Please Don't Buy Molly-Mae's Book

Sincerely, a tired bookseller and exhausted writer

Image of Molly-Mae provided by Wikimedia Commons, edited by the author using Canva

Usually, I'm all for people writing a book if they feel they have one in them. I had a discussion with a work colleague just the other day over whether a children's picture book author could be called a writer. I said that anyone who writes or publishes should be called a writer.

I say this because I genuinely believe it—most of the time.

I say this because I hate the snobbery around different genres and people claiming that fantasy or young adult is less worthy of acclaim than literary fiction. I say this because of the Karens who come into my bookshop and gasp at the teenagers picking up It Ends With Us, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or The Love Hypothesis and wishing they would read 'proper' fiction.

Everyone should write if they want to because there's room for everyone and multiple reading tastes. I believe that most people have something valuable to say and add to the world, but not this time.

Molly-Mae needs to live her life before she writes her autobiography

I don't fundamentally disagree that celebrities or well-known figures shouldn't publish books. In fact, some can be quite interesting if they are actually written by the person and add value or enjoyment to the reader. But I do have a problem with twentysomething Instagramers claiming they know all there is about life, and hence, releasing their autobiography at the age of 22.

Molly-Mae may have achieved a lot so far in her short life, but does she know all there is? Will she offer her fans some useful life lessons and worldly wisdom? No.

I said this on Twitter where someone disagreed with me and compared it to Malala's book where she tells the story about being shot by the Taliban on her way to school. This is fundamentally different; you can't (or shouldn't) even compare.

Molly-Mae, in publishing Becoming Molly-Mae, believes she needs to tell the world how she made herself and the life lessons she has learned along the way. It's a type of self-righteousness that I can't stand. Besides, she was lucky enough to get picked to go on a reality TV star and has a heck of a…