Let Down Your Hair: Bryony Gordon

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Perfectly plaiting the brutal world of content creation, family tragedy and alopecia to create an ingeniously inspiring re-telling of Rapunzel, Bryony Gordon’s Let Down Your Hair is simply incredible. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives.

Like the main character of Bryony Gordon’s novel, my hair was something that people always commented on. The way the book flips the chronology of the story, made it so engaging and kept me glued to the page. In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending . Mel's religious parents insist she must keep the baby, whilst Sid's feminist mum pushes for a termination. I understand that it’s meant to be part of a wider narrative about stress and mental health in young people.As happy as I am to see alopecia in a novel, I don’t think it’s just an extra complication to this novel. One who isn’t confined to her bedroom on the 12th floor of the tower-block flat she shares with her aunt making content. This story skillfully and sensitively manages the emotional debate over the pro's and con's of babies and abortions, not always predictable, and very relatable. Friendless and lonely, living on the upper floors of a tower block with her aunt, thanks to her hair - the fetishized focus of her social media channel - Barb has hundreds of thousands of online “friends”. In 2017 she won the MIND Making A Difference Award for her work in changing the perception of mental health in the media.

In the words of Jess, her former best friend, “you’re nothing without your hair”, and Barb believes it. When their relationship starts to fall apart under all the pressure, Mel finds herself feeling alone with the impossible dilemma of the Little Bang growing inside her. Barb’s own experience with alopecia is at first a curse and then a wonderful liberation, the catalyst to realising that she has spent much of her young life comparing her insides with everybody’s outsides.

With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. A first introduction into the YA fiction realm and Bryony is throwing off the deep end, not starting with something more straightforward, but trying to tackle social media and alopecia through a beloved fairy tale. And I very much enjoyed attempting to solve the case with Pip (who I now want to be my best friend).

And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way. After surviving a mental health rollercoaster, after truths come to light, Let Down Your Hair comes to a jubilant, life-affirming climax that will have readers weeping with joy. She is the presenter of the Mad World podcast and in 2016 she founded Mental Health Mates, now a global peer support network which encourages people with mental health issues to connect and get out of the house.In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending. A bittersweet Northern Irish romance that takes a new look at teen pregnancy, the magic and mess of first relationships, and a young woman's right to choose her own future. Since the day she was born, Barb’s glorious hair has defined her existence, and the same is true as she turns sixteen.