My Life as a 'Troubled Teen'

In Bad Kid, a powerful YA graphic memoir, Sofia Szamosi recounts her experiences as a young girl, exploring how damaging the labels ‘Good Kid’ or ‘Bad Kid’ can be and how they can shape our choices throughout our lives. 

‘When I was thirteen I was sent away. Maybe dragged away is a better way to put it.’ 

A powerful and unflinching graphic memoir about what really happens inside America’s secretive ‘troubled teen’ correctional facilities – told from the inside with raw honesty and dark humour. 

Bad Kid tells the story of Sofia’s turbulent teenhood, including her experience of being taken away (‘kidnapped’) to a residential treatment centre aimed at ‘troubled teens’. Wise, funny and heartbreaking all at once, it presents – in a series of flashbacks – the unforgettable portrait of life in a US 'teenage boot camp' and offers YA readers a glimpse into the harmful effects that labels can have on us. 
 
Powerfully told in black and white comic strips accented with vivid pops of red, Bad Kid is the coming-of-age story of Sofia’s late childhood, and how her once-happy relationship with her mother sours irreparably when she marries Sofia’s stepfather.  

It follows her early teenage rebellion years in which she meets Marigold – ‘AKA the coolest girl I’d ever met’ – and together they set about finding themselves through the traditional teen pursuits of rule breaking, smoking, dodgy hook ups and bright red booty shorts . until the day when she is bundled into a car by total strangers and driven 400 miles to a teenage correction camp based deep in the woodlands of Virginia, US . 
 
This powerful and challenging memoir covers themes and ideas that are universal to teenagers everywhere – being misunderstood, mis-labelled and rejected, and speaks to relationship and mental health issues experienced by teens today. 

A striking coming-of-age story for YA and adult readers alike, Bad Kid reminds us that no one is beyond redemption – and that reclaiming your story can be the most powerful act of all.