Ellen Atlanta

Last updated
Ellen Atlanta
Born
Ellen Atlanta Ormerod

(1995-11-06) 6 November 1995 (age 29) [1]
Leicester, England
Alma mater
Years active2014–present
Website www.ellenatlanta.com

Ellen Atlanta Ormerod (born 6 November 1995) is an English contemporary cultural writer. Her debut book Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women (2024) was shortlisted for a Nero Book Award and earned second prize at the Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction. Her writing covers topics such as feminism, the beauty industry, and social media culture. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Ellen Atlanta Ormerod grew up in a small Leicestershire village. [3] Her mother worked in fashion design. [4] Atlanta dealt with chronic illness as a child and was "in and out of hospital from the age of eight to 22". [5]

Atlanta attended and completed her A Levels at Groby Community College (now Brookvale Groby), completing her A Levels in 2014. [6] [7] She earned the Lord Mayor Scholarship to study at City, University of London, graduating in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Journalism. [8] She later completed a Master of Studies (MSt) in Creative Writing at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge in 2023. [9]

Career

While still in school, Atlanta started an online magazine/blog with her friends and was contacted by Sharmadean Reid, who liked her nail designs on Instagram and invited her to test them at Reid's WAH Nails stand in Topshop. [10] Later in university for an interview project, Atlanta reconnected with Reid, who offered her a job starting 2016. Atlanta paused her studies to help Reid open her studio WAH Nails in Soho. [3] [11] Based on her familiarity with youth culture, Atlanta went into brand consulting and marketing, becoming a founding editor of Dazed Beauty in 2018. [4] [12] She also joined BeautyCon and helped relaunch Reid's Beautystack, [13] writing a short film directed by Leonn Ward for the campaign. [14] After being requested to market cosmetic procedures and face-tuning technology for a company, Atlanta quit, saying "I couldn't reconcile promoting these treatments to young women with my feminism." [10]

Via a six-way auction in 2022, Headline Publishing Group acquired the rights to publish Atlanta's debut book Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women in 2024. [15] The book examines and contextualises the ways social media has amplified toxic beauty standards, [16] [17] with Atlanta approaching the subject from the perspective of having worked in the beauty industry. Atlanta had noticed a rise in young girls who felt pressured to conform and look like social media influencers, [1] saying "It almost felt like overnight the industry shifted from a place that for me felt more expressive and fun into an incredibly prescriptive idea of beauty." [18]

Chloé Cooper Jones, philosophy professor at the Columbia School of the Arts, described Pixel Flesh as "an essential mirror reflecting the profound impact of beauty culture on our lives". [19] Pixel Flesh earned second prize in the Royal Society of Literature's 2022 Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for a 2024 Nero Book Award in the Non-fiction category. Atlanta appeared on the 2024 Dazed 100 list. [20]

In addition, Atlanta writes a column for Dazed. She has also contributed articles to publications including the Evening Standard and Elle UK . [21]

Bibliography

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryTitleResultRef.
2022 Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction Pixel Flesh2nd [22]
2024 Nero Book Awards Non-fictionShortlisted [23]

References

  1. 1 2 Reiter, Amy (7 August 2024). "Ellen Atlanta Shows Readers Truth and Beauty". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 20 September 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  2. ↑ O'Connell, Édaein (2024-05-09). "Pixel Flesh: how the beauty ideal that smothers women moved me to tears". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 2024-05-12. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  3. 1 2 Seipp, Carla (17 October 2024). "Beauty Disruptors Series: Ellen Atlanta on fearless beauty idols and creating safe beauty spaces". BeautyMatter. Archived from the original on 27 March 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  4. 1 2 Rumbelow, Helen (2024-05-12). "Women are being told to look like Kylie Jenner. Here's why that's dangerous". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460. Archived from the original on 2024-05-12. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  5. ↑ Coughlan, Scarlett (21 May 2024). "Ellen Atlanta's debut book, 'Pixel Flesh', shows just how messed up beauty standards have become". Hunger. Archived from the original on 18 February 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  6. ↑ "A Level students on results day" (PDF). Groby Community College. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 August 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  7. ↑ Brookvale Groby (6 June 2024). "We welcomed back ex-student Ellen Atlanta Ormerod…" . Retrieved 26 February 2025– via Twitter.
  8. ↑ "Scholarships, bursaries and prizes" (PDF). Undergraduate Prospectus 2020/21. City, University of London. p. 43. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 August 2025. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  9. ↑ "About". Perceived World. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  10. 1 2 Phillips, Emily (14 June 2024). "Ellen Atlanta explores toxic beauty culture". 10 Magazine. Archived from the original on 7 March 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  11. ↑ "TOG Life: Ellen Ormerod, Communications Manager, WAH Nails". The Office Group. 18 January 2017. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  12. ↑ Sicardi, Arabelle (2024-05-13). "Is online beauty culture asking us to sacrifice too much?". Dazed. Archived from the original on 2024-05-13. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
  13. ↑ Mackereth, Kerry (2024-05-14). "The Curse of Online Beauty Culture with Ellen Atlanta". The Good Robot. Archived from the original on 2024-05-14. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  14. ↑ Melini, Benedetta (14 February 2019). "A film celebrating the beautiful bond between beauty pros and their clients". Dazed. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  15. ↑ Brown, Lauren. "Headline wins Atlanta's 'rallying' exploration of beauty industry in six-publisher auction". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 2024-05-12. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  16. ↑ Vasilev, Nicole (April 2024). "Book review: Pixel Flesh by Ellen Atlanta". Readings. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  17. ↑ Schlichenmeyer, Terri (12 August 2024). "'Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women'". Out SFL. Archived from the original on 16 January 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  18. ↑ Tenbarge, Kat (8 April 2025). "How beauty trends predicted Trump's second win". Spitfire News. Archived from the original on 15 May 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  19. ↑ Sdralli, Ilia (2024-04-29). "PIXEL FLESH: Beauty's Toxicity Culture is Harming Women One Trend at a Time". Nightstand Service. Archived from the original on 2024-05-20. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  20. ↑ "The 2024 Dazed 100 is here". Dazed. 2 December 2024. Archived from the original on 21 March 2025. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  21. ↑ "Articles by Ellen Atlanta". MuckRack. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  22. ↑ Comerford, Ruth (15 December 2022). "Nuseibeh, Atlanta and McIntosh win 2022 Giles St Aubyn Awards". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 12 May 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  23. ↑ "Ellen Atlanta - Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women". Nero Book Awards. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
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