(First a disclaimer. I know OF these shows but have not watched them beyond a startled "what is this?" pause of horror. I know of them because I do watch TV and you can't escape hearing about them.)

Reality Shows have become a staple of the television landscape. You can’t turn on a TV without finding at least a dozen on at the same time. What started as a group of strangers in an isolated location eating bugs and undermining each other in order to earn money has morphed into dating shows, singing competitions, dancing celebrities, skating celebrities, singing celebrities, spoiled rich ladies spitting at each other, bad girls living in luxurious houses beating the snot out of each other, party-crazy 20-somethings living in luxurious houses and drinking themselves into a coma, dating gross celebrities shows and many more…

Now there is a new trend. Naked Reality Shows…

I guess it’s no longer titillating enough to have a group of strangers fighting or dating or eating gross stuff. We’re bored with the fighting and the dating and the eating gross stuff apparently. Now, they must do all those things NAKED. As in WITHOUT CLOTHES! 

Another is Naked & Afraid, which I guess is similar to Survivor only with naked people. Do you remember when Richard Hatch, winner of the first season, went around with no clothes for most of the season? Now there’s an entire island of them. This one is on the Discovery Channel, which I guess is to make it seem “educational” in some way?

And here is another one I had not heard of.  Buying Naked. It’s on TLC, the same network that also airs the show about the Christian family with all those kids. How’s that for diverse programming? Buying Naked is described as “as firm of real estate brokers serving a nudist community”. It’s basically “House Hunters” with naked people I guess. And from the clip of a segment on the website the nudists see the houses without benefit of clothes. My first thought is I hope there is a rule about the nudists not sitting down ANYWHERE!  Can you imagine them testing out the couches or the dining room chairs? Did you have grandparents that used to wrap the furniture in plastic? This sounds like something the realtors should invest in. They carry it with them in the car along with the “FOR SALE” sign and drape it over the furniture for public safety.

Tagline: A little competition can really bring out people’s true colors.

About the Book: 

Every day I walked down the sidewalk to school and wished I were one of the interesting popular girls who ran up with exciting news. Just once I’d like to be one of those girls instead of the being the one who didn’t get invited to things because people “forgot” about me.

Landry gets pushed into trying out for the American Ingénue reality show modeling competition with her two best friends.  She doesn’t think she stands a chance, but she advances to the next level in the competition and her friends ignore her when they get cut. 

Enter the gorgeous Devon, who also makes the first cut and includes Landry in her clique. Devon becomes the perfect best friend, but can their friendship survive the competition?

Landry hopes her big break could come at any moment, but soon sees there’s much more to modeling. She begins missing out on being with friends and has the chance to have a boyfriend when she meets a boy named Vladi from another school.

Part of Landry wants to be famous (and have her hair look good for once), but part of her just wants to be accepted. She learns about friendships, being true to yourself, and that a good hair conditioner doesn’t hurt.

Excerpt:

The competition was for girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, but it felt like Ericka, Tori, and I were the youngest ones there. I only saw a couple of girls from school, and the lineup looked more like something you’d see on a music video set. All the girls were gorgeous, and they had these curvy womanly bodies. I looked like a skinny little kid next to them. The first girl walked out, and I heard the judges say she “owned the runway,” and, “walked like a gazelle.” I was starting to feel ill. I wasn’t sure which way it was going to come, but I knew I had to find a bathroom — fast. I started to get out of line when Ericka grabbed my wrist.

“It’s almost time,” she said. A tiny bit of spit flew out of her mouth and hit my cheek.

I wasn’t sure why she was so intent on me going through with it, but she had a death grip on my arm, so I didn’t have much of a choice. Her number was called and she walked out to the stage. One of the other girls said she walked like a kid with sand bucket stilts on her feet, but she came back with a smirk on her face like she knew she’d get chosen.

“They said they had never seen such long legs,” she said.

Tori was next.

“She walks like a gorilla at feeding time,” said the girl behind me. 

I went next, and I tried to focus on not tripping over my feet. My mom’s pumps had a rubber sole on the bottom, which probably wasn’t the brightest idea seeing as my shoes were making squeaking noises as I walked. I was so nervous I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked. I looked like the plastic clown who blows up balloons with its mouth at the Pizza Palace. When I got to the end of the runway, I tried to cross my feet to turn like the other girls had, but I over rotated and ended up doing a full spin which made my kilt fan out and gave the mall walkers a view of my blue underpants. I tried to act like it was intentional and did an extra turn. One of the judges put her hand up to stop me, and I held my breath as she started to speak.

Buy Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble

About Krysten:

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 debut novel from Astraea Press. 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 shows.

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