Julie Houts has cultivated a devoted following as “Instagram’s favorite illustrator” (Vogue) by lampooning the conflicting messages and images women consume and share with the world every day. A collection of darkly comic illustrated essays, Literally Me chronicles the exploits of “slightly antisocial heroines” (Refinery29) in vivid, excruciatingly funny detail, including:
Literally Me marks the launch of a brilliant new social satirist. Julie’s singular voice and beautiful illustrations reveal the truth about the absurdity of life in the social media age: the line between becoming a total “Girlboss” and a twenty-first century American Psycho is razor-thin.
What happens when Kylie Jenner has an existential crisis and can no longer “step out”
The terrifying description for Alice Staunch’s book How to Be a Perfect Feminist
A journey to Coachella by the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse
The diary of Fiddle Ficus, a tree that lives inside a CÉLINE store
The beauty routine of a deranged bride who aspires to be “truly without flaws” on her wedding day
The true dating confessions of a fembot
Julie Houts is an illustrator and former womenswear designer at J. Crew. She was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and St. Louis, Missouri, before studying at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Parsons School of Design in New York. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Nylon, Man Repeller, Stylebop, Huffington Post, and Refinery29. She lives in Brooklyn. Visit her website JulieHouts.com.
“I loved Literally Me. Julie Houts is the satirist we've been waiting for. She deconstructs what it means to be a woman today with dark absurdist humor drawn to perfection. Brilliant.”
—Stephanie Danler,
author of Sweetbitter
“Houts skewers high fashion, the wedding-industrial complex, Instagram fame, and more in this caustic collection….
This is truly funny work, but there is a darkness underneath…. Houts’s pithiness has earned her hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, and it is on full display here.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Houts’ Instagram does what all great art does: It makes us feel seen. And, in this case, drawn. There’s something about seeing your own somewhat private impulses shown back to you. ‘Holy crap,’ you think. ‘I thought I was the only one.’”
—Refinery29
“Instagram's favorite illustrator.”
—Vogue
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