Today we are very excited to share an interview with author Lakita Wilson!
Read on to learn more about the author, the book, and a giveaway!
Meet the Author: Lakita Wilson
Lakita Wilson is the author of several novels and nonfiction projects for children and young adults, including What Is Black Lives Matter? a part of the New York Times bestselling Who HQ Now series, the middle grade novels Be Real, Macy Weaver and Sparkle, and YA romance Last Chance Dance.
Lakita was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. A 2017 recipient of SCBWI’s Emerging Voices Award, Lakita received her MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is currently on faculty at Prince George’s Community College in the education department. Lakita lives in Prince George’s County, Maryland, with her two children. She can be found online at lakitawilson.com.
About the Book: Pretty Girl County
The glitz of Gossip Girl meets the hustle of Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown in this charming and hilarious story of ex-BFFs from PG County, Maryland, perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Elise Bryant.
Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George’s County. Reya is rich and she’s not afraid to show it—she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.
Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller—and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad’s bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.
Reya and Sommer used to be BFFs—back when Reya lived in Seat Pleasant, too. Now the girls are from different stratospheres—but when Reya desperately needs help to prove to FIT admissions officers that she has what it takes to make it in fashion, the only person who can help is Sommer. Reya promises to help Sommer in return—she’ll pay her for her services, helping Sommer afford the school her parents can’t.
As the girls work together, slowly they begin to trust each other again. But when new relationships push them both, and Sommer’s dad’s bookstore is suddenly in danger of closing, old wounds bubble up. Can the girls find a way to repair their friendship and stay true to themselves along the way?
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Growing up in the majority Black Prince George’s County, I saw first-hand Black people are not a monolith. My peers were artsy Black girls, nerdy Black boys, goth baddies. Our parents were politicians, the garbage man, drummers in a go-go band. Growing up immersed in Black culture by default, my Blackness will always be at the foundation of my identity. But, having access to endless variations of what it means to be Black, in my community, helped me to expand my identity beyond race to include all the other unique factors that make me who I am.
Crafting such a diverse cast of Black characters in PRETTY GIRL COUNTY was intentional.I wanted readers to see the world through my eyes growing up.
YABC: Is your main character like you?
I took pieces of myself to create both Sommer and Reya. Told from two points of view, the reader will get to see a little of me in Sommer, especially how hard I worked to realize my dreams despite not having things handed to me. But, I’m also a little like Reya, too. At least, I thought I would be driving around in a hot pink Audi, living my best life once I achieved my dreams, haha. In reality, I learned that hard work never really ends. You just keep evolving and finding new goalposts to meet. In Reya, readers will discover a girl determined to make things happen, even if the path veers off from the journey she initially planned. I’m definitely like that, too. No matter what, if I set a goal, I’ll figure things out, even if the journey is difficult.
YABC: How do you know when a book is finished?
At this point in my writing career, I rely heavily on my editor(s) to tell me when something is finished. I will think a first or second draft is perfect. Then my editor will ask one question that makes me look at the story in an entirely new way. Then, I’m ripping the story apart, and reconstructing it to make it better. But, if I relied on myself? Readers might get a fever dream of a story, and I’m not brave enough to share those with the world!
YABC: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I wrote my first story in kindergarten or first grade. It was about a boy named Sam who had trouble making friends. My mom collected all my early stories—featuring bullies and lonely kids, until one day in my thirties, I turned one of those stories into my first middle grade novel, BE REAL MACY WEAVER, haha. Seriously. The plots are eerily similar. So, maybe I knew as a six-year-old I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t take it seriously until I was in my thirties.
YABC: How do you keep your ‘voice’ true to the age category you are writing within?
I think about how I felt as a sixteen-year-old. Teens may grow up in different generations, but feelings are evergreen. If I can tap into how I felt about myself and the world around me at certain ages, I can begin crafting characters that readers today can relate to.
YABC: What word do you have trouble overusing?
I got in trouble with a book reviewer during the release of my last Young Adult novel for using the word vibe too much. I mean, what can I say? I was vibing while writing it, haha! But, for my readers sake, I left that word out this time—because they were right. The word “vibe” and I have officially ended our decades long relationship.
YABC: What fandom would you write for if you had time?
I am obsessed with the Sims, and found a way to sneak that fandom into PRETTY GIRL COUNTY. I also love American Girl, and have almost thirty dolls in my collection, so I am more than ready to write a 2020 American Girl Social Justice doll. Last but not least, (and I don’t want the girls to start tussling) but I want to fictionalize Baddies, from the Zeus network. Hear me out. The ladies on that show do a LOT of fighting, but in each of those girls I see real pain that led them to the reality show and guides many of their actions on the network. Many of them come from backgrounds where they didn’t have a lot of support, but you can tell that each one of those women carry a deep longing for something better. I would love to dig into that part of the girls and build up a compelling story around that. So, Lemmy, call me!
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I’m working on an adult novel for the first time. Surprisingly, that’s been much harder for me to write than young adult. I have so many memories from my teen years to help me along with plot and character development. But, I’m still on my adulthood journey, and have no idea how this all ends, so maybe that’s what’s giving me a bit of difficulty.
Along with attempting an adult novel, I have a middle grade novel that will be out in a year or so that I’m really excited about. But, we are still in the editorial phase of that, so I don’t want to give too much away—things may change by the time the actual book hits shelves.
Title: Pretty Girl County
Author: Lakita Wilson
Release Date: July 1, 2025
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9780593525647
Genre: YA Fiction
Age Range: 12+
