The Cover Girl

Find them early enough, and they will always be her girls.

A powerful literary debut exploring fame, exploitation, trauma, and survival, this emotionally charged novel pulls back the curtain on the fashion and music industries, revealing the lasting cost of being seen—but never heard.

Birdie Rhodes was just thirteen years old when a legendary modeling agent discovered her in a department store and transformed her into one of Harriet Goldman’s Girls. What followed felt like a dream: runways, photo shoots, and a chance for a shy teenager to finally be seen. But the dream quickly darkened.

At fifteen, Birdie falls into a relationship with a thirty-one-year-old rock star, surrendering her adolescence to a man—and a world—she was never ready for, despite Harriet’s warnings. Then, just as abruptly as it began, the affair ends, leaving behind a haze of glamour, heartbreak, and trauma that Birdie tries desperately to forget.

She reinvents herself again and again—Paris, the fading LA punk scene, Boston during the AIDS crisis—telling herself she’s no longer that girl.

Decades later, Birdie lives a quiet, carefully controlled life. She takes modest gigs, goes to Pilates, and keeps her distance from the past. It’s not the life she imagined, but it feels safe. Until a letter arrives, inviting her to celebrate Harriet Goldman’s fifty-year career—a woman she hasn’t spoken to in nearly thirty years, for reasons too painful to ignore.

Almost famous. Almost destroyed.
To claim her future, Birdie must confront the past she buried—the ambition, the exploitation, the choices she made for a man who changed her life forever.

Told across dual timelines, this striking novel examines the devastating aftermath of early fame and the resilience required to reclaim one’s identity in industries that consume youth and discard what remains.

✨ A haunting, incisive read for fans of literary fiction, coming-of-age stories, fashion-world dramas, and novels that explore power, consent, and survival.