Ariel Kaplan

Ariel Kaplan pairs quick humor with questions about self-worth, friendship, and social pressure in fiction for teens. Knopf released We Are the Perfect Girl in 2019 through its division for younger readers, giving Cyrano de Bergerac a contemporary reworking. The novel centers on Aphra Brown and her friend Bethany, whose attempt to impress Greg through borrowed words creates a widening deception. Kaplan uses that premise to examine body image, confidence, loyalty, and the gap between public performance and private feeling. Her earlier books include Grendel’s Guide to Love and War and We Regret to Inform You, both of which received starred reviews and appeared on year-end recommendation lists. She lives in Virginia with her family and continues to write novels for younger audiences. We Are the Perfect Girl shows her characteristic balance of comic momentum and emotional consequence, with female friendship carrying as much narrative weight as the central romantic misunderstanding.