For fans of The Devil Wears Prada and The Bold Type comes a smart, modern story about the shifting media landscape and one Middle Eastern American writer finding her place in it. How far would you go to keep the job a hundred other girls are ready to take?
Noora’s life is a little off track. She’s an aspiring writer and amateur blogger in New York―which is a nice way of saying that she tutors rich Upper East Side kids and is currently crashing on her sister’s couch. But that’s okay. Noora has Leila, who has always been her rock, and now she has another major influence to lean on: Vinyl magazine. The pages of Vinyl practically raised Noora, teaching her everything from how to properly insert a tampon to which political ideology she subscribes to.
So when she lands a highly coveted job as assistant to Loretta James, Vinyl’s iconic editor-in-chief, Noora can’t believe her luck. Her only dream is to write for Vinyl, and now with her foot firmly in the door and the Loretta James as her mentor, Noora is finally on the right path ... or so she thinks.
Loretta is an unhinged nightmare, insecure and desperate to remain relevant in an evolving media landscape she doesn’t understand. Noora’s phone buzzes constantly with Loretta’s bizarre demands, particularly with tasks Loretta hopes will undermine the success of Vinyl’s wunderkind digital director Jade Aki. The reality of Noora’s job is nothing like she expected, and a misguided crush on the hot IT guy only threatens to complicate things even more. But as Loretta and the old-school print team enter into a turf war with Jade and the woke-for-the-wrong-reasons digital team, Noora soon finds herself caught in the middle. And with her dream job on the line, she’ll need to either choose a side or form her own.
Clever, incisive, and thoroughly fun, A Hundred Other Girls is an insider’s take on the changing media industry, an ode to sisterhood, and a profound exploration of what it means to chase your dreams.
Iman Hariri-Kia is the sex and relationships editor at Bustle. She also writes a monthly column for Man Repeller and is a digital contributor to Teen Vogue. She has worked as a sex and dating advisor for Elite Daily and a lifestyle writer for Bustle and has promoted her work on the Today Show, CBS, NY1 News, DailyMail TV and other media. And while this novel is entirely fictitious, she did begin her career as assistant to the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue. She’s passionate about advocacy, elevating the narratives of Middle Eastern women, and writing about her personal life on the internet (much to her parents’ dismay).
Lameece Issaq is an actor, voice-over actor, playwright, screenwriter, and Founding Artistic Director of Obie-winning Noor Theatre.