Validate Me: A life of code-dependency

Validate Me: A life of code-dependency
Charly Cox

‘Charly is social media’s answer to Carol Ann Duffy’ Sunday Times STYLE is turning a new generation on to poetry’ The Telegraph From the bestselling author of She Must Be Mad comes the second book of poetry and prose from Charly Cox. What is love? Baby don’t hurt me… but please like my Instagram post. Hello, my name is Charly and I am code-dependent, so would you please, please just validate me? From the bestselling author of She Must Be Mad comes Charly Cox’s second collection of poetry and prose. This is an account of a life lived online. Swiping for approval. Scrolling for gratification. Searching for connection. From the glow of a screen in the middle of the night, to the harsh glare of the hospital waiting room, Validate Me is a raw and honest look at the highs and the lows of a digital life. The new voice of a generation, Charly’s words have the power to make us all feel less alone.

VALIDATE ME

Charly Cox

Copyright (#udd8a5666-a291-52c9-86bc-ef9e8f196d21)

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by

HQ, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

Copyright © Charly Cox 2019

Charly Cox asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008348175

Ebook Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008348182

Version: 2019-09-12

Praise for She Must Be Mad (#udd8a5666-a291-52c9-86bc-ef9e8f196d21)

‘This book of poetry and prose is divine … so refreshing yet familiar’

– Cecelia Ahern

‘Charly constantly astounds me with how inspired she is … [Her] poetry really encapsulates what it is to be a young woman. All the tensions and anxieties and new discoveries’

– Pandora Sykes

‘Prose and poems that have you laughing, crying and questioning your own life in no time’

– Glamour

‘Thoughtful, funny and wistful’

– Independent

‘Brave and Beautiful’

– Stylist

‘Charly’s writing is staggeringly impressive’

– ELLE

Epigraph (#udd8a5666-a291-52c9-86bc-ef9e8f196d21)

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Kurt Vonnegut

Contents

Cover (#uf0d69c3a-ab14-5aae-953d-763a9d11666c)

Title Page (#u6da830e1-b9de-5e53-a29d-5e9247084e13)

Copyright

Praise for She Must Be Mad

Epigraph

Foreword by Elizabeth Day

Introduction

Objectify me

Love me

Suffocate me

Validate me

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by the Author

About the Publisher