IN TOO DEEP

As this model-and-actor-turned-author hits The New York Times ’ best-seller list, she talks to Grazia’s Kenya Hunt about getting to know her inner self

- Kenya Hunt

Even now, with the 24-hour attention economy whirring on a constant loop, it’s hard to get to know someone beyond the curated parts of ourselves that make it onto a social media scroll. We see more of each other than ever before – you feel compelled to have a take and share it or film a Reels and share that. And with our attention pulled every which way, do we even know ourselves?

Much has been made of the fact that Emily Ratajkowski, a woman who is very famous for being very beautiful and very famous, has taken control of her own story with her compelling new book, My Body, which reflects on her decade-plus career in which her ubiquitous image, and to a certain extent her very persona, were shaped and monetized by men, often using social media. But it’s the glimpse the collection of essays provides into her inner life that stands out most.

Authors have long described the act of writing a memoir as the experience of looking into a mirror. But to hear Emily, 30, talk about it, it’s more like an image that slowly comes into focus, with the soft, distorted, pixelated secret parts taking shape and form with each chapter completed. Reading the essays, you get the sense that you’re watching a woman getting to know her inner self.