First, let me start by saying I’ve debated a lot about posting this but I don’t know how else to say that I quit without telling the whole story of why so here we go.
If you would’ve told me when I started at Scholastic in Nov. 2019 that I would be leaving this way I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are. When I was brought into the Scholastic Trade team I was hired as a Social Media Manager, who was going to support a Senior Digital Marketing Manager who hadn’t been hired yet.
I was excited to be starting a new position with a team that was just starting to be built. While I waited for my boss to be hired I reported to the Creative Director, who was great but didn’t know anything about digital marketing. In sum, I was on my own but that was fine because eventually I would have a new boss. Except that day never came. The Senior Digital Marketing Manager position was never filled and once COVID hit the job posting was eventually taken down.
With everything going on in the world, I accepted that this was unfortunately another casualty of the crazy times. However, along with the pandemic came a lot more work for me. Suddenly everything had to be online. I was tasked with uploading coloring and activity sheets kids could do at home and read aloud videos from our authors. My workload tripled overnight and on top of that Scholastic employees were then told we were being furloughed. Twice.
Eventually, things calmed down as people settled into our new normal and I was even given a bonus for all the work I had to take on, but not a raise.
As we continued to live through the pandemic, I asked my boss if I could get an assistant since they were no longer hiring a Senior Digital Marketing Manager. While my boss and her boss were receptive to the idea, it simply wasn’t in the budget and I had to continue to handle my work on my own.
Now, let me explain what that work was because it is a bit confusing. The Scholastic Trade accounts include Graphix Books, for graphic novels, I read YA, for YA novels, Facebook pages for Clifford, Goosebumps, The Magic School Bus, and The Baby-sitters Club, and sharing the Scholastic Corporate accounts with other business units. Unlike other places, the Scholastic Corporate account is not separate from Trade. Everything that isn’t Graphix or I read YA, i.e. picture books, middle grade, licensing, etc. lives on the corporate channels. In fact, 85% of the content that goes on the corporate accounts comes from Trade.
I was managing all of this social, except for I read YA, which is managed by the marketing manager, and that is a whole other conversation. Still, while I didn’t manage the accounts I did work on them and helped launch the I read YA TikTok so it was still part of my job.
On top of all of this, I also was responsible for doing the social for our School and Library team and every overarching social campaign we did like Reading Gives You Superpowers Week, Share Black Stories, the Power of Story campaign, our AAPI Heritage Month promotions, etc. It was my job to make sure all of our other business units and international partners got the social assets and copy for these campaigns and if there were any questions I was the point of contact.
In sum, it was a lot of work for one person and while I certainly had help from our corporate social team as well as the marketing managers I was struggling. So, in the summer of 2021 I started looking for another job. I ended up getting a job offer, which I brought to Scholastic and they countered, which I accepted. As part of the counter offer, a Marketing Director who was getting an assistant would share their assistant with me, I would be promoted to Senior Manager of Social Media with a raise, and I would report directly to our Senior VP of Marketing. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted but it was enough.
Until last week. During a regular conversation with the Corporate Social Media Manager, I learned that she was making $11K more than I was. To say I was shocked was an understatement. While I appreciate what she does, her title is lower than mine and when I came in at her level I was making almost $30K less than she’s making now. Additionally, I have a direct report, and to be frank my workload is heavier. I have to post on the corporate accounts, as well as the other trade channels, on top of the other things that I do.
The only reasoning for this discrepancy was that she worked under Corporate and I worked under Trade and apparently that meant I would inherently make less. If the Corporate and Trade channels were separate entities I could’ve maybe understood the discrepancy but that’s not the case here. I was posting on the same channels she was and then some. So what was the difference?
I was determined to find out and brought this to my boss, who thankfully was also shocked and supported me 100 percent. She was more than willing to fight for my salary to be raised, which I greatly appreciated. However, after thinking about it all weekend I realized the damage was done. Even if my salary was raised to meet my co-worker’s or even go higher, it wouldn’t change the fact that I had been severely underpaid. Nothing was going to rectify that for me.
So, I quit.
This was the hardest decision I think I’ve ever had to make but I know it is the right one. I want to thank my friends who helped me figure this out and my mom who when I told her about this whole situation simply said, “Do what you gotta do.” I could not make this decision without having her financial support behind me. To my colleagues at Scholastic and all the incredible creators I’ve had the opportunity to work with for over the past two years, I am sorry things are ending this way and I wish you all the best. We all deserve better. ♥️
To be fair, ghost stories aren’t typically my cup of tea anyway so I think that was part of the issue with Sublime for me. I just didn’t really connect with either of the characters and I also didn’t really get it. By that I mean, the logistics of one of the characters being a ghost didn’t really work for me. Thus, Sublime is unfortunately coming in last.
I know, I know! This is the OG CLo novel. How can it be so low? The answer is simple, I don’t really like Chloe and Bennett. Plus, I’ll admit that while I enjoy erotica this one was just a little too much for me. I’d say almost every chapter had a sex scene, and I’m pretty sure at one point I legit said to my book, “Alright you two, calm down.”
Honestly, a major part of the issue for me was that I listened to the audiobooks for this series and the narrator for the woman was exactly the same for the first three books. Thus, by the time I got to Lola it was hard for me to separate her from Mia and Harlow. Moreover, her relationship with Oliver just didn’t do it for me, which is saying something because typically if Steve West narrates it it’s already five stars in my book.
I think I partially disliked this novella because Chloe and Bennett’s anxiety about their wedding low key gave me anxiety so this was just a no for me. There were some cute moments though.
Chloe and Bennett are back at it again, but I actually enjoyed seeing these two being a full on couple. And the proposal was hilarious. That cuteness made me rank this one a little higher.
I usually enjoy a hate-to-love story, but Harlow and Finn just didn’t work for me. The romance was fine but I don’t remember feeling like I couldn’t stop listening. I was just kind of meh about them.
I wasn’t even sure if I should count this one since it’s so incredibly short, but I honestly really enjoyed it so I figured why not. The only reason it’s not higher on this list was because I wanted it to be longer. Also, if you haven’t read this gem you can read it 
I enjoyed this book but I hated how unresolved the ending was. I wanted to see what played out after and it felt like the book just kind of ended. I didn’t feel closure and so when I finished it I didn’t really know what to feel at all. Still, the romance was great and I liked the story inside the story that we got through the movie Tate works on.
I was genuinely surprised by how much I loved this novel. Once again this was a YA suspense, though it was a bit stranger than Sublime, but in a way I liked. Without giving too much away, the house that the male protagonist, Gavin, lives in is possessed and isn’t all that happy when Gavin starts dating Delilah. Strange, but fun.
Thank goodness for a new female narrator! I truly think that really helped me fall into this novel. I also loved London and Luke’s story. I was fascinated by Luke, even though we didn’t really meet him in the first three books, but getting his side of things was really interesting. And he and London made a great couple.
I think I would’ve enjoyed this novel more if we got Calvin’s point of view as well as Holland’s. Unfortunately, Holland irritated me quite a bit. The romance was really cute though and it had a lot of great humor.
I loved how Max and Sara’s relationship started. This book was steamy from beginning to end. However, the end made me rank it a little lower. I was kind of surprised by the conflict at the end and Sara’s reaction to it. That kind of ruined it a little for me.
Max and Sara aren’t my favorite couple of the Beautiful series but they’re pretty close. Thus, it was super cute to see them as new parents and attempt to find a way to still be true to their very kinky selves. Also, the introduction of Niall was *chef’s kiss*.
This novella was so fun! I honestly love all the characters in the Beautiful series when they’re all together and that’s (almost) what I got with this novella. Plus, the group in Vegas getting into wacky and steamy shenanigans? Brilliant!
This was the perfect end to this series. I absolutely loved that we also got to jump back into the heads of almost all the characters from the series before it came to a close. Low-key would read a YA series about all their kids because I know things would get interesting.
If you’ve never heard of this little novella before it’s probably because it’s strictly in audio form. Luckily for me I stumbled upon it recently and it was amazing! It’s in the POV of Ansel, which we never got in Sweet Filthy Boy and honestly it made me just want to read Sweet Filthy Boy all over again. I love Ansel so much!
Niall is my favorite book boyfriends! He was so pure and kind and sweet and having Ruby teach him all the ~things~ was so fun to read. I love this couple so much and they worked so well together. I also liked that their conflict made a lot of sense to me and I could totally understand Niall’s mistake.
As I mentioned, Ansel is the love of my life. He’s French, he’s an eternal optimist, he will marry you and then try to make it work even though you haven’t even know each other 24 hours. He’s amazing. And I also love Mia. She’s been through so much, but she’s so strong.
Will and Hanna are hands down my favorite couple in the Beautiful series. First of all, I’m trash for the guy falling for his best friend’s younger sister trope. But also, bonus is that Hanna’s nickname is Ziggy, which is also my nickname, so for a while I got to pretend Will was speaking to me directly, which was swoony. Anyway, I say this all to say this was a cute follow up to their story and I loved it!
As I’ve said, I love a good hate-to-love story and CLo nailed it with this one. Not only was the romance great, but they really handled sexism in the workplace quite well. I might be reaching but it kind of seemed like their answer to the problematic bits of Beautiful Bastard.
Honestly, the only reason this isn’t higher is because of the catfishing bit. But without it we really wouldn’t have a story so what can you do? I loved this book mainly because I saw a scary amount of myself in Millie. Low-key this book was partially why I finally went back to therapy. So thanks CLo!
I honestly didn’t really expect CLo to break my heart the way they did with this book, but here we are. This book very much leans more towards literary fiction than romance, so it was a bit different from what I was used to but still very good. The switching between past and present worked so well, and while I did guess some things the twists still surprised me.
I’m pretty sure I already made it clear how much I love Will and Hanna so I won’t reiterate here. Just know this is the best book in the Beautiful series. Period.
First, love that this featured a Mexican protagonist and her big Mexican family. Second, I loved pretty much everything about this book. Olive was a great protagonist. She was funny and headstrong. Ethan was also an iconic love interest and I fell for him pretty quick. Also, did someone say hate-to-love romance? I think so!
My introduction to Christina Lauren. Of course, it’s high up on the list! If it wasn’t good I wouldn’t be the CLo stan I am today, obviously. Real talk though, CLo handled this book so well. From the way in which Tanner dealt with hiding his bisexuality to Sebastian facing his questions about his own sexuality while being the poster boy for Mormons, this book tackled a lot of issues. And I never felt like CLo missed the mark.
If you know me at all you should know I love this book. Pretty sure I’ve never loved a book as much as I love this book. Hazel is me. I am Hazel. Besides the incredible romance here, I can genuinely say that Hazel has changed my outlook on life, specifically my (nonexistent) love life. For the most part, I’m fine with being single, but when I do have those moments where I wonder if I’ll ever meet someone who gets me and will accept me for me I go back to this book. One, because Hazel eventually got her Josh. But more importantly, because Hazel makes it clear she will not be with someone who wants her to change or be someone she’s not. And I feel the exact same way.
When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland—twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.
Frank Li has two names. There’s Frank Li, his American name. Then there’s Sung-Min Li, his Korean name. No one uses his Korean name, not even his parents. Frank barely speaks any Korean. He was born and raised in Southern California.
Life is a mixed bag for Piper Calloway.
One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?
On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.
Zakiya N. Jamal 