Welcome to the interview with author Elaine Dimopoulos! Her new book, Material Girls, was released yesterday! If you would like to read my review on the book click here. Other than that, I hope you enjoy and check the book out!
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If you were to be Tapped (How people get their jobs in the Material Girls world), what would be your ideal job to be Tapped by?
Knowing how profit-driven and manipulative they are, I don’t think I’d enjoy working for any of the industries in the novel! If I had to pick, maybe I’d be a singer and beg my handlers to let me perform my own songs.
5 words to describe the Material Girls cover.
Ominous, graphic, constrictive, mute, bad-ass.
Out of Marla and Ivy, which character do you think you relate to the most?
Each character has parts of me in her. Marla has my idealism and sensitivity. As a writer, I identify with her struggle to express creative freedom in a world that feels conformist. I used to act and sing a lot when I was younger, so I can relate to Ivy’s obsession with the spotlight. Her hometown of Millbrook is a lot like my own, too.
Since Marla works in the fashion industry, what do you think your clothing style is? (Comfortable, girly, business casual ect.)
When I taught middle school English, a student of mine dressed as me for Halloween. She wore a gray skirt, a black sweater, sensible pumps, and pearls. I laughed and acknowledged that she’d nailed it. My style back then was very conservative -- now it’s maybe a touch edgier.
Since Ivy is a singer, what is your current favorite song?
I like “Take Me to Church” by Hozier and anything by Robyn.
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Material Girls
Author: Elaine Dimopoulos
Pages: 336
Published by: HMH Books for Young Readers
Published on: May 5th 2015
In Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde’s world, teens are the gatekeepers of culture. A top fashion label employs sixteen-year-old Marla to dictate hot new clothing trends, while Ivy, a teen pop star, popularizes the garments that Marla approves. Both girls are pawns in a calculated but seductive system of corporate control, and both begin to question their world’s aggressive levels of consumption. Will their new “eco-chic” trend subversively resist and overturn the industry that controls every part of their lives? Smart, provocative, and entertaining, this thrilling page-turner for teens questions the cult like mentality of fame and fashion. Are you in or are you out?
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Elaine Dimopoulos
Elaine studied writing at Simmons College’s Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. She was admitted to its M.F.A. program on the basis of a single short story. That story would become the first chapter of her novel Material Girls. Before dedicating herself to writing for young people, Elaine earned a degree in literature from Yale and an M.A. in education leadership from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia. She currently teaches children’s literature and writing courses at Boston University and Grub Street. She served as the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s Children’s Writer-in-Residence while she wrote Material Girls and was also named a St. Botolph Club Emerging Artist. She blogs about children’s books for the parenting site Mommybites.com, and her writing has appeared in Of Looms and Lilies, a modern dance composition by choreographer Jody Weber. Elaine lives outside Boston with her family.
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