#NoFilter: Guest Post by Krysten Lindsay Hager

#NoFilter: Guest Post by Krysten Lindsay Hager

I’ve always been told to be a writer you have to be willing to share all of yourself, the good, bad and the ugly, in an attempt to get to the truth. I learned from writing teachers and mentors about humiliation essays and how to expose the inner workings of your mind and soul on paper (or the screen). But how does someone do that in the day and age of the flawless Instagram filtered image of life? No one else seems willing to share their less than perfect moments. In fact, more than half of the Facebook statuses I see on a daily include the phrase, “Fun day/night out with friends,” accompanied with a happy smiling shot of two faces squeezed together in a picture with perfect hair. So I’m the only one who needs to take five selfies to get one halfway decent one and threaten people not to tag me in photos without approval? I have to admit the idea of the filter does freak me out a little. After all, I don’t want someone to see me in person and ask, “What happened?” And I don’t photo shop my pictures, but is that because I’m too stupid to know how to or just not that vain? Well…a little from column A and a little from column B.

However, it’s one thing to be yourself in a picture, it’s another to share the ickier part of life with not just family and friends, but strangers. Although, sometimes I find the biggest critics can be those closest to you. But I’ve always tried to keep my personal life to myself and I would basically pick and choose what people knew about me. Then I was asked to do a blog about writing for a website. I had planned to write about preparing for a book release, but then my dad was hospitalized after an accident and things went south from there. I was sitting in the hotel room (the ICU had weird visiting hours) and thinking about the upcoming deadline for my post. Then it hit me: I should include the real life occurrence in my post. After all, not everyone has all ups and no downs, right? And to write anything and not mention how part of my life was spiraling out of control would have been less that truthful. So I wrote about finding time to write even during the chaotic times in life. What I didn’t expect to happen was for people to privately contact me on different social media sites to share their own private stories. In some way, my opening up about a difficult time made it okay for them to share their own as well and I ended up making several new friends through shared (painful) experiences. While I do wish I (and my family) never had to experience this on-going heartbreaking experience, I am grateful that in sharing my story it helped other people to open up about their own. We’re taught to put on a happy face, but sometimes the best thing you can do is to be honest and you might just help someone feel less alone.

True Colors by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Summary: Landry Albright just wants to be one of the interesting girls at school who always have exciting things going on in their lives. She wants to stand out, but also wants to fit in, so she gives in when her two best friends, Ericka and Tori, push her into trying out for a teen reality show modeling competition with them. Landry goes in nervous, but impresses the judges enough to make it to the next round. However, Ericka and Tori get cut and basically "unfriend" her on Monday at school. Landry tries to make new friends, but gets caught up between wanting to be herself and conforming to who her new friends want her to be. Along the way she learns that modeling is nowhere as glamorous as it seems, how to deal with frenemies, a new crush, and that true friends see you for who you really are and like you because of it.

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Author bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager is an author and book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and also writes middle grade, YA, humor essays, and adult fiction. True Colors is her international bestselling debut novel from Astraea Press and the first book in the Landry’s True Colors series. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in South Dakota, Portugal, and currently resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite TV shows. She received her master’s in American Culture from the University of Michigan-Flint.

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