Amy Rossi Explores Gender, Power and How We Fail To Protect Girls in Her Novel, 'The Cover Girl'

In her debut novel The Cover Girl, author Amy Rossi explores the life of Birdie Rhodes, a young girl who is discovered by a modeling agent at the age of thirteen. The story spans two timelines: one in the 1970’s during Birdie’s younger modeling years and the other in 2018 when Birdie is fifty-six and goes by the name Elizabeth. As Rossi describes, “…in the 1970’s, she’s discovered by a legendary modeling agent, Harriet Goldman, and she ends up posing for an album cover a couple of years later… she’s 15 when she poses for this album cover and the rock star involved in that album makes himself both her boyfriend and her legal guardian and so we have one timeline that follows everything after that throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, and then in 2018, we meet Birdie… She’s a woman in her 50’s making a work-a-day living as a model in catalogues and for anti-aging supplies… and then she receives an invitation to a gala that’s honoring Harriet’s 50-year career, and that prompts her to revisit her relationship with Harriet and how the rockstar played a role in that, and why it ended.”

In the novel, Rossi deliberately keeps the rock star’s name hidden. She explained her reasons for doing so and whether his character was based on a real-life musician. “There was no shortage of inspiration for him, but I also was very aware that there were some stories people know better than others and so there is the practical choice of like, it’s probably easiest not to name him, but… it took on a larger meaning to me because it doesn’t matter who he is, right? Men like him have had so much air time and he’s going to be fine. There’s not ever really been any accountability for men in power who abuse women or young girls really… he’s had his chance to tell his story and his story is the predominant narrative… so by taking his name out of it, I could really put the focus on her story… it’s about her and what she experienced.”