Staff Writer Diana Kravchenko ’26 sat down with Ms. Anna Godbersen, instructor in English, to discuss her new novel A Girl Like Us, which she published on February 11 under the pen name Anna Sophia McLoughlin. Ms. Godbersen joined the English department this fall and teaches Creative Writing and Humanities 250: American Literature. She has published nine books already, including the Luxe Series of young adult novels.

What is A Girl Like Us about?

It is about a former reality television star who has married into a wealthy and powerful media family. She finds herself in trouble when the family has to return to their country estate.

It’s a mystery that’s also in many ways about celebrity culture in 2004. It comments on the way paparazzi culture idealized beautiful women while also tearing them down and villainizing them.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was trying to write an entertaining thriller. It is set in the time when I was first out of college and was working at Esquire Magazine. It was an era when the way journalism and news were communicated was in a period of rapid change—especially the way celebrities were covered.

Magazines became a bigger industry and a cultural force. The way mental illness and female celebrities were treated was ugly. This paradox made a big impression on me and was something I wanted to work out in the novel.

What was the writing process like?

It took me two-and-a-half years working intermittently to finish the book.

I started picturing a powerful and eccentric family as well as the resentment and alliances within that family.

I also wanted a character who had participated in a reality TV show. While I originally planned for her to be a trainwreck of a person, she ended up being a grounded and savvy manipulator.

Once I discovered this character, I was interested in following her journey.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

I hope readers can see how everyone has multiple sides to them—how more normal sides of a person are mixed with their uglier, greedier, and more selfish sides.

Additionally, I hope to be part of a conversation on how we think about the portrayal of women in the media compared with reality.

What authors and books have inspired you as a writer?

When I first started writing my books, I was very inspired by Edith Wharton. I love her style, issues, and themes.

The main character in her novel The Custom of the Country, a lovable operator, inspired the character I was writing in A Girl Like Us.

What advice would you give to students who want to write fiction?

Reading is crucial.

When you read a lot, you are able to identify your own sensibility, style, and possibilities as a writer. Just like in sports, you need to keep practicing, even if it is not going well.

In our culture, a lot of voices argue that writing is unimportant, frivolous or self-indulging. I want to tell any young person who is interested in writing that this is not the case.

Writing is a way to know your own mind, be engaged with other people, and be sensitive to yourself and others.

What are your plans for future books?

I have thought about a sequel to A Girl Like Us, and I have a literary novel that I have been working on for a long time.

I always have at least three projects going, with two of them close to completion.

I hope to share them with this community and the world in the near future.