GIRLS®: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything

by Freya India

A bold and timely investigation into how it feels to grow up in a world where every anxiety of girlhood has been commodified

Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything is a passionate, provocative, and deeply personal journey into the pressures shaping young lives today. Freya India shows that age-old anxieties of girlhood are now being amplified by modern life and exploited like never before. While previous generations of women were relentlessly sold products and procedures, we have become the product. We display our lives on Instagram, advertise ourselves on dating apps, and package ourselves into personal brands, making anxiety feel overwhelming and unmanageable. We have transformed from girls into GIRLS, from people into products.

Each chapter of GIRLS focuses on a common anxiety in adolescent girls’ lives, from insecurities about our faces and bodies, to our reputation and social status, to our friendships and romantic relationships. Along the way, India traces how rapidly culture and technology have evolved over the past decade.

This isn’t just a book for girls. For young women, it offers a nostalgic, if unsettling, reflection on the world they’ve grown up in and reassurance that they’re not alone in their struggles. For younger girls, it provides context for where these challenges began and warns where they might be headed. And, for parents, teachers, and older generations, it serves as a reminder that these issues have never been so intense.

GIRLS concludes with a message of hope, reminding readers how to reclaim their privacy, defend their dignity, and, above all, return to being people instead of products.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Audiobook, Cultural, Self Help, Adult, Politics

384 pages, Hardcover

Published May 5, 2026

Reviews

[Madeleine Sachdev · Rating 1 out of 5]

What starts off as disappointing through its lack of nuance and depth, many contradictory points and statistics that feel cherry picked in order to back up points the author is desperate to make, quickly descends into Conservative pearl clutching before ultimately concluding as a manifesto for getting girls back to ‘family values’ and baby making that could be written by Serena Joy of The Handmaid’s Tale herself. The premise of the book is interesting and important, the reason I picked it up in the first place, yet it somehow manages to miss the mark entirely. Side note: I have never read the term ‘age old’ so many times in my life (does no one edit any more?)!

[Emma Bayles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Libro.fm for the ALC! I devoured this in a day.
I’ve read a a lot of Freya’s articles so I was so pumped to see she has a book coming.
In a world where the problems and online challenges of young girls are often trivialized, Freya outlines them in a compelling way to show that while many of the emotional challenges we face are age-old, the context in which we faced them are entirely new and exacerbating.

[louz · Rating 1 out of 5]

if i could give zero stars i would.

as someone who loves books about feminism and pop culture, at first glance this one seemed perfect. it starts by mentioning many interesting aspects, so it's even more disappointing that when you read more than the first paragraph of each chapter, it turns into what feels like insane rage-bait mixed with the archetype of "pick-me" energy. plus it's a textbook example for confirmation bias.

this book puts big complex social issues in neat little sections with quirky subheadings, cherry-picks a few random examples and a statistic to underline the point the author decided to make and completely ignores any complexity or layers that topic has to offer. she also fails to connect any of the points to the bigger issues like patriarchy and capitalism (unless she criticises influencers, who seem to be the root of all evil. no matter whether they do bland advertisements or educational, well-researched content –it's all the same to her). in her world, all of the issues she mentions only affect "girls" and now, at 26, she speaks to these young girls in the most condescending tone imaginable.

intersectionality doesn't exist in this book so i cannot say i am surprised this was written by a white, presumably straight, cis, american woman. non-white, queer or disabled perspectives on any of the topics she mentions don't exist. instead, her takeaway seems to be: "therapy and critical thinking is bad - let's all become puritan girlfriends (or even better: wives) to those poor lonely misunderstood men and live a big happy life with our big happy family and a million children where we don't care if half of of our relatives and neighbours vote for right-wing parties or are abusive, misogynistic or general assholes."

honestly i guess this is what i get for buying a book written by a fucking substack influencer (yes, she also is one of those evil influencers she hates so much) who has zero qualifications other than wrong but loud opinions and the ability to look up a fitting statistic or research – not to get a better understanding of a topic, but solely to underline whatever stupid point she feels like making.

if you really wanted to give the author grace, you could say this was written by a deeply insecure woman. but with the amount of anti-"woke", anti-queer and ableist talking points in this, i don't feel like she deserves any.

(she also called christina hoff summers a "feminist" and criticised the students who - understandably!!! - didn't want her to visit their university. i guess freya india can join right in, i doubt any actual feminist would want her on their university campus either.)

[Morgan Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freya is an undoubtedly a generational talent and a powerful voice for Gen Z! I have never had a book physically make me pull faces of shock / horror reading through statistics like this. Freya has clearly dedicated herself to lifting the veil on the dark reality of growing up the modern world, GIRLS should be a bible for young girls and parents to understand what they are being exposed to and how to push back. Freya practices what she preaches, living a life without personal social media accounts which I have a huge respect for. A young writer with an exciting future! This labor of love needs a place on your bookshelf.

[Athena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to LibroFM's educator program for the ARC!

Can't recommend - absolutely not nuanced in any way.

This was incredibly challenging to listen to, particularly as discussion often related to the personal challenges of the author and did not explore the topic from a wider lens. Some of the discussions around mental health and the supposed over-diagnosing was dangerous, especially with the fact that female-identifying individuals are often not diagnosed with ADHD and ASD as regularly and as accurately as their male counterparts. I encourage those who are reading this to take what is said with a grain of salt, and to consider other research and books available. Often, research has a bigger story to tell than the one-sentence summary provided.

[Lindsey (endless_tbr_list)]

I am so disappointed that this took a turn towards transphobia and anti-“woke-ness” after a somewhat promising start. This could have been both an incredibly important and interesting discussion, if done correctly. Ultimately, if you’re looking for nuance and consideration of any non-white, non-cishet views, don’t look here.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Co. and Goodreads for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Vanessa Valenzuela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Net Gallery & Freya India for allowing me an ARC!
It is a surreal thing to read a book that documents internet discourse that I have vivid memories of. ED/SH tumblr pages, the glorification of mental illness, the rise of the word “stigma” and peoples subsequent abuse of it. Bye Sister, the Facetune Epidemic, brands pretending to care about “self care” to push product, and the use of therapy speak to pretend we know how to process our feelings when really we’re explaining them away.
All of this leading young women to commodify themselves like cows to slaughter.

It’s a good read. Nostalgic and painful. We should stop being products. We should invest in communities and get off this damn phone.

[Anna]

DNF at 72%

This started out strong and with significant promise, but quickly lost me. The author presents contradictory information and seems to have cherry-picked data that supports her positions.

My hope for an examination of the elements of culture that create challenges for girls and young women did not pan out. Instead, it took an unexpected turn and I could not continue reading.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

started out ok, made me question its integrity with a nuance-free “actually we’re TOO aware of mental health issues” narrative, then got deeply transphobic. dnf

[Ferenc Holyba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to put down.
India accurately describes the commodification and gaslighting of young women in the last few years. Her message of trusting one’s instincts instead of outsourcing thinking and feeling to “experts” is very important to spread to the up and coming generations of girls.

[Mai H.]

Non-fiction November TBR

Women's History Month TBR

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co.

[DARREN AGER · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Gen X father , some of the statistics in the book were frightening. I also learned what I could have done better in bringing up my children .
However, Freya’s book gives hope and I would encourage parents and Gen Z to read this to get a full understanding on what effect social media has had on a generation & focusing on what really matters will lead to a more fulfilling life

[Jocelyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

so bad i went on a 2000 word rant

Full review: https://writethroughthenight.com/2026...

**i received an alc of this audiobook from netgalley**

[Dhruv · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate as a man I’m not really the target audience here. Nevertheless, there are some good insights in this book about the pressures that Gen Z women go through, written by someone who has first hand knowledge of going through the same things herself. What drags this book down, however, is that there is a lot of repetition - not just with ideas, but the cadence of writing - that makes this book longer that it needs to be and more difficult to read than it ought to be.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

A woman in her twenties with no life experience telling women to get back in the kitchen.

[Hannah Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scary honest (and desperately needed) look at how Gen Z girls are being impacted, influenced, and commodified from every angle — media, medications, AI, filters, and pretty much everything in between. Very eye-opening.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every experience of girlhood is intruded upon by the market. Now the solution to every age-old anxiety is a purchase. Girls are being taught that they can buy their way out of bad feelings, buy their way into belonging, and buy their way to empowerment.

This captures the angst of the female Gen Z experience so well, going beyond the usual Instagram beauty standards, cyberbullying, and bad TV. I’ve never really seen anyone speak so clearly about the constant micro-exhaustions of adolescence online: having your every tiny move surveilled by your peers, overanalyzed by your teenage insecurity, and swallowed up by algorithms. There’s a peculiar, particular feeling that comes out of growing up this way (and still kinda living this way for those of us in our 20s) that makes strangers feel both extremely unreal and inaccessible and also too present, too able to pry inside your life.

And yes, I really do think TikTok made everything so much worse. My most Boomer opinion.

Every interest, every diversion online is overtaken somehow by people trying to advertise something (whether explicitly with sponsorships or implicitly with “don’t you want to be like me/be a part of this?”), and people diluting their experiences into that of a trendy, consumable stock character. You act like this if you have this haircut; you think like this if you enjoy this show; you aren’t a true member of X group or Y belief if you don’t read this book/have this piercing/collect this toy. Cottagecore girls do this. Dark academia girls do that. This is everywhere and it isn’t cute.

We aren’t happy with how we look, because billions are made making sure we never will be.

And thank god, honestly, that she also took aim at the mental health discussions on places like TikTok. Mental health is the newest version of fashion, and it’s so naive to think people don’t want to be included in the trend. When I was young, girls used to try to break their own ankles because they wanted crutches; we’d play with each other’s medical stuff because we thought it was quirky and unique. I legitimately recall girls wanting asthma for the cute accessory of an inhaler. Nowadays, being a part of a community that loves and legitimizes everything you do, turning all your symptoms (real or imagined) into cute and #relatable quirks, is easier than ever—just say you’re an autism girlie and you’re in.

Why, on Tumblr, do so many people’s bios have their physical and mental illnesses? It’s a social indicator; it makes your opinions more valid, your voice more respected, with the kinds of peers they want. I also appreciate that alongside things like Tourettes, India also discussed the skyrocketing rates of gender dysphoria. To address everything but that would be dishonest, even if that isn’t very #feminist of her.

ADHD is the current trend, and advertisers have noticed. I get ADHD/AuDHD banner ads on Goodreads on the daily; I feel like every memoir I read now has a section about the author’s ADHD. Therapy apps promise everything you’ve ever done wrong isn’t your fault (it’s probably your narcissist mom’s fault!) and medication will save you.

… The founder and clinical president of Done were arrested and accused of running a $100 million scheme to distribute Adderall without proper evaluations. […] It was claimed Cerebral had an internal goal of prescribing medication to 95 percent of patients after their first thirty-minute appointment. At one point, the company was allegedly pushing to raise its stimulant prescription rate for ADHD patients to 100 percent.

So, all that to say…this was definitely cathartic. However. On a few topics, I felt like I was being given countless stats to back up a fact that concerned India, but not anything about why the fact mattered to the health and safety of girls. Take how she referred to declining birth rates as a sign of Gen Z refusing to grow up, when even a cursory look into that topic will tell you that there are countless reasons (including a drop in teen pregnancy, which is, you know, an extremely good thing). The entire section on sexuality took it as a given that everyone would agree with her that porn, OnlyFans, sexualizing oneself online, etc, is awful and destructive (which, like, I do agree!), but the concept of this book counts on Gen Z not believing that’s the case—so are we trying to convince them or no? Her constant referrals to Gen Z’s declining participation in organized religion were kind of annoying; as a subsection of the discussion on lack of community ties, sure, that fits right in, but it kept being brought up to blame things like lack of moral guidance and overreliance on social justice scolding. Do we think there’s perhaps other reasons Gen Z aren’t religious, or…?

Plus the part about how Gen Z are very liberal. I was compelled by the discussion on the locus of control—“conservatives, on average, tend to have a more internal locus of control, while liberals lean more external, and the more external your locus of control, the more likely you are to feel anxious, hopeless, and depressed”—as this tracks with my own understanding of my life and that of my friends’. The more you frame every single bad thing that happened to you as part of some grand structural issue, the less able you feel to fix it. Not to say that people are always wrong, but it does create a sort of kneejerk reaction to escalate small issues into symptoms of enormous, unfixable problems. But this was brought up alongside how girls are being intimidated and tricked into hating themselves, deepfake abusive porn, and how we’re turning our personalities into purchasable fashion trends. It did feel like the answer she was proposing was “you know, stop being liberal, you got tricked into being liberal!”

So this did what a good nonfic does—presented some stuff I’ll take with me into the future, and some stuff I’ll consider and then dump aside. I still commend her for tackling such a huge and sprawling topic in a way I haven’t seen in this form before.

[Madison ✨ (mad.lyreading) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ended up DNFing this book at 39% because I already had misgivings, but then it started talking about the "increase in hormone therapy" and other transphobic or transphobic-adjacent arguments, and I refused to keep listening.

My initial reaction to this was, "Wow, this is white feminism 101, and I could have written this book in my feminist awakening in like 2011." I began to give it some grace, remembering that I grew up with an extremely different digital world, and Gen Z girls likely need books like this written by other gen Z people (and not some old, out-of-touch millennial who grew up having to REMEMBER PHONE NUMBERS). Despite that, the points the author were making were extremely obvious and well known (filters have done damage to young women's self esteem) and extremely generalized. In the 39% I listened to, race was not mentioned once. This is of note because I have read that women of color have had different responses to instagram than white women, which would be an important and interesting thing to discuss! Particularly because the author continuously was referring to the Kardashians, who have made their image by whitewashing aspects of Black (and I"m sure other ethinicities) styles and body types. Further, when discussing the issue with internet mental health diagnoses and the rise in internet therapy and companies trying to make a buck by over prescribing mental health meds (all actual issues that should be discussed), the author went into some anti-med discussion. While we can have a discussion about the over reliance on medication, or the lack of long term studies on the effects of these medications (I don't even know if there is a lack of these studies, honestly), brushing all mental health medication into this bucket just made me roll my eyes and want to turn it off.

Then she started conflating teenagers faking tourrettes with the rise in girls (she specified girls -- she did not mention trans women in any capacity) beginning to reconsider their genders and using hormone treatment. I am not going to lie, anytime I read a book about feminism by a white British woman, I am aware that I may be accidentally tiptoe-ing into anti-trans territory. And THAT IS THIS BOOK. The more I think about it, the angrier I get that this was even put in this book.

Oh, another complaint I had. The first chapter of this book had a giant section that was the typical "these are my opinions, this is a nuanced conversation, I may not be hitting everything" blahblahblah that I hear in the beginning of so many reels and tiktoks these days. Internet hate has truly made us so annoying.

I would normally give feedback on my thoughts on the narrator, but because the narrator is the author, and she's at least dabbling in transphobia, I will not be doing that. Anyway AVOID THIS BOOK AND READ A BOOK BY A TRANS AUTHOR INSTEAD.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review telling people not to touch this with a ten foot pole.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with access to this audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.
First I’ll note that I had some concerns with the production of the audiobook that I shared with the publisher directly. I think Freya did a nice job, her voice is calm and her accent is lovely. It’s likely that the issues I experienced will be addressed prior to publishing.
The book itself, is a hard one for me to review. I did not know Freya India prior to this book but looked her up while reading and hearing so many negative reviews - which I didn’t understand or agree with. I think much of the negative reviews are from folks who do not agree with Freya India’s politics (neither do I, to be honest) instead of a critique of her book.
Things I enjoyed about the book: Asks big questions including encouraging us to consider what media / information we’re consuming. Highlights the influence social media has on young women. Speaks to big effects: confidence, suicidal ideation, body dysmorphia / body image issues, sexualization, etc.
Things that leave me with more questions: I can’t speak to how accurate her statistics are. She is very young, though in my attempt not to be dismissive due to her young age, I’ll just say that I wish there were ways to check her references. Perhaps the physical copy of the book is well referenced. Within the audiobook, some statistics seem to contradict each other. I also wonder how helpful a book can be when it just highlights all the problems without outlining solutions / options. I also think it leans very “traditional values” especially towards the end. It makes a weird turn. And I cannot agree with what seems to be her stance on mental health care (I’m pro mental health care - we to to PCP, we should all go to therapists/counselors as well, IMO) and think she missed some important aspects and intersections of sex work, body autonomy, misogeny, etc. These are nuanced things that I think she just wrote off as one combined kind of thing. And I’m not sure of inclusive this book is experiences by those with differing identities than the author; feels a bit singular.
I think there is value in reading and understanding what a twenty-something influencer thinks about what is affecting women - because young women are already listening to Freya India. So whether I agree or disagree with her, she is voicing things that young people are listening to. It’s just important to check sources, hold steady to personal values, and take everything with a grain of salt. It’s critical thinking 101 - take in a lot of information then review it, comparing to other information and personal experiences.
There is a lot of vitriol aimed at this book online, which are readers’ right. I think it raises a lot of good questions that society, and I as a mother, should be thinking about.

[Samantha H · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oof. This book started out so promising and quickly devolved into contradictions, carefully selected data points or anecdotal examples that lacked nuance or context, and critiques that sound great on the surface but don't really hold up to even mild scrutiny. I actually really enjoyed Jonathan Haidt's the Anxious Generation (which is referenced many times in this book), focused on the negative impacts that social media and digital evolution have had on our mental health, particularly for young people, but his praise of GIRLS has me questioning his expertise. I think we can all probably agree that there are loads of issues with social media today, likely making anxiety and depression worse for many people; however, this author also basically states that use of mental health resources and psychotropic medications have become wildly overused and are essentially harmful. This is all presented under the guise of criticisms of for-profit online mental health providers, which would be valid, if it didn't then generalize across all mental health services more broadly. As a licensed mental health professional, I can assert that -- YES, even mental health medications can have harmful side effects, similar to many other life-saving medications--but this is not evidence that they are not effective at treating severe mental health disorders when used appropriately. At one point the author laments that the TV show Euphoria is being marketed as appropriate for girls as young as 12, while sharing explicit scenes from the show - - not bothering to mention that this TV show has a rating of TV-MA (that's for mature audiences only). Other things I took away from this book: too many kids are learning about sex from pornography, while not mentioning the rampant removal of age-appropriate sex-education from schools. Things like witchcraft, astrology, crystals, spirituality, or atheism more generally are all portrayed as having a negative impact on our cultural, vs. the more preferred option of traditional religious institutions and beliefs [like we've never seen that be used for malicious purposes!]. If you don't want so many people resorting to Only Fans, maybe advocate for a guaranteed living wage. You don't like algorithms manipulating people, maybe advocate for tougher restrictions on data mining and social media companies. By the end of this book, I felt quite ragey and could not wait for it to be over. I could go on and on, but ultimately, I was definitely not the target audience for this book, hindered by critical thinking skills and higher research standards, and I would not recommend.

ARC of this audiobook received courtesy of Macmillan Audio and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[cypher · Rating 2 out of 5]

not easy to rate. i appreciate all of the details and examples (some of which are absolutely concerning) and the topic is important, but some of the remarks did not necessarily land with me.
in many of these cases external factors are blamed, when it is simply a matter of choice and values. as an example, really caring about posting another selfie and how many likes it gets is a choice. true, a choice that many pick (the question is why, though). people who, despite everything said in this book, pick to not follow superficial values exist, and others can be more like them. instead of being told that they are victims, people need to be told more to take responsibility, pick better, detach from what is toxic and heal what is broken. culture has shifted from one generation to another, but that doesn’t mean we can’t challenge it, as individuals, when we find ourselves wanting to engage in it, or already engaged.
if someone somewhere is doing it, no matter who that is, you don’t necessarily have to do it too.
a bit of a violin playing with some of the things in the book.

and i also can't say that i agree that a woman who does not want to have kids must be like that out of "resignation"...even a book which wants to be feminist is telling women that if they don't want kids they must have something wrong inside, otherwise they would want them...yeikes! gender roles much?
resignation = "the submissive acceptance of an unpleasant situation that cannot be changed"
i don't think the fact of a woman not wanting a child should be considered something unpleasant, a thing that she needs to secretly dream about changing and be upset that she can't, just saying. women were made to make kids, yey?!
and wanting to be a girl-boss was also a bit too toxic, the book says, all that caring about performance is just bad, the book implies...maybe you just feel like that if you don't like being performant because it's not as easy as just being more of whatever.
i am resigned with the fact that this book is not that great.


(strange that this appears as not yet published, the book is currently in shops and the audiobook on audible…is this a way to block early reviews and control them, say that the book is not yet published and not accepting reviews, when it actually is both in shops and on audible?…hm, i hope not. i guess the publisher gave us all, at least in the UK, an advanced copy, since it’s actually available)

[Auguste Meyrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read and will probably become huge, all for good reason since it discusses the many problems plaguing young women today. Sure, most of us knew that the internet wasn't great for young people, but India shows just how toxic it has been. The great majority of Gen Z women really have had their souls stripped away, with many now feeling miserable, insecure, and woefully unprepared to act as independent adults.

India places the blame squarely with social media platforms which were fine-tuned to addict girls by offering instant validation, superficial connection, and infinite remedies for their infinite imperfections. Unsuspecting female users fell ever deeper into morass of contradictory messages, constant ads, and corrosive content. To make matters worse, they were never allowed to escape it because everyone was on these platforms, influencers were celebrated and highly compensated, and no one thought to question it. All of it fell under the guise of progress and empowerment, and criticism instantly earned a person the status of "dangerous bigot"

For anyone over the age of 30 (like myself), there is much to learn in this book. Even I didn't know just how widespread some of these problems were, and I've been teaching this age group for several years. It now make sense why so many otherwise well-adjusted girls mysteriously suffer with anxiety and depression, why so many fall into radical ideology, and why so many fail to realize their natural potential.

Some readers will reflexively reject India's argument because of her right-of-center politics, but any reasonable person will see that she remains relatively neutral in her analysis. The feminist veneer used to sell all these digital products was always BS, and the sooner people see this, the sooner they can move on from it.

If any criticism could be made, it's that India really doesn't go far enough. It seems fairly obvious that social media offers little benefit for young people and that they should steer clear of a smartphone indefinitely. Simply "knowing better" isn't going to fix these problem. Actual steps need to be taken. Plus, we should hold accountable the people who pushed these products. They ruined this last generation of girls (often knowingly) and they have been allowed to make billions doing it.

In any case, this was an impressive work from someone so young. India really is the voice of her generation, and we should all listen to her.

[Bethany Mock (bethanyburiedinbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you @henryholtbooks @macmillan.audio #partner for the gifted copies of this book!

Woof…there is a LOT to unpack here and I’m really hoping I can do this one justice.

I picked this up because I have so many friends navigating life with daughters, and even though I have boys myself, I’m always trying to better understand what young girls are facing today. I want to be the friend that can show up, listen and support where I can.

Before I started, I noticed this book has some pretty low ratings…and after reading it, I think that might come down to people feeling uncomfortable or challenged by the author’s perspective.

Freya India is Gen Z. She writes very personally about her own experiences with feeling empty, disconnected, and honestly…a bit lost. And what she explores is how much of that ties into growing up in a world completely saturated by social media. You can tell she did her own research and it shows.

And listen...I’m not here to point fingers or blame anyone. But I do think this book raises some really important points.

It digs into how algorithms work and how content is fed to you. It also explores how easy it is, especially for young girls, to get pulled into cycles that shape how they see themselves. One small interest can snowball into a very specific (and sometimes harmful) narrative being reinforced over and over again without parents knowledge.

Whether you agree with every single point or not, it’s hard to deny that the online world is powerful It 100% plays a role in identity, self worth and even struggles like anxiety or body image issues can develop.

What I appreciated most is that this didn’t feel like a blame game. It felt like someone trying to understand her own experience and in doing so, offering insight for others.

There is also a thread of hope here. As the book came to a close Freya talks about girls starting to push back in today's digital world. That more are stepping away from using filters, questioning what they consume and trying to take back some control. That part made me really hopeful.

✨ What stood out to me:
💭 Honest, personal perspective from a Gen Z voice
📱 Thought provoking look at social media + algorithms
🖤 Conversations around identity, mental health, and self worth
🌱 A sense of awareness and potential change

I think this is one of those books you have to go into with an open mind and an open heart. You don’t have to agree with everything but it’s worth listening, reflecting and maybe even having some bigger conversations because of it.

I will leave you with this...there was a quote in this book that completely stuck out to me and it was "Perfect on the outside, insecure on the inside." I truly hope that one day we wake up to the damage being caused to people with social media. 

This is definitely a thought provoking read that will stick with me.

[Rowan's Bookshelf (Carleigh) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This starts from an interesting and genuinely relevant premise: the idea that modern culture and especially social media increasingly turns human emotion, identity, insecurity, and even personal connection into products to be consumed and sold. Early on, the book offers some compelling observations about the way social media profit from vulnerability, though the analysis stays fairly surface-level rather than digging deeply into the structural causes behind those trends.

As the book continues, however, its weaknesses become much harder to ignore. Much of the evidence presented feels selective, relying heavily on extreme examples or just personal anecdotes. Oftentimes the stories aren't even related to the concept of commodification at all, just condeming the things that Gen-Z do.

The tone also drifts into a kind of moral panic that undercuts the more thoughtful parts of the discussion. Repeated concerns about younger generations moving away from church communities or openly discussing mental health are framed as symptoms of cultural decline, but the connection to commodification is again, rarely explained in a convincing way. Instead of nuanced cultural criticism, parts of the book read more like pearl-clutching.

Most disappointing is a section discussing gender identity that comes across as unnecessary and overtly transphobic. It feels especially out of place in a book that otherwise attempts to critique systems of exploitation and social control. It just weakens the book’s credibility and makes its broader analysis feel more ideologically driven than carefully researched.

Overall, the book raises questions that are worth discussing. Readers already inclined towards a conservative worldview might relate, but most will just frustrated by the lack of nuance and substantive analysis.

[Maria Marmanides · Rating 4 out of 5]

GIRLS®: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything is sharp, timely, and often unsettling in the best way. Freya India does an excellent job diagnosing the pressures facing Gen Z girls in a world where selfhood itself has become a product—where anxiety, beauty, relationships, and even authenticity are optimized, branded, and monetized. It’s a book that makes you pause and think, yes, this is exactly what it feels like—and more than that, this is how we got here, to this particular cultural mess we find ourselves in by 2026. The analysis is clear and persuasive, and many chapters land with real emotional force as they trace familiar girlhood insecurities through the accelerant of social media and surveillance capitalism.

That said, while I found her diagnosis compelling, I wasn’t always convinced by the solutions. In particular, the book’s skepticism around SSRIs and medication felt overly broad; this framing doesn’t fully account for how genuinely life-saving these tools can be for many people. There is an interesting point here—about how medication has become a form of identity, akin to a Myers-Briggs type or astrological sign—but that nuance sometimes gets lost. I also wished for more attention to millennial women, who are largely skipped over despite being deeply shaped by the same forces, and for a deeper exploration of Gen Z’s use of irony and self-aware humor—how the joke often collapses inward when the self itself is the brand. Still, these gaps don’t outweigh the book’s strengths. GIRLS diagnoses the problem with clarity and urgency, even if the answers feel less fully formed. Thought-provoking, validating, and well worth reading.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an unbelievably powerful, depressing, eye-opening book. I am of the generation that is constantly flummoxed by social media and its obsessive control over the hearts and minds of so many. My oldest daughter is of India's generation; my youngest is 14 years her junior and of the generation that never knew any other world. It was such a dramatic read as a result, since my family hits on all three of the generations for whom India targeted her book.

India does a fantastic job presenting her case for how social media and the Internet made the latest iterations of girlhood a completely unique animal - which is saying something, considering how commodified feminity has been for a very long time now... With heart and emotion, she tells her tale of the rise of social media and communications platforms that promised connection and delivered anxiety. I found her writing clear and crisp; it was emotional yet not melodramatic, even when the points she was making were incredibly dramatic and could easily have devolved into feeling overblown or overstated. I thought this made it even more impactful.

Her narration was excellent. I do love when an author reads their own work. No one - no matter how magnificent an actor - can bring their heart and soul to a book, particularly a non-fiction one, like the author and that is definitely true here. It was a delight to listen to, even when it felt tragic and depressing.

Thanks to Libro.fm and their advance librarian review program for my obligation-free audio review copy.

[Critter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an audio ARC.

Going into this book I did not know who this author was. I have now learned about her and I just can't recommend her work. This book has a lot of the issues I have with her approach to feminist topics, in which she doesn't engage with them outside of saying here are some issues and adding highly conservative talking points to it instead of trying to find actual solutions. There are valid issues and concerns regarding social media and mental health, but this book goes about discussing them in an exclusionary way that focuese on white cis women. This book introduces and sometimes implies (this book seems like it doesn't want to fully commit or be honest about its arguments at times) transphobic and homophobic talking points. This book does a lot of relying on trying to connect dots between different data points and trying to imply a scary connection between them. This book also excludes other definitions of womanhood and girlhood that is not within her own worldview. The author also argues against seeking help for anxiety and depression. There are numerous issues I've had with this book which includes that this book is very shallow and exclusionary in its views.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't typically review books I DNF, but I absolutely have to for this one. While I was initially so intrigued by this book, written from the perspective of a Gen Z author, there were some serious problems with it that I can't ignore and I will not be spending more of my time with it.

Around the 30% mark author India Freya goes beyond common sense (ie instagram filters are bad for mental health) and into seriously transphobic territory suggesting that girls are jumping onto a bandwagon and diagnosing themselves with gender dysphoria and taking hormones and getting surgery to be trendy. I just cannot. The chapter before I had some icky feelings as she tried to suggest girls are being over diagnosed with anxiety due to social media ads for mental health companies, instead of the more obvious conclusion, which is that anxiety is increased by social media consumption. She also claims that girls are being over diagnosed with autism and adhd, instead of recognizing that the criteria for diagnosis in girls is changing with time.

This book was super icky and I am mad I even spent an hour on it. Please pass on this one.

Thank you to Libro.fm and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. All opinions are my own.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 39%

I really enjoyed the introduction and the author speaking about what her objective of the audiobook was, and how it was aimed at her generation (Gen Z), the younger generation (Gen Alpha), and those older (parents/grandparents/etc.) and the idea of how girls are now monetized and are more of a commodity, with the changes and pressures of social media and targeted ads/algorithms/etc. that those who came before did not have to deal with.

HOWEVER, I had to stop listening to this near the end of the 2nd part where the talk about DID (dissociative identity disorder) and the rise of transgender people was because of social media and pressures that girls face. While I understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and there were some “scientific data reports” cited, I don’t believe that I can continue listening to this in good faith at a 20-somethings opinion of these topics that has no type of credentials to make these kind of claims.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for this advanced listener copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and my review is left voluntarily.

[Brie]

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads contest.

I was a little unsure at first because the author seemed so whiny and self-involved. This made the introduction have me almost make this book a DNF. But, then the rest of the book happened and I started to understand why she was such an insufferable human being.

She is damaged by society...much like my Millennial and younger friends who never knew a life away from online. It has wrecked how they interact with the world. This book explains how. I kept seeing faces of women I know as I read the book and felt really bad for them. Their existence is dictated by online and performance living. No wonder they find me bizarre as a Gen X woman who just does not give a shit about what people think or trends.

This is an interesting book and I am passing it on to a friend to read...and hope it does not offend them. They are doing a bit of the "self diagnosing" at the moment thanks to online and social nedia...and this book pokes holes in that.