In The Prettiest, Eve is the main character’s name for three reasons: first of all, she embodies certain aspects of the female experience, and therefore the name of the “first woman” suits her. Most often, though, the societal connotation of the name is what matters. Sometimes a name simply comes along with the vision of a character, and sometimes the sounds are important poetically, capturing the inner song of the person. This passion for naming applies to my fiction as well, though I don’t follow the same formula every time. Names are so important to me that I just had my second baby and I’m tempted to have a third just so I can come up with another name. However, this ultimately works as a misdirect, getting young readers to think about who “the prettiest” is and who decides such a thing before leading them to discover that such a descriptor doesn’t really exist in any objective sense. The title of my novel, The Prettiest, sets up the reader’s expectations for the focus of the plot, which involves a list of the top fifty prettiest girls in the eighth grade, and it immediately puts the reader into a competitive state of mind. My Q&A with the author: How much work does your title do to take readers into the story? She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughters. Young is the author of the middle grade novels Worth a Thousand Words and The Prettiest. She is a proud graduate of the City College of New York, and has taught creative writing to kids of all ages in settings ranging from workshops at Writopia Lab to bedsides at a pediatric hospital. Brigit Young, born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has published poetry and short fiction in numerous literary journals.
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