Gill Sims, the bestselling author behind the hilarious Why Mummy... series and the hugely popular parenting blog Peter and Jane, has turned her comedic talents to younger readers with her debut children's novel, Lila Mackay Is Very Misunderstood. Aimed at tween readers, this laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story is perfect for kids who’ve outgrown the Lottie Brooks series and are ready for a fresh new voice in teen comedy.

Reviewer Joanne Owen says, "Lila Mackay Is Very Misunderstood is sure to make those on the cusp of their teenage years feel totally understood. Fabulously funny and filled with empathy as it relates a 14-year-old’s frustrations and MASSIVE CRINGE moments, it’s sure to strike a powerful chord with tweenagers and oldies alike, as Emily comes to realise that she and her mum might not be so different after all…”

We’re thrilled to welcome Gill Sims as our Debut Author of the Month, and hear more about her super-readable, sharply observed, and utterly entertaining new novel.

Q. Lila Mackay Is Very Misunderstood is your first novel for young adults — how did the process of researching and writing Emily and Lila’s stories differ from that of your previous books?

A. My adult books were very much written from the point of view of parents trying to navigate life with children, whereas Lila MacKay Is Very Misunderstood is much more about the viewpoint of teenagers trying to navigate life with parents- those dreadful embarrassing creatures who insist on doing awful things like speaking to you in public and making you eat vegetables and generally ruining your life in every way because they don’t understand what it is like to be a teenager. So really, it was about thinking back to what it was like to be a teenager myself- how it sometimes felt like the whole world was against you, and no one understood that you were the first person to ever experience these feelings, and the certainty that your parents, especially your mother, had never ever been a teenager, and had no idea what you were going through.

Q. Emily and Lila’s narratives both feel brilliantly authentic — how did you work to get their voices just right?

A. Lila, the nineties teenager was fairly easy- I was a teenager in the nineties myself, so it was really just a case of remembering the shops, TV programmes and books my friends and I had loved, and the things we used to get up to. The make up we would wear and the music we would listen to. Emily was slightly trickier, and my children were a huge help there - a lot of plaintive texts from their aged mother asking about SnapChat and TikTok (‘STOP calling it ‘The TikTok, Mother, PLEASE’). They mostly were very patient answering my questions, that no doubt appeared very stupid to them, but were essential in getting Emily’s voice right, so I was very grateful to them both.

Q. A beautiful theme of the novel is how mums and daughters tend to have a whole lot more in common than teenage daughters typically want to admit, and how emotional similarities outweigh differences between the coming-of-age experiences of different generations. That said, there are notable contextual cultural differences (e.g. smartphones, social media and all that jazz!) between growing up in the nineties and growing up today. Do you think things are trickier today?

A. I definitely think things are much trickier today- my friends and I often joke about how awful it would have been if social media and smart phones had been around when we were young, and the embarrassing photos that would now be out there for posterity. There seems to be very little opportunity to ‘switch off’ for some teenagers now, and they are under pressure to grow up much faster than we had to. Saying that, I did read somewhere that every generation thinks the next generation is doomed and things are terrible for The Youth, and perhaps I’m just viewing my own younger days through rose tinted glasses. And of course, even just a hundred years ago, being a ‘teenager’ wasn’t even a thing, and some children were expected to be working and contributing to the family by the age of fourteen or even younger, so from a practical sense, life is probably easier for kids today.

Q. Are any episodes from Lila’s diary rooted in personal experiences?

A. I can definitely relate to Lila’s social awkwardness, and sense of never quite getting things right and being slightly different. Her habit of saying things without thinking them through first is also something I am guilty of, both then and now. And her penchant for falling in love with strangers she has seen once, or figments of her imagination and building complex narratives around their relationships is also something I did a lot as a teenager- perhaps because I went to an all girls school and so actual Boys were a great Mystery of Life for quite a long time. To be honest, they often still are!

Q. What do you hope teenagers and young adults take from reading Lila Mackay Is Very Misunderstood?

A. I think the main thing I would like everyone who reads the book to take away is that we all feel awkward sometimes, we all struggle to fit in, we all have those moments where we feel sure that the world doesn’t understand us, however confident we might seem on the outside. But that if you have good friends around you, there is very little life can throw at you that you can’t weather!

Q. What’s next? Can we look forward to more from Emily and Lila, or more YA novels?

A. Yes! Lila and Emily will be back for another installment, called Lila MacKay Finds Life Very Unfair, and there is a sneak peak of the first chapter at the end of Lila MacKay Is Very Misunderstood, if you’d like a hint about what happens next for them!