UNRETOUCHABLE

A young artist spends her summer after high school learning about the extent to which commercial photos are digitally altered.

Olive is headed for art school in the fall, and though she experiences some self-doubt, she understands that she’s lucky to be able to live rent-free at home in New York City with her mom so near her college. She doesn’t hesitate long before accepting an internship her magazine executive mom finds for her working with a photo tech retouching images for a fashion publication. Olive’s uneasiness with altering photos and even completely inventing digital models grows as her feelings about herself go into a tailspin, not helped by her complicated relationship with social media. This tale pairs bold, blocky, black-and-white art with text sharing Olive’s deeply introspective musings. With support from her pragmatic mom and her best friend Toni, who is trans, plus a host of new co-workers, Olive learns about body positivity, explores the ubiquity of social media, and comes to understand how augmented reality affects our perceptions of the world. The decidedly message-driven narrative is tempered by Olive’s earnest, gently comic foibles. Main characters read as White; although there is some racial diversity in secondary characters, the book mainly leaves unexamined racism within the fashion industry and how it intersects with many of these issues.

An appealing look at important issues through the lens of a privileged protagonist.