Penguin Random House Children’s is publishing the memoir of model and body activist Charli Howard.
Commissioning editor Holly Harris acquired UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Adam Gauntlett at PFD. It will publish Misfit under the Penguin imprint in February 2018.
The title is described as a “funny and touching memoir of living with and subsequently overcoming the eating disorders and mental health issues” which Howard has experienced since childhood. She is a model and body positivity ambassador.
Despite being medically underweight, she was fired for her size by her modelling agency in 2015 and wrote an open letter to her former agents in response. Howard has since used her platform to create “The All Woman Project”, a charity that goes into schools to educate about body image and mental health issues.
The plus-size model, who is based in New York, said: “As a teenager with mental health issues, I mistakenly believed that being thin and ‘beautiful’ would miraculously make me happy. So, how did a slightly bonkers misfit with anorexia, bulimia and anxiety decide to solve their problems? I became a model.