Johanna Gustafsson-Ahlzén

We live in a time when childhood and adolescence increasingly unfold in public. In this reality – where parent influencers are role models, exposure has become the norm, and authenticity a commodity – Johanna Gustafsson-Ahlzén sets her young adult novel Det känns så fake (“It feels so fake”, not translated into English). 

Elektra has grown up with her single mother, Kimmy, who supports the family as a blogging mumfluencer. But the job has a darker side: in order to attract followers and secure brand collaborations, Kimmy repeatedly crosses Elektra’s boundaries. This culminates during a week when an old blog post about Elektra’s panic attacks suddenly circulates in the class chat, and Kimmy is dubbed the decade’s “NO FILTER MUMMY”.  

Who are these children whose most private experiences are filtered, edited, and shared? What does it mean for a young person to be exposed in this way? And what might such a person’s own voice sound like? Det känns så fake is a story that has long been waiting to be told. Johanna Gustafsson-Ahlzén tells it with tight composition and high energy, driven by anger and humour. The author thrives in the outrageous and the raw. The satire of influencer culture and its precarity intertwine with a sense of bodily claustrophobia and literal bloodshed. At its centre lies the unequal power relationship between young people and their parents – a point of tension the author neither avoids nor simplifies. A rebellion against one’s parents is costly, and perhaps not even fully possible, yet integrity can still be won. 

Today, young people encounter stories about themselves through many more media than the realist young adult novel. Det känns så fake is a reminder of the capacity of youth literature, in loyalty to its young readers, to offer tools for navigating the adult world, but also of literature as a space for thought, resistance, and self-expression. For this reason Det känns så fake isn’t only an incisive portrayal of contemporary life, but also a compelling argument for the continued relevance of the young adult novel. 

Johanna Gustafsson-Ahlzén (b. 1992) works as a comics artist, illustrator, and librarian. She studied at the Malmö Comics School and Jakobsberg Folk High School. Det känns så fake is her fiction debut.