An Interview with Simmone Howell, Author of Notes from the Teenage Underground

Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell shows life through the eyes of a young Australian filmmaker. The more Gem works on her film, the more she learns about her friends -- and about herself.

There's something utterly delightful about Gem's take on things - fairly straightforward, totally accepting, and extremely thoughtful. I do plan on writing a full-length review of this book, because it really is that good, and because it's one of those stories that is fairly timeless, really, in a modern sort of way.

Anyway, more about that later. Right now, I wanted to focus on Simmone. The author of Notes from the Teenage Underground is just as candid and honest as her protagonist. She loves shopping in thrift stores, then coming home to watch old movies with her family - and make movies of her own.

When we got to talking about movies, music, and books, we went on for a bit, so let's talk directly about her novel before we veer off into other interests.

What made you write about kids growing apart, rather than telling a (fairy) tale about Best Friends Forever!?

I didn't set out to write about a friendship that fell apart. I knew I wanted to write about three girls but my original idea was that they would all have adventures and support each other and be suburban hipsters - but I think my own high school experiences infiltrated. I always found myself in bizarre friendship triangles. I was always searching for "my people," not understanding that your friends are the ones who are still hanging around after things get weird. I was quite deluded and big on reinvention and I was impressed by bad-a$$ types and broken homes.

Also, when I first started writing notes there wasn't much plot just a lot of obscure film references... something had to happen - I knew it wasn't going to be a love story so I decided to make it an emancipation story. In the end, Gem isn't losing friends; she's gaining a life.

Notes was heavily influenced by films. Did you pick films you personally loved or had seen prior to writing the book, or did you watch more movies as you wrote?