Monoray, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has signed Girl Unmasked, a "powerful" memoir from 21-year-old Emily Katy about living as a teenager with undiagnosed autism.

Jake Lingwood, publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Jessica Killingley at The bks Agency. The memoir will be published on 28th March 2024 in hardback.

Girl Unmasked is the "extraordinary" story of the years leading up to Katy’s diagnosis and "how books and imagination became her refuge as she sought to escape the increasing anxiety and unbearable stresses of school life; how her OCD almost destroyed her; how a system which did not understand autism let her down; and how she came so close to the edge that she and her family thought she would never survive".

Lingwood said: “Emily’s memoir makes such an impact because it appears deceptively simple, but Girl Unmasked is powerful, inspiring, persuasive and political. The events happened so recently, it will change the way you think about autism, especially in younger people. Emily is still so young, it’s mind-boggling to think what she might achieve in the future."

Katy added: “I am grateful to the team at Octopus Publishing Group for believing that my story is worth telling. Far too many autistic people – women and girls especially – fly under the radar, unseen and unsupported. Many of us reach crisis point and only then (if we are lucky) do we find out that we are autistic. I hope this book can add to the collection of autistic voices demanding change in how autism is understood and recognised."

Katy has 68.4k followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 20k on Instagram, and is a Trustee of the charity The Autistic Girls Network, as well as a former Governor and member of the CAMHS young people’s council for her local NHS trust. In 2021, to celebrate the International Day of the Girl, she was selected by the Women of the World Foundation as one of their 2021 40 Young Leaders.