BRALESS IN WONDERLAND

Brainy Allee Rosen has been accepted at Yale, but can’t afford to go. Her younger sister (whom she has privately nicknamed “The Fluff”) is her polar opposite, as concerned with beauty as Allee is with her grades. Stuck with her at a modeling tryout one weekend, it is Allee who catches the eyes of the scouts, much to her sister’s chagrin. Initially she resists the idea of modeling, but the prospect of making enough money to fund her college education quickly lures her in. This fictional account of one young woman’s experience in Miami’s glitzy South Beach fashion scene offers a detailed and intelligent look at the modeling industry. Allee is a thoughtful, if naïve, character, and her interactions with a group of other models provide the basis for exploration of such topics as sex-positive feminism, drug addiction and ethnic stereotyping. Fischer has balanced these weighty issues with sharp wit, making this not just a smart read but one that is often very funny as well. (Fiction. YA)