Item of the Day: Julie Klausner’s “Art Girls Are Easy”

THE TIME HAS COME. After already bestowing upon us her podcast (How Was Your Week?), her tweets, her work for Vulture, and her memoir, I Don’t Care About Your Band, Julie Klausner has given us Art Girls Are Easy, her first YA book. (Which is out today.)

REJOICE, ALL. Released as an e-book, the story of 15-year-old art prodigy Indigo Hamlisch and her last summer at Silver Springs Fine & Performing Arts Camp for Girls is everything teen summers are made of — or at the very least, what some of us suburban-dwellers imagined teen summers to be like (when we’d hang out in parking lots eating fries and drinking terrible-tasting vodka coolers wearing fake leather pants).

Between dreams of Broadway and Julliard, adventures and misadventures with her BFF, Lucy, and the crush she has on older art instructor named Nick (as well as whether he and Lucy will hook up this summer), Indigo also works to figure out who she is and what she wants, like all of us do (did, and are still doing).

But what’s especially great about Art Girls Are Easy is that like I Don’t Care About Your Band, Klausner writes like a best friend; like you’re hearing a story from a cool, older sister. That, and despite any age difference between you and Indigo, she’s written as someone you can relate to. She’s a three-dimensional character, who, while entertaining, is still obviously human; a real girl you champion. Someone either like you, or like someone you know. (While still uniquely herself.)

Personally, I’m so happy Julie Klausner has delved into the YA genre since we need more characters like Indy. And whether reading it as a teen or as an adult, Art Girls Are Easy is a must-read this summer. (Which, naturally, should be followed up with many episodes of How Was Your Week?)