Model

May 19, 2008
Imagine Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl
writing a memoir—it would approximate Diamond's voice. Diamond, a blonde who began a modeling career in New York City at age 14, comes off as catty and haughty as she tells what she bills as a harrowing story of her modeling rise, fall and subsequent comeback—“like a phoenix from the ashes.” Given the popularity of shows like America's Next Top Model
, her memoir is likely to have a built-in audience, but her writing can be crass (for example, she repeatedly mocks people's foreign accents) and her endless sarcasm grows annoying. The author presumes that such things as putting her tongue in a drink and then feeling “smug with the knowledge” that the woman who drains it has her “cooties” is funny. Readers primed to expect tragedy may find the “career-altering event” that “nearly ruins” Diamond almost laughable: unscrupulous stylists dye her long hair and give her a terrible cut, too. Ages 14–up.

July 1, 2008
Twenty-year-old author Diamond describes the trials and triumphs of breaking into the New York modeling market, which she entered at 14. The North Carolina native quickly gains a shaky foothold in the cynical business by treating her lecherous boss and nasty booking agents with kindness and always standing up for herself. The teens positive outlook never flags: after one harrowing experience that includes a night spent in a personal storage unit, she perkily proclaims, On the bright side, I was alive . . . and I was still cute. By the memoirs end, not even losing her signature blond locks in a hair-show fiasco can keep Diamond down. After a short stay with her parents, she returns to New York, even more determined to realize her dream. Even though Diamonds prose can be self-conscious and her constant cheer occasionally strains credibility, the insider details she reveals about photo shoots, runway shows, and agencies sometimes shady business practices are fascinating and will quickly hook teen fans of modeling reality shows. A perfect summer beach read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)