Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Readers Copy for review. All opinions are my own.

This book caught me in a way I find ironic, given its beautiful cover. A beautiful cover that goes into the toxic beauty culture spawned on social media in the last 20-ish years. It is a topic that, of course, would strike a chord with someone like me, a 26-year-old female woman who remembers the birth of Instagram back in my high school days. This topic has also become a hot button over the last 2 years, so I felt it required reading. Sadly, this book did not intrigue me very much and often gave me a bit of cringe. It took me from April until only 5 days before the release date to finally finish, because there were times I was really not interested.

The book is marketed as a non-fiction expose on social media and the beauty industry, weaving in her own anecdotes to shine a light on our current toxic beauty culture. Whenever I got into it, though, the book was often wordy and repeated points, or when it came to her personal stories, it felt very "diary"-esque. I feel like I got a first hit of it with her story of seeing Kylie Jenner in real life and how she just describes her personal disdain for a woman she barely knows. It felt... off. Same thing, with the other early anecdote of her friends getting fillers and how utterly betrayed she felt. For something labeled nonfiction, it had moments where it was preaching to me. I was preaching that if I wanted to get my nails done or follow a trend, it was not because of my own choices but because of the snake-tongued beauty influencers and marketing gurus getting under my skin. My opinion, since the author freely expresses it, is that sometimes you like a nail look, sometimes you just like an outfit, and making it sound like all choices are just the result of the patriarchy is a bold claim. 

As someone who grew up in this online beauty culture and who has also been affected by the marketing and the visions of "the perfect face or body," I really cannot suggest this book. It is quite repetitive and more about the author's personal feelings than a true deep dive. I will admit that when she gets more into the facts and research she has done, she writes well, and the reading flow is wonderful.

After finishing this book, I'm still not sure if I liked it or not.

The book was not written for my demographic; I'm a woman in my 40s who grew up without social media or any interest in the Kardashians or any big celebrity beauty icons [unless you count the supermodels from the 1980s or 1990s -- or Elvira Mistress of the Dark]. My beauty world experiences are different than the girls and young woman of today. I grew up with a mother who was consistently on the new trendy diet or new exercise fad. I try my best to be a nonconformist in my life - to be happy in my skin as I am.

However, that doesn't mean that I don't have sympathy for the women or didn't have experiences that were just as horrifying or depressing. I think being a woman is a terrifying experience of constantly having to be weary and cautious while trying your best to be smiling and looking like you aren't on edge. You try your best to look a specific way to avoid the hazards of the feminine life - but that specific way isn't easy and can cause harm to you (both self-harm and situational harm).

The chapters are more like essays about young women's experiences surrounding a particular topic -- which honestly are depressing. You don't get solutions or hope until the end of the book but these solutions and suggestions give hope to the bleakness of the previous chapters and made me want to bond together with other women to help save future generations from the trauma that we all carry.

This book is incredibly needed in our toxic beauty culture. I want to make it a mandatory read. Girls please read this amazing book!

Toxic perfectionism is a huge problem in my community (Utah) but it isn't just looks. It is also just doing everything.
Influencers make the already existing issue so much worse.
The thing is I love my friends and find them incredibly beautiful without all the surgery, makeup, hair dye, or anything else. The idea that we need to be beautiful and perfect to be worthy needs to be destroyed.
It also makes things harder for trans girls.
And it makes men and boys think they can use our insecurities against us. Or they simply think it is okay to critique us, as if we are not people.

I am older than our author so my issues do not come from from the Kardashians or Jenners or any of those girls. I came into my own before influencers took over the internet. This is likely what makes this easier for me to examine from a distance. I stopped wearing makeup in 2020 and stopped dying my hair in 2015.
Someone said "What if we loved ourselves? It would destroy capitalism" and I was like "I want to destroy capitalism."
So my glow up was freeing myself from all of that. Love me as I am or stay away from me.

The absolute truth about current beauty culture. I devoured this book and made so many notes and highlights. I will be adding this to my physical book shelf!

This exploration of body image in the digital era skillfully blends journalism, personal narrative and feminist theory to create Gen Z’s answer to The Beauty Myth. This nuanced, intersectional exploration of the way beauty norms affect culture is a must-read for every young woman. This book engages with these themes on a much deeper level than the surface-level slogans of “girlboss” feminism. I’m also impressed by the author’s honesty and humility as she discusses her own insecurities and the ways she’s been influenced by social media and the beauty industry. Seeking beauty is not necessarily a bad thing, and there are no easy answers here, but I love the suggestions the author gives for celebrating beautiful things while deprogramming from capitalist aesthetic pressures. I majorly recommend this.

Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women by Ellen Atlanta is a meticulously researched and profoundly personal exploration of the contemporary female experience. A captivating read that is full of insight that is sure to stay with you long after reading.

It’s been over 20 years now since we were teenagers growing up in the 90’s on Susan Faludi and Naomi Wolf, grappling with supermodels and beauty magazine advertising. I can’t imagine being that age or in my twenties during this age of digital exposure. This was a stark, scary, dark, eye opening account of what women are facing in current times.

No longer are we just comparing ourselves to these models in the fashion magazine, now we have a never ending assault of beautiful people on social media coming from all directions…beautiful people spending all their money and time and energy creating that persona, and then putting a filter over it.

Having two daughters in their early twenties, it breaks my heart to read about these young women struggling to create a whole life around looking young and pretty. The author takes a well researched dive into the state of women and how this many years later, we’re still fighting to be equal. Still fighting to not equate our worth to our appearance. This is a book I’ll be purchasing to gift multiple times.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Ellen Atlanta and St Martin’s Press for the advance copy. This is one of the best debuts I’ve read in a long time.

I spent my early 20s reading books (like this) that analyzed culture from a feminist lens. I'm happy I did; it taught me to think critically about the messages society sends women and girls.

Life has changed so much in the past 10-15 years. You know, the usual. Tik Tok. Smartphones. And the rise of the influencer.

Pixel Flesh is a modern take on toxic beauty culture, which has always existed but has a different format now. The content was spot on, and I appreciated how the author showed vulnerability. Beyond the personal accounts, Pixel Flesh was well-researched and intersectional. My favorite chapter was The Power of Pretty.

Thanks for the advance review copy. I'd highly recommend it to women of all ages, especially college-aged women.

Pixel Flesh written by Ellen Atlanta was such a powerful and inspiring debut novel. I think so many young women need to read this book because it truly is important how toxic beauty cultures harm us in everyday life. Pixel Flesh is an important read that exposes modern beauty cultures and the effects it has on so many women. This book completely left me shocked and even uncomfortable at times because of how real and raw it was. This book takes you on a journey of research, different voices of other women telling their stories, and even Ellen Atlanta's own experiences and working in the beauty industry. As I was reading this inspiring book, it felt like Ellen was right there holding my hand through the realities of womanhood. Pixel Flesh deeply resonated with me on a deeper level for many many reasons and I do believe that every woman should read this book at some point as many or all of us have felt uncomfortable in our own skin at some point in our lives because of the beauty standard. I can't recommend this book enough, as hard as it was to read for many reasons, please do yourself and grab yourself a copy of Pixel Flesh immediately.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND ST. MARTIN'S PRESS FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!

"The more beautiful you are, the more beautiful you must become, the more the standard intensifies".

As someone who was born into the generation where Instagram is very popular, Snapchat is used daily, lip fillers are a must because many influencers have set the bar high for beautiful lips, photo editing apps hide your freckles/wrinkles, Pixel Flesh truly opened my eyes and how I was harming myself because I felt I wasn't as beautiful as other women, I always compared myself to models, high school friends, and other gorgeous women I saw on social media, because I wanted to look exactly like them. I always stand by women uplifting other women. As a woman in today's world, I feel like it's super important to hype each other up because you have no idea what someone else is going through, just a simple compliment can make someone smile for the rest of their day. Ladies, please don't ever compare yourselves to other women, because you are absolutely gorgeous in your own ways, I know it's easier said than done, and I have done it myself, but it's not healthy for your mental health. To the ladies I interact with daily on Goodreads, you are all absolutely beautiful in your own unique ways, don't ever let anyone tell you anything different, I love you all, truly, from the bottom of my heart.

I can't say this enough, you don't need that expensive eye shadow palette to look beautiful, you don't need to use snapchat filters to hide your beauty, you don't need to use Botox to make your cheeks look on point because you are only harming yourself with today's toxic beauty standards. Pixel Flesh made me laugh, cry, angry, and smile because so many of the stories were relatable in one way or another. You absolutely do not need make up to look/feel beautiful because we are all beautiful, no matter what. It breaks my heart to see so many women comparing themselves to others because they don't feel happy in their own skin, but I have been in your shoes before if you are someone who feels this way. Go get yourself a tub of ice cream and put on some music and feel beautiful. I can't stand when women degrade other women because their cheekbones aren't perfect, or they don't have a strong jawline, no one is ever the same, we are all different in our very own ways. Ladies, please support one another and lift each other up daily. Writing this review is making me so emotional and I don't need to shed more tears after reading this eye opening book.

This non-fiction book is well written and well researched, but unfortunately, I can't say "Pixel Flesh" is a standout. I thought I would enjoy this more because the overall subject matter is very interesting and compelling. Sometimes I felt the author tried to make the topic of cosmetic surgery too personal. I felt like the author came across as self-involved. I wanted to hear from other women's struggles with unrealistic beauty standards instead of the author's personal hang-ups. The author just irritated me. It's like stick to the facts, lady! It's a mixed bag for me.

While I think much of this is well thought out and well researched, it does seem that the author still needs to examine her own concept of beauty and womanhood. From the very first few pages, she tells us that her "shapely" friend is the "most womanly" of her friends. An author cannot condemn the industry she works in her telling women how to look when she is herself telling women how to look.

A book I feel every girl/woman should read. I had so many takeaways and notes from this book I ran out of room to write. This book was well written with a ton of lessons in self love and self respect!

In this book, modern beauty standards for women are explored and criticized, especially with the impact of social media. The book is absolutely heartbreaking, and perhaps that is why it is worth reading. With the range of topics covered, I would hope women 20 or 50 years from now pick this up to read about the realities of today. I realized how fortunate I am to not have had so many of the negative experiences discussed, though I related to some topics, which may help show that nobody is exempt from these ideals so ingrained in our current culture.

That said, I did not agree with all statements, perspectives, and even some of the content mentioned. Some parts were more opinionated or one-sided than research-based, and I thought that affected the overall argument. Still, this is an important conversation and the anecdotes are relevant. Other readers may connect to and appreciate the anecdotes more.

Finally, the inclusion of a glossary is an excellent, thoughtful addition. The definitions make the book more accessible.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Like everyone has said this book was extremely well written and was so powerful in how I will think about social media and beauty standards. I will be recommending this book to people.

First of all, this book was so incredibly well-written and the research and interviews really added so much perspective to the authors words. This was the perfect kind of nonfiction that both makes me look inward and question the norms and systems of society. So many of these issues discussed were things I was partaking in without ever really thinking about it. This book will genuinely change the way I interact with social media and my own self-image.

This book is thorough and alarming and probably something every young woman (strike that - every young person) should read. I learned so much and it stretched me to consider a struggle that has probably played out right beneath my nose. It is shocking and sad what the digital culture is doing to women. The stories shared will break your heart. There is SO much to talk about here - I expect this book will be the beginning of a lot of important conversations. I know I've already brought it up with most everyone I care about -- especially my 25 year old daughter. I hope this important book finds its audience.

WOW, this needs to be required reading for 2024, especially for anyone 35 and under who identifies as female. Ellen Atlanta hit it out of the park with this; from the beautiful interviews, to the heartbreaking truths, to the evidence backed claims. Pixel Flesh is unique in that it brings transparency to our inner monologues as they are now, rather than just providing affirmations in hopes it'll lessen our emotional burden going forward. There's a raw feeling that envelops you while simultaneously learning.

I'm a sucker for books that can completely alter the way I think about aspects of life - Ellen does that more than a few times. I'll admit there are many books similar to this; I've read a lot of them... This is the new front runner. Mark my words, this will become the Women's Nonfiction book of 2024's summer.


(Thank you to NetGalley & publisher St. Martin's Press for ALC!)

This is an important book that sheds light on the beauty standards for women and how that effects women of all ages. We all know that social media and media in general has toxic beauty standards but this book continues the legacy of helping educated women about those standards and how to fight against them

Eye opening astonishing and really informative.A book that has me thinking even more about what I purchase.So well written so interesting.#netgalley #st.martins

Wow... This is all I can say regarding this book. What a read, it really made me think outside the box of what I'm consuming in regards to beauty standards, whether that's reading, watching, etc.

This book was incredibly powerful but be warned it really makes you take a look at what is going on in this world right now.