After surviving a mental health rollercoaster, after truths come to light, Let Down Your Hair comes to a jubilant, life-affirming climax that will have readers weeping with joy. She is the presenter of the Mad World podcast and in 2016 she founded Mental Health Mates, now a global peer support network which encourages people with mental health issues to connect and get out of the house. They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. This story skillfully and sensitively manages the emotional debate over the pro's and con's of babies and abortions, not always predictable, and very relatable. One who isn't confined to her bedroom on the 12th floor of the tower-block flat she shares with her aunt making content.

A bittersweet Northern Irish romance that takes a new look at teen pregnancy, the magic and mess of first relationships, and a young woman's right to choose her own future. A first introduction into the YA fiction realm and Bryony is throwing off the deep end, not starting with something more straightforward, but trying to tackle social media and alopecia through a beloved fairy tale.Introducing the YA fiction debut from bestselling author and journalist Bryony Gordon in a modern twist on Rapunzel and one girl's quest to find a different sort of happy ever after.

Bryony Gordon is a British journalist, award-winning mental health campaigner and the bestselling author of various books on mental health, including Mad Girl and Glorious Rock Bottom.This is the first novel not aimed at children with alopecia representation, so I was interested to read it. In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending. Holly Bourne is a great advocate of young teens reading about difficult issues as a 'safe space' to consider and discuss those issues, this book does a great job in that sphere.

Mel and Sid are determined to do this together, but they soon discover that pregnancy is totally different for boys and girls. Any sixteen-year-olds would expect trouble, but this is Northern Ireland 2018, where abortion is still illegal. Introducing the YA fiction debut from bestselling author and journalist Bryony Gordon in a modern twist on Rapunzel and one girl’s quest to find a different sort of happy ever after. The way the book flips the chronology of the story, made it so engaging and kept me glued to the page. Friendless and lonely, living on the upper floors of a tower block with her aunt, thanks to her hair - the fetishized focus of her social media channel - Barb has hundreds of thousands of online “friends”.

Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. I understand that it’s meant to be part of a wider narrative about stress and mental health in young people. A note from Bryony Gordon: ‘Let Down Your Hair is my very first novel and is based on my own experiences – of desperately attempting to develop self-esteem, of getting lost in the madness of social media and of losing my hair. As happy as I am to see alopecia in a novel, I don’t think it’s just an extra complication to this novel.

The YA fiction debut from bestselling author Bryony Gordon, Let Down Your Hair is a modern twist on Rapunzel featuring a hair influencer who develops alopecia – and her quest for a different sort of happy ever after. Through Zal Barb learns to make her channel accessible, and discovers “there was a whole other world out there…a world that was richer and greater and far more sympathetic than the one she had witnessed during her short time with Spark Enterprises. When their relationship starts to fall apart under all the pressure, Mel finds herself feeling alone with the impossible dilemma of the Little Bang growing inside her.

Barb’s own experience with alopecia is at first a curse and then a wonderful liberation, the catalyst to realising that she has spent much of her young life comparing her insides with everybody’s outsides. In the words of Jess, her former best friend, “you’re nothing without your hair”, and Barb believes it. Barb’s complex personal struggles — guilt that she’s ruined her loved ones’ lives, loneliness, lack of self-esteem, depression — are evoked with impactful, empathetic intensity. And I very much enjoyed attempting to solve the case with Pip (who I now want to be my best friend). I’m not saying I handled it well but I can’t imagine how I’d have coped with the news as a teenage girl.