2.5 stars

An interesting exploration of modern beauty culture and its impact on women that unfortunately let me down. While I enjoyed the personal anecdotes and the latter chapters on eating disorders, youth, pregnancy + online abuse, I found the 1st half very repetitive, particularly with regard to cosmetic surgery - It felt as though the author was making the same point over and over again, just with different wording each time. I also had issues with the way in which statistics were used - Rather than using exact figures, the author tended to use general phrases such as “more likely” or “less likely” and didn’t often include sources which meant that I didn’t always find them compelling.

Thought provoking, informative, and well written
Due to health issues cannot write a proper review now, a proper review will follow
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the advance reader copy.

I went into this book with a different expectation than what seems to be the overall premise. The author has a continual obsession with the Kardashian’s and it threw me off a bit as there are so many examples of unattainable beauty standards that could also be named.

Once I got past the first part of the book it seemed to figure out its pacing but was still a bit wordy in parts. The writing style took some time as well to fully get into.
Overall I’m glad I was able to read this book.

Pixel Flesh I'd like to say brought something new to the table of my knowledge, but sadly I'm all to familiar with the topic at hand - and it's really an age old problem that has been covered time and again over the decades past tweaked for whatever new technological advancement is putting societal pressure and beauty standards on the youth of today to conform to, so for me this was a sad read especially as someone who during their master's degree a few years back hypothesized that the rise in-built filters were set to cause grief and distort reality worse than photoshop in the hands of professionals in glossy magazines of the 1990s (of which the beauty myth ultimately sought to tackle).

Thank you Netgalley & Headline for the e-ARC.

I don't know why, but I thought this book was non-fiction...oh how wrong I was...
I don't know if it was because I went into this book thinking it was something different, but I really did not enjoy this book. The premise sounded so interesting, and right up my street - but I just couldn't get on with Atlanta's writing style.

If like me you didn't enjoy the writing style, but love the premise - I would recommend Holly Bourne's book 'you could be so pretty'

Wow - what an incredibly well-researched and important book. This is an absolute must-read for women, especially young women. I've never felt so seen, it was a very odd sensation to see thoughts you've never voiced out loud written down. I felt that it struck a balance between solidarity and (sadly) expected statistics, with new information, stories and voices. The book felt non-judgemental and self aware, I'm glad the author acknowledged that while her own experience is valid, it is coming from a place of privilege. Will definitely be buying copies for my friends!

"To look like a human woman is to be ugly."

Just think about that sentence from the book for a second. To look how women naturally look is to be viewed as ugly in today's image-obsessed world. What a f***ed up world that is!

This book treads some familiar ground as others but is updated to take into account the additional pressures that girls & young women face from the 'digital gaze.' All I can say is that I am glad I was a teenager before smartphones, & before Instagram. I read through this incredibly well-written & interesting book, wanting to cry at times at the thought of what we as a society are doing to women & girls. The chapters explore subjects such as plastic surgery, ageism & fetishization of youth, fatphobia, how we talk up the idea of motherhood but treat actual mothers & their postpartum bodies like crap, etc.

At the end, there are lots of suggestions as to how we can make the world a more welcoming & safer place for girls & women, & I'm just.... This is in no way a reflection on the author or the book, it's a great read that all young girls & women should peruse, but it just seems like I've read this so many times before. I've read similar books from every decade from the 1970s on & it never seems to get any better for us. Every generation of girls has to grow up & reinvent the wheel so to speak & I'm just not sure how & if we can ever get through to the next generation early enough. I hope I'm wrong & I hope this book helps to get the message out.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Headline, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was a very interesting read for me as I find myself consumed daily by all the posts I see from the beauty community online, I have often purchased items because an influencer mentioned them and have found myself hating the way I look without filters. - To summarise my reading it has made me realise we / I are not in control and it isn't empowering because we base our inner thoughts on how accepted online we will be and often our image is based on not what we like but how others will perceive us.