Dimopoulos '93 is Author of Young Adult Novel

Elaine Dimopoulos '93 is the author of Material Girls, a young adult novel that questions the corporate control behind consumer culture and "the cult-like mentality of fame and fashion."

Dimopoulos speaks about her new work on Saturday, November 7, at Wondermore's "What's New in Children's Books" annual conference, held at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Open to the public, the conference features inspiring voices in the world of children’s books.

Material Girls takes place in the world of Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde, where 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.

Of the novel, Dimopoulos says, "A society where corporations hire children to set trends isn’t that far from the realities of contemporary Western culture. My goal in Material Girls is to hold up a mirror to our teen and tween-obsessed society and to the scrutinized lives of young celebrities. ... Almost all of the trends are pulled directly from real trends featured in fashion magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. I also attended the Grammys in 2013 to soak up the LA pop music scene."

In the book, Dimopoulos also confronts the issue of clothing waste, which she says is a major problem that doesn't get much attention: "According to the EPA, Americans discard 11 million tons of clothes, shoes, and textiles per year. That’s 70 pounds per person. Only fifteen percent of clothes are recycled; the rest are burned or end up in landfills. We shouldn’t feel guilty about buying new clothes when we need them, but since writing Material Girls, I think harder about where my clothing comes from and where it’s eventually going. I hope readers will too."

Reviewers have praised Dimopoulos's clever take on very real cultural issues. According to Kirkus Reviews, “Through its likable characters, sly humor, and smart, fast-moving plot, this entertaining debut raises serious questions about the costs of disposable fashion and pursuit of celebrity, asking readers to ponder who’s driving the bus.”

Dimopoulos studied writing at Simmons College’s Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. Before dedicating herself to writing for young people, she 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, and she blogs about children’s books for the parenting site Mommybites.com.