An interesting and enjoyable read, a very unique look at the idea of social media, having it cover your whole life and how it affects someone, I really enjoyed this and it really leaves you thinking

I really enjoyed this book! It was really interesting to get an insight into the life of a vlogging family. Poor Eva - every moment of her life is shared with hundreds of thousands of strangers but her parents just can’t see how much it is hurting her now she is getting older. It really made me think about vlogging culture and the impact it must have on family relationships as children grow up. The characters in this were brilliant and there were some very touching moments too.

GIRL (In Real Life) is a fascinating and insightful look at growing up posting your life online. It's a book that many young people will relate to and emphasise with.

This is really insightful and reminded me of how much I loved the ‘you tuber” craze in my teens. I found it thoughtful and funny and the main character was really enjoyable.

I loved this book!

Although this is aimed at kids I feel a lot of parents should read this, it definitely gets to the heart of some of our more self-destructive behaviours and it's definitely relevant to this day and age.

Tamsin Winter writes amazingly insightful, meaningful books and we should all be taking her books to heart.

I loved Tamsin Winter's earlier books and am pleased to report that this one does not disappoint either. This is the story of Eva, a young teen whose parents have a highly successful YouTube channel, on which they document the minutiae of her everyday life. Possibly not so bad when you are small, but when you are a teenager and everyone in your class subscribes to the channel? Nightmare! No matter how hard she tries, Eva cannot make her parents understand how miserable this is making her. So she sets out to sabotage the channel. This is a very enjoyable read. Highly recommend for younger teens.

This is the second Tamsin Winter book I’ve read to date and I think she’s a real star of teen fiction. I loved Being Miss Nobody when I read it several years ago and Girl (In Real Life) didn’t disappoint! It is a well-paced story about a girl growing up on YouTube, having been filmed by her parents since she was a baby. As Eva gets older, she feels more uncomfortable with her fame and trying to make her parents understand how she feels about it leads her to take actions she never would ordinarily. Full of heart, it looks at the reality of growing up not knowing life without daily vlogging and an audience of thousands watching every landmark moment in your life.

Modern and scarily believable, this is the story of a set of 'family vloggers' who document every aspect of their lives online, but of course, curate it to make it look perfect, often at the embarrassment and frustration of their 13 year old daughter. I liked the believablity of the parent not really hearing what the daughter asks, and the ending felt sort-of satisfying. Recommended for those aged 11+

I love a good Tamsin Winters novel!

Eva's life as a young YouTube star whose parents have been posting about her life before she was even born and she never got the chance to be able to live a normal life. When things in school turn bad and she gets bullied due to her mother posts a video about her period, Some things in Eva's life have to change.

Watching Eva decide to try and ruin the family channel and watch it spiral out of control, Even though it's wrong what she did, I love how Eva dealt with it, She story developed so quickly and everything started to spiral out of control.

This book was excellent- I can't wait to get it into the hands of my readers. Both of my sons have friends whose lives have been (unwittingly?) affected by the online actions of their parents' life style blogging and I think this book shows a kind of sensitivity and understanding towards this generation which will be welcomed by young people navigating a world that their parents can't always fully comprehend. Winter writes lightly, it's witty as well as heartfelt and I genuinely couldn't put it down. I wanted to shout at her parents SO much and feel horribly guilty for the many 'cute' photos I put on Facebook of my sons when they were too young to tell me not to. Parents too should read this book and think long and hard about how their online habits affect their kids....

What if the turmoil of your teenage life was put online for millions of people to see? That's the case for Eva, whose parents have been vlogging their family antics since she was in the womb. Only now, they've taken it too far.

Addictive, relatable, and important, GIRL shows the damage that the internet, judgement, and performing can do, particularly to young minds. It asks the question: when it seems even those closest to us don't want to hear what we have to say, how do we cope? Can we?

This book is a moving exploration of teenage friendship, family, feuds, and fighting for freedom. Winter combines the pains and delights of growing up and breaking away, of changing, with panache. Themes of loss, pain, forgiveness and healing are strong here. At times distressing, always enthralling, this is a brilliant teen read.

Tamsin does it again. A wonderful, topical contemporary novel for tweens & teens alike. She captures such authenticity in her conversations/communications both between friends as well as children and parents. She has become an author where I would buy any book she writes, regardless of storyline, as I am so comfortable knowing I will love it & never be disappointed.

Really interesting read. Had a lot to say about the downsides of parent blogging and the invasion of privacy for the children involved. The cluelessness of the parents made me sad and angry for Eva

This was a highly engaging story of a young teenage girls fight to regain her privacy against her parents parenting vlog. Eva was a character I loved, her frustration coming across alongside her conflicting emotions about her parents. I felt the story raised some critical questions about online privacy and consent, in particular around those too young or in situations where that consent is given by others despite the unhappiness of the person concerned. It reads well and I felt all the characters worked exceptionally well. Very enjoyable.

GIRL (In Real Life) was such an impactful and eye-opening read! 💞 I had high expectations from this book, since people in the book community really love Tamsin Winter, but WOAH. The book exceeded all of my expectations. Many thanks to the publisher for approving me to read this gem of a novel early! 4.5/5 💫 GIRL has definitely become of my favourite YA reads of the year. I'll keep recommending it to everyone!

Having every single moment of your life broadcasted on social media sounds like a nightmare, right? Well, Eva, our main character from GIRL (In Real Life) actually lives through that nightmare... Every. Single. Day. Being a teenager is already tough ~ and the added pressure of your parents documenting your life is undoubtedly the tip of an iceberg.

Tamsin Winter perfectly described how mentally exhausting it can be for young people to be exposed to life centering around social media. GIRL is targeted towards a younger group of people, but I really appreciated how the author tackled different issues in depth. We have family drama, an amazing friends group, a bully and online fame all wrapped up in this book. I LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF READING IT. 🥺💕

Consent is mandatory, even if it's your own children you're posting about. The book revolves around this theme. With an unique premise and a loving cast of characters, GIRL (In Real Life) won my heart. ❤️

Eva has been the star of a YouTube channel run by her parents since before she was born, but now in her early teens, she is tired of the attention, teasing and humiliation. After a particularly embarrassing '1st period party' incident, she decides this all needs to stop, even if she has to sabotage it herself.

Eva's snark is pretty entertaining as is the wit of the narrative in general. Insightful. the author has done a great job of conveying the protagonist's feelings, helping us 'walk in her shoes'. How she gets lost in her own drama.

The hyperbole of social media and the need to be seen, plus people's obsession with celebrity life details is a main theme here. Also the selfishness, and how self-absorbed people can be about their image.

Trying to be your real self in an internet world where everything is scrutinized and people can be offended is tricky. Respect of one's privacy and being, and also dealing with how the promise of fame and money have disrupted that. Kids need to be kids.

Eva's friendship woes are understandable but get too whiny. Also things wrapping up nicely might be a good thing, but too easily and too quickly.

With a wonderful approachable feel to it, this is a coming of age story in a 'count your likes' world that makes you think on what extent should social media define us. How life really needs to be lived, not staged.

Whenever I read books like this, I'm so pleased that I grew up while the Internet was still in its infancy. (No, don't do any math, it's depressing.) The kids at my school were bad enough. If we'd had YouTube and Twitter, Instagram...I can't believe kids make it out with their sanity intact, to be honest.

Eva's parents run a YouTube channel about...something. Parenting? Their vlogs are very unclear about what they're actually talking about. Whatever it is, Eva is the unwilling star. Everything she does and says is staged, posed and recorded before being shared with hundreds of thousands of viewers online.

That was...well, still problematic, but less so, when Eva was four. Now that she's twelve, things are getting out of hand, and something is going to have to give. Either her parent's channel...or their relationship.





There's so much second hand embarrassment reading this book! Eva's parents are awful, the things they put her through. Complicating that, it's clear they do care about her and they mean well; they aren't complete villains, like the majority of people in the real world. They just aren't listening to her real needs and wants for anything not connected to the channel.

Eva's friend group is brilliant. I'd like to point out that there's no romance, although it's clear one character has a crush on another. But these are twelve year olds who actually behave like twelve year olds, which is lovely to see. (also, what's with Eva's mother telling the world that Eva is a late starter? Is twelve late to get your period now? That was early when I was that age! [Again, please no math]) It's also refreshing that there's no Mean Girl; there's a male bully, who's fairly awful, and a girl who's clearly trying to steal Eva's friend, but she isn't a bully; she's catty, but not cruel. Otherwise, the female characters are almost universally supportive and nice.

BE AWARE a minor character dies, affecting Eva quite seriously.

I loved this. I think even kids who aren't Youtube stars can relate to it - we've all been embarrassed by our parents at some point! I'd love to read more about Eva and her parents as they transition to a less-famous lifestyle, but if this is what we get, I'll be happy with it.



(quick note to add I read this a few days ago and I keep going back to reread sections! I think this is one I'll be dipping in and out of for a while.)

I love the cover of this book, Arty, eye catching and one of the reasons I wanted to read it.
A fresh idea which I believe will become reality for a lot of people as more and more parents are posting their children online, without their consent.
Eva’s parents have vlogged her whole life. From her first scan picture, To her first period. But Eva has had enough.
I enjoyed the authors writing style which was easy to read, and hard to put down.
This is a YA/Teen book and my 9 year old is currently reading it too. I want to show her that life ‘online’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. This is the perfect book to emphasise that.
All parents should read this, and all young adults, too.

This was such an interesting premise - so unique, and so relevant. With more and more families becoming 'influencers' it's only a matter of time before this book becomes a reality I think. That's why i picked this book up to read - because of the fresh idea. I have never seen anything along these lines before.
Overall I enjoyed the reading experience, I found Tamsin Winter's writing style so easy to get on with. I sped through this. The reason I couldn't give this a higher star rating was because of the unlikeable characters. I really felt for Eva. No matter how much she told her parents her feelings about youtube, her parents didn't listen. This became very repetitive, and it felt uncomfortable at times. I appreciate this will sound extreme, but it felt like child abuse at times and Eva definitely was a victim. This didn't sit well with me. Particularly in a YA book.

I loved the concept, and adored Winter's writing style but it felt uncomfortable at times.

Girl (in real life) is a great teen read, broaching the topic of social media and the extent to which we invite unknown people into our lives while showing us a character trying to come to terms with who she is.
Eva is - in many ways - a typical girl…but since she was young her parents have vlogged about her. Videos of her hamster’s funeral and ‘cute’ events in her life have been viewed by thousands of people. She’s used to her home time being carefully orchestrated to protect ‘the brand’. As she’s grown up, however, Eva is more conscious of how this constant presence invades her life. Schoolmates mock her, some find it entertaining…but when her mum posts about her first period Eva decides enough is enough.
Eva tries to explain her reluctance - and her parents were portrayed as highly insensitive in this regard. But nothing changes.
As we can see coming a mile off, Eva takes matters into her own hands and enlists the help of a new student to reclaim her life. Badly thought out, messy, but it doesn’t totally backfire so Eva is happy enough and their comfortable ‘real life’ funded lifestyle isn’t affected.
With the younger audience in mind it doesn’t do anything than skirt a very complex issue. It is from Eva’s perspective so it’s quite easy to see it in isolation, but it’s a good starting point.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication in exchange for my honest review.