost a few pounds.

But when Saffron takes on an alter ego - Sydney, an impossibly beautiful AI-generated Instagram model - she finds she has control over how others perceive her for the first time in a long time, and she likes the power. Pretending to be thin online seems like it's just a bit of harmless fun, but suddenly Saffron finds she is in too deep, with no idea how to stop what she has set in motion.