Influential author Amara Sage answers students’ questions

What would it be like to grow up online? Author Amara Sage answers readers' questions about her novel, Influential (Faber), which explores the life of an influencer and her own fascination with social media.

Students Asfi, Deppanita and Yusra, from Sarah Bonnell School, put their questions about Influential to Amara Sage, including how Influential reflects her own life, her views social media and influencers, and what she would like readers to take from her character Almond's story.

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Synopsis of Influential: 

Almond Brown has no friends in real life . . . but 3.5 million followers online. A heart-felt, whip-smart deep dive into what it would really be like to be internet famous at 17: a cautionary tale for our time from a writer who has grown up with social media.

Almond is forced into the spotlight when she was just a perfectly filtered bump: her mum has been documenting their family through social media since before she was born. And her family enjoy all the rewards that come from that level of influence. Only, it's not the life Almond would have chosen for herself, and being on a platform all the time has made her anxious and insecure. When the darkest side of the internet begins to haunt her, Almond feels like she's going to lose everything... If only she could see that she has a real-life, too, full of friends and family who love her, and that it could save her.