Eva's parents are vloggers and started recording the progress of first the pregnancy, then first milestones in Eva's life, just like many parents. Unlike most parents however, they posted theirs online on their public channels. This soon became their life and they became giddily obsessed with the number of their followers. Now Eva is a teenager she would like to stop. However not far off a magical number of followers to them, her parents are chasing their dreams.
Eva's life is now blighted with teasing at school, and when her first period is plastered across social media, inspite of Eva begging her Mum not to share, she has had enough.
Social media can be very useful for news and sharing - WITH CONSENT - useful tips on many subjects. However, there are going to be a lot of children who find themselves online because of what their parents have posted whilst they were very young. Baby pictures and videos are cute, but teenage angst is obtrusive.
In this case, when Eva's parents accounts were hacked, the passwords were known to the hackers, but posting birth dates, pet names and other personal details is simply opening up the security of your accounts.
This is social media at its worst and the parent/child dynamic is reversed.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

While some people may relish the fame that comes from being a Youtube star, for Eva, she's been famous since before she was even born. Her entire childhood has been out there for the world to see, and it's never been harder than when her mam vlogs her first period, and Year 8 has become beyond embarrassing. Eva wants nothing more than for the channel to stop, or at the very least not completely invade her privacy. Her newest friend, Carys, knows her way around a computer, and together they try to interrupt the channel - but with Eva's parents listen?

Now, as soon as I started reading this book, I was hooked, and understood Eva so much! As a teacher, I've seen the struggles some students have when private topics come to public light, and the way that some people - mainly boys - react to topics such as puberty, periods, and general teenage life. Eva, for me, totally embodied a modern teenager, one who's whole life had known the online world, and social media, and who was starting to realise the pitfalls that being connected can bring with it. Her parents, to me, were annoying, and though they clearly did love Eva - having tried so long to have children, they adored her - they also treated her like a commodity at times, or as a child with no autonomy over what people know about her. I mean, she clearly told her mam she didn't want anything about her period being spoken about - she didn't even want her dad to know about it - but then her mam turns around and makes the entire thing all about herself, and how 'her baby has all grown up'. Honestly, that part made me sick, and I wanted to console Eva! Yes, some parts of the book were a little over the top, but it was also very heartfelt, and real, and I'll be recommending it to my students once it's released!

Thought provoking read! The plot followed Eva Anderson who would want anything but her online fame on her parents' YouTube channel She comes up with a plan with her friend Carys to stop her life being shared in public.
Unique story worth a read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have read all of Tamsin Winter's books and I think this one is my favourite of the three. I love reading about famous people, and this one was a lot different to any other book about famous people I have read, because Eva does not want to be famous and this book is about her trying to escape the fame that her parents have forced her into.

I really enjoyed Eva as a main character and loved that she was not a perfect person and would make mistakes constantly but was able to own up to them in the end.

I really liked that sometimes it felt like Eva was speaking directly to the audience and hinting to what was going to happen next in the story. I felt like this made the story more exciting and made me want to read on to know what thing Eva was going to do next in order to try and ruin her parents YouTube channel.

I feel like this book is a really good children's book, just like all of Tamsin Winter's other books and it is definitely very entertaining to read. Also the cover of this book is beautiful and one of the main reasons I wanted to pick this book up.

Thank you to Usborne Publishing for providing me with an advance copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much @usborneya and @netgalley for approving me to read this AMAZING BOOK!!!!!
I am a huge fan of Tamsin Winter and in my opinion she writes the BEST young adult fiction!!

Girl In Real Life is just brilliant, we follow Eva, who’s parents have a YouTube channel following their lives. Except Eva has had enough. She doesn’t want every single bit of her life being shared with their fans, the For-Eva’s, no matter how “on brand” it might be!

For me this book is everything that is wrong with these YouTube family vloggers (purely my opinion) My daughter watches loads of this kind of stuff and I just struggle with it, so I found the story completely relatable!! It’s wonderfully written and the story flows perfectly.

There are some fabulous supporting characters, such as Spud and Carys and quite honestly I was devastated when the book finished!!

All in all this is sheer young adult perfection and I cannot wait for more people to read this amazing book!!!

I really enjoyed this! It was a fun idea - that the parents are family YouTubers/bloggers and that their daughter wants out - and it was brilliantly well-written. There was a good build up in tension, as the channel just gets worse and worse (with the mum even doing a piece/s about her daughter's first period). This bit was very well done, with the piece being picked up in the media ... and the fallout at school was well described. We could really feel for the main character. I loved the way she resolves her problem, with help form her very lovely friend - and her mixed feelings about her action against her parents was relatable and felt very true. A really fantastic read that I'm sure lots of children and adults will enjoy.

I was thrilled to have the chance to read and review GIRL (In Real Life) by Tamsin Winter.

GIRL is a very relatable story written for children about something they are often long for, internet fame, that will lend itself well to reading-well book collections designed to build emotional intelligence and empathy.

Eva has been in the public eye since before she was born, All About Eva is the channel and brand that her parents have grown over the years. Her first steps, first words and now, even her first.....period. It has allowed Eva to live a lavish lifestyle with free clothes, food and hair masks. At first it was everything she had wanted, everything she knew. But now, in high school, things weren't quite as they seemed online. There were two Eva's: the one her parents posted - all laughs and smiles and the real version - dealing with taunts, teasing and online trolling. Longing for some privacy or a few family moments without camera's, channels and sponsors, Eva decides enough is enough and enlists the help of a new friend, Carys.

Eva's parents just won't listen, after relentless plea's for them not to post about her on the channel, she takes matters into her own hands and with Cary's help hacks the channel. A spiral of damaging events soon unravels leaving Eva with a heavy heart, police involvement and some tough decisions to make.

Lots of children dream of making it big on YouTube, of having an adored channel, being sent products to test for free as an influencer. What they potentially don't see or understand is is the other side to it. GIRL is an eye-opener that everyone should read. Not everything is as it seems.

Being a teenager can be tough at the best of times—spots, bad hair days and of course, PERIODS! But when your parents broadcast all of your most embarrassing moments to hundreds of thousands of people it’s bound to be even worse.

For Eva, her parents wilfully successful YouTube channel revolves around her and her most embarrassing milestones. It’s not enough that she’s constantly ridicule for it, but when her parents’ post about her period goes viral, Eva decides to do something drastic. Even if she has to sabotage herself.

An absolutely heartfelt coming-of-age tale that was equal parts funny and thought provoking. The premise was definitely intriguing, a great starting point for discussion on consent of minors and the psychological ramifications social media can have on young people, especially when their entire lives have been posted for the world to see.

It did sort of remind me of the teens who sued their parents for posting their childhood pictures to social media without their consent.

Also, although Tamsin Winter does tackle (and highlight) some important and complex topics, it’s definitely still fairly light in tone, which I’d say suits the younger teen audience this is geared towards.

I particularly enjoyed how well-written the characters were, I loved that although Eva’s parents are technically the antagonists, they are superbly written. They could’ve easily veered into vaudevillian caricature’s, but instead Winter gives us two flawed and complex characters that are difficult to truly hate. In fact, all of the characters are well rounded and relatable to a degree. I’d have to say Eva and Carys were my absolute favourite characters though spud was also a really entertaining support character.

I’d recommend to Coming Of Age or Contemporary YA fans though, it is at the younger end of the YA genre. Overall it was thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining—definitely worth a read.

I’d also like to thank Usborne Publishing and NetGalley for the Digital ARC.

Girl in real life was a brilliant quick read that had online fame, drama, family and friendship!

The plot followed Eva Anderson who would want anything but her online fame on her parents' YouTube channel She comes up with a plan with her friend Carys to stop her life being shared in public.

The writing was very engaging with a unique entertaining voice. The plot was reflective and showed how online fame can be damaging to kids. I was thoroughly entertained and I definitely enjoyed reading this!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the E-arc. All opinions are my own.

The concept of family vloggers has long interested me, particularly those parents who film their children from before the kids are even born or from an age before they can even talk. These kids’ lives are documented on video and posted on the internet for anyone to see. The discussion over whether it’s ethically okay for kids to be filmed and the content posted to the internet when they can’t consent has been ongoing for a long time and is definitely a complicated one. So, I was really intrigued by the concept of this book, being about a girl, Eva, whose parents have been posting weekly vlogs since before she was born and whose entire life has been documented on her parents’ YouTube channel. However, Eva doesn’t feel comfortable with her life being shared online and decides to push back at her parents’ insistence that she takes part in the vlogs.

I think I went into this book with slightly misplaced expectations. My interest and excitement at reading a book on this topic blinded me to the fact that this is a book for younger readers and so it can’t delve too deeply into what is certainly a complex topic. The protagonist is 12 years old and the book is very much written for readers of around that age; with this in mind I definitely think it was a well-written book with an engaging plot that many young readers of that age will enjoy and maybe even relate to. Aside from the main topic it also touches on friendship, friendship break-ups, and bullying, among other topics that young teens would find relatable. So, if you’re an older reader, keep that in mind and don’t make the same mistake as me of expecting it to be written for a slightly older audience – this is definitely aimed at a younger teen/YA audience.

Generally, I thought the author did a fairly good job of writing a story that is both an easy and fun read and tackles an important and complex topic. However, I do think the issue of the consent of minors could have been taken a bit more seriously. Eva’s parents ignoring her wishes, guilt-tripping her into going along with things and generally putting an immense amount of pressure on a child to do something she feels uncomfortable with because her family’s income and security depends on it is, without exaggeration, a form of child abuse. However, I felt Eva’s parents were portrayed as slightly annoying and maybe a bit too obsessed with their YouTube channel but ultimately caring and capable parents. Almost everybody else also dismisses Eva’s discomfort at being on YouTube and basically gaslights her into thinking she’s overreacting and should be grateful for everything she has. This is something that I don’t think is challenged enough in this book, particularly in the third act when Eva takes “drastic action” (which arguably wasn’t really that drastic as it was her only option considering her parents kept ignoring her repeated pleas for privacy) to cut herself off from her parents’ vlogs, the reaction to which doesn’t, I feel, do enough to highlight that Eva was correct to stand up for herself and her right to privacy and shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for it.

It’s very likely that I’m being overly sensitive and overreacting, particularly as this is meant to be a fairly light-hearted book for younger readers, but I think when covering a topic such as this you should be over cautious about the message younger readers are getting from it and it should be highlighted that the parents’ behaviour is not acceptable and cannot be excused. I think if you plan to get this book for a younger reader then it would be helpful to also have a conversation with them about the topic and help them to understand that defending their right to privacy is okay.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to read this as I have loved Tamsin's other books, when when I started, I found it really annoying. I mean, am I too old for all this stuff, is it "really" like this?! For me I just found it all a bit too extreme... but then I don't live my live like this! However, it did not take long for me to get into it and understand the full implications that a story like this has, and is so important for today's technology driven, social media world which sucks us all in on some level.
I really loved the characters and how, even though Eva is starting to rebel about having her whole life exposed in the world of vlogging, she also cannot keep off her phone and spends her time sending likes, hearts and other emojis in reaction to her friends posts. The story shows how this has become such a normal way of communication, even among friends and peers who see each other every day. The exploration and exposure of how social media can become such a toxic environment is dealt with in a raw and much needed way that shows children that, yes, this is real, and a) not everyone wants such a high degree of exposure on social media, and b) what people choose to show and what actually happens in "real" life are often very different. The way that hacking was included in the story and the consequences of something so seemingly easy and harmless that can go so horribly wrong, was also handled well and an important part of the story. The impact of comments and tags shows how fast content travels and how scary and dangerous it can become. Eva's parents are so caught up in "The Brand" and their channel, their subscribers and sponsors, virtual life has take over as they have made so much money form it. In doing so, they are constantly "working" and everything is done for show. They don't know how to listen to their daughter and have lost their view on just living for living's sake.
The story's themes are about friendship and families and respecting people's real life voices and wishes. The main messages that I hope youngsters will take form this fantastic book are: Real life is real and to be lived. Social media has it's place, but be very very careful about what you post, what you comment on, who you tag. Learn to take a break from it.

I'm not the target demographic for this book however I have heard a lot about family vloggers and always wondered what would happen when these children grew up and hated that their life was on the internet? This story deals with that situation and I found it extremely interesting. The way Tamsin wrote, it reminded me of how I felt when I was in school (I won't lie, I really hated Gabi) and the struggles of navigating friendships, especially with kids you'd known for so long. I think at times the parent's were a little too naïve but overall, I liked how it was handled. I think this would be a great book for young teens to read, especially if they wished they were famous on the internet!

This is a great read to give to any preteen that wants to become an influencer. It shows the problems and pitfalls of having your life online from a young age.