K-pop gets the Gossip Girl treatment when Alice Choy is catapulted into the life of a manufactured popstar at the elite Top10 Entertainment's Star Academy.
When seventeen-year-old Alice Choy moved from San Francisco to Seoul, she left behind her friends – and the regular singing lessons she used to love. Now the only singing she does is karaoke with her little sister in Myeongdong. That is, until she's spotted by a scout for Top10 Entertainment and invited to attend their Star Academy.

But sculpting herself into one-fifth of soon-to-be-launched K-pop group A-List is hard work. It's rising at dawn for lung-crushing cardio, dancing drills and calorie controlled meals. It's egos and rivalry and secrets lived outside of the public eye, because if A-list gets on the wrong side of a certain influential blogger and the anti-fans, then Alice's dreams of being an idol might never materialize.

A debut novel about standing out and fitting in, dreaming big and staying true.

Featured in The Bookseller's April 2022 Previews. * The Bookseller *
Listed in Pen&Inc, highlighting the best in diverse children's books, June 2022 * Pen & Inc *

Alexandra Leigh Young currently produces the top-ranked "Daily" podcast from the New York Times. She produced tours for pop bands for three years before moving to South Korea as a freelance journalist. An assignment on K-pop for NPR’s Radiolab became the basis for Idol Gossip, her first novel for young adults.