Florence Given is an illustrator, writer and feminist activist. She started her Instagram page as a 17-year-old art student in Plymouth to showcase her quirky feminist illustrations: it now has almost 600,000 followers, and her merchandise has won fans including Rita Ora, who asked her to design products for her 2018 tour. Given’s first book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, sold 100,000 copies and spent months on the bestseller lists. In 2019, Cosmopolitan named her its influencer of the year, and this year she launched the Exactly podcast, for which she has interviewed women including Jameela Jamil, Munroe Bergdorf and Sofie Hagen. Her debut novel, Girl Crush, is the story of Eartha, a young bisexual woman who becomes an overnight internet celebrity.
What prompted you to turn to fiction for your second book?
I wanted to write a book that showed that people are messy, and I wanted to create messy characters. Nothing makes me feel better than making people laugh, making people think, and also gently holding the mirror up to the reader so that they can reflect on themselves in a way that doesn’t feel judgy or shameful.
