Sofia Szamosi

‘When I was thirteen I was sent away... Maybe dragged away is a better way to put it.’This powerful graphic memoir tells the story of Sofia’s turbulent teenhood, with an insider’s perspective on her experience of being taken away (‘kidnapped’) to a residential treatment centre aimed at ‘troubled teens’. Wise, funny and heartbreaking all at once, Bad Kid presents, in a series of flashbacks, the unforgettable portrait of life in a US 'teenage boot camp' and offers YA readers a glimpse into the harmful effects that labels can have on us.Powerfully told in black & white comic strips accented with vivid pops of pantone red, Bad Kid is the coming-of-age story of Sofia’s late childhood, and how her once-happy relationship with her mother sours irreparably when she marries Sofia’s stepfather. It follows her early teenage rebellion years in which she meets Marigold – ‘AKA the coolest girl I’d ever met’ – and together they set about finding themselves through the traditional teen pursuits of rule breaking, smoking, dodgy hook ups and bright red booty shorts ... until the day when she is bundled into a car by total strangers and driven 400 miles to a teenage correction camp based deep in the woodlands of Virginia, US ...This powerful and challenging memoir covers themes and ideas that are universal to teenagers everywhere – being misunderstood, mislabelled and rejected – and speaks to relationship and mental health issues experienced by teens today.

A searing personal account of the so-called troubled teen industry, this graphic memoir exposes and humanizes the harrowing experience of so many young people in behavioral correction facilities. When she was just thirteen years old, Sofia was taken--by two people she had never seen before--to a "therapeutic wilderness program" three states away. Her own mother, terrified that Sofia was spiraling out of control, had enrolled her in an institution for "troubled teens." But instead of finding healing, Sofia found herself trapped. Trapped inside an unregulated industry that used promises of intervention and reform to prey upon panicking parents and kids with court orders. Over the next two years, Sofia would cycle through four different residential programs. In these places, school hours were a privilege, not a right. Contact with the outside world, including her mother, was strictly monitored. Teenage inmates were encouraged to call one another out. Still a child--ripped from her home, stripped of basic freedoms, and severed from her family and friends--Sofia struggled to understand who she really was beneath the crushing weight of the label BAD KID. A darkly funny and intimate coming-of-age tale, this graphic memoir exposes the harrowing realities of adolescence in and out of the "troubled teen" industry of the early 2000s. And in doing so, Bad Kid explores the lasting impact of the labels we're given--and how making art can help transmute them.

A searing personal account of the so-called troubled teen industry, this graphic memoir exposes and humanizes the harrowing experience of so many young people in behavioral correction facilities. When she was just thirteen years old, Sofia was taken--by two people she had never seen before--to a "therapeutic wilderness program" three states away. Her own mother, terrified that Sofia was spiraling out of control, had enrolled her in an institution for "troubled teens." But instead of finding healing, Sofia found herself trapped. Trapped inside an unregulated industry that used promises of intervention and reform to prey upon panicking parents and kids with court orders. Over the next two years, Sofia would cycle through four different residential programs. In these places, school hours were a privilege, not a right. Contact with the outside world, including her mother, was strictly monitored. Teenage inmates were encouraged to call one another out. Still a child--ripped from her home, stripped of basic freedoms, and severed from her family and friends--Sofia struggled to understand who she really was beneath the crushing weight of the label BAD KID. A darkly funny and intimate coming-of-age tale, this graphic memoir exposes the harrowing realities of adolescence in and out of the "troubled teen" industry of the early 2000s. And in doing so, Bad Kid explores the lasting impact of the labels we're given--and how making art can help transmute them.

"One of the most memorable debut graphic novels in recent years."--IGNOlive is spending the summer before art school at a coveted internship, helping one of the fashion industry's elite digital-imaging specialists. After a glamourous New York photoshoot, she learns that taking pictures is only the first step. She discovers the "violent verbs" (cut, crop, slice, lasso) of image retouching software and the secrets behind "virtual models." Soon Olive is fixating on her own appearance and pondering the ethics of her work behind the scenes. As college gets closer, she'll try to get out of her own head, attempt to quit the Internet, and finally embrace image-making on her own terms. Unretouchable is a window into the little-known, hugely influential world of fashion photography and a tribute to self-acceptance."A tribute to self-acceptance."--AIPT "Unretouchable perfectly utilizes the form to talk about the consequences of images and how they can be manipulated."--SCREENRANT

"One of the most memorable debut graphic novels in recent years."--IGNOlive is spending the summer before art school at a coveted internship, helping one of the fashion industry's elite digital-imaging specialists. After a glamourous New York photoshoot, she learns that taking pictures is only the first step. She discovers the "violent verbs" (cut, crop, slice, lasso) of image retouching software and the secrets behind "virtual models." Soon Olive is fixating on her own appearance and pondering the ethics of her work behind the scenes. As college gets closer, she'll try to get out of her own head, attempt to quit the Internet, and finally embrace image-making on her own terms. Unretouchable is a window into the little-known, hugely influential world of fashion photography and a tribute to self-acceptance."A tribute to self-acceptance."--AIPT "Unretouchable perfectly utilizes the form to talk about the consequences of images and how they can be manipulated."--SCREENRANT