THE CHARACTERS ONE – ESTHER GREENWOOD “A few weeks ago, I was watching a YouTube video by a girl named Michelle Phan. The comment box was filled with hate and messages that said, “This is such a first world problem.” But was it?” Michelle was one of the first beauty video bloggers of the YouTube community and soon her fan following had grown to twelve million people. She kept on making videos and smiling at the camera but the truth was that she was no longer happy. She had achieved her dreams of success and of providing her family with financial security. She came from a poor family and worked hard for everything in her life and was therefore considered a role model by millions of people across the globe. She was where she had wanted to be but now that she was here, she no longer liked it here. And after months of struggling she finally realised that all that money and fame that she had acquired could …show more content…
The fact that it narrates the story of a high school student while he tries to face first dates, family drama, drugs, sex and making new friends seems to unnerve some people. The book retells the life of Charlie through the letters he writes to an anonymous “friend”. Charlie is a ‘wallflower’, someone who excludes themselves from the company of people at social events. After his only childhood friend, Michael, commits suicide, he becomes friendless and starts being seen as a “freak” by other students at his school. Charlie comes off as an antisocial boy who finds interest in reading books and observing people. He puts in a lot of time thinking about happiness, but does not seem to be happy himself. He often looks at people and wonders if they are truly happy and also while looking at old photos he wonders if they were as happy as they seem in the image that had been