Non-Fiction
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Jell-O Girls: A Family History | 2018 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Aesthetica | 2022 | Buy |
Allie Rowbottom is an American writer whose work sits at the intersection of personal history and cultural criticism. Her debut, Jell-O Girls: A Family History (2018), is a memoir that uses her family’s connection to the Jell-O brand as a starting point for examining how American consumer culture has shaped women’s lives. Her great-great-uncle sold the Jell-O trademark for $450 in 1899, and the book follows what happened to both the brand and the family in the decades that followed.
Her second book, Aesthetica (2022), is a novel set in the world of Instagram influencers and cosmetic surgery. The story follows a young woman preparing to have her plastic surgery procedures reversed, moving between her present-day decision and her past experiences in the beauty industry. The novel looks at how social media and beauty standards affect women’s relationships with their own bodies.
Rowbottom holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a PhD from the University of Houston. She teaches creative writing and has published essays in a number of literary journals.