Allie Rowbottom — ”The questions in your writing are the questions in your life.”

Who are you when no one is looking? This question came to mind when reading Allie Rowbottom's incisive debut novel, Aesthetica.

The story follows Anna, a former Instagram celebrity, on her path of reflection and redemption as she seeks to undergo a high-risk elective surgery called Aesthetica™, which is said to “reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self.”

As readers bounce between Anna's past and present, Allie paints a nuanced portrait of a woman stepping into herself while considering her relationship with fame, family, and the trappings of a landscape predicated on image and youth. In this interview, Allie shared more about why Aesthetica is a continued conversation from her memoir JELL-O Girls, her thoughts on privacy and pace, and embracing womanhood. This episode also opens with a story by Dakota Bossard.

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Episode Transcript: https://slowstoriespodcast.com/allie-rowbottom 

Learn more about Allie's work: https://allierowbottom.com/ 

Follow Allie: https://www.instagram.com/allierowbottom/ 

Purchase Aesthetica: https://bookshop.org/p/books/aesthetica-allie-rowbottom/18180848?ean=9781641294003

Follow Dakota: https://tiktok.com/@dakotabossard