Kansas author Mia Mercado discusses her new essay collection Weird but Normal in conversation with Riane Konc!

A ridiculously funny essay collection, blending satire and personal stories to explore the absurd and yet very regular experiences of one millennial woman as she attempts to navigate racial identity, gender roles, workplace dynamics, and beauty standards.

Birth control. Body hair removal cream. Boobs. It’s all weird . . . but normal.

This insightful essay collection from brilliant essayist Mia Mercado is about how all the things we think make us weird are actually quite normal, and all the rituals we blindly follow are actually really weird—from expecting women to wear uncomfortable shoes that make them taller (but not so tall as to scare straight men) to buying a $25 candle that smells like an ocean that doesn’t exist.

As a biracial woman living in the Midwest, Mia is intimately familiar with the more awkward aspects of being a person today. Whether offering advice on how to ask about someone’s race, reflecting on how to quit a job that compels you do shots of whiskey on your lunch break, or coming to terms with her religious childhood while feeling spiritually seen in the skincare aisle at Target, Mia takes readers along as she brilliantly unpacks what it means to be a beautiful, professional, horny, cute, gross human, with essays including:

Depression Isn’t a Competition But Why Aren’t I Winning?

With sharp humor and wit, Mia shares the awkward, uncomfortable, surprisingly ordinary parts of life, and reveals why it’s strange to feel fine and fine to feel strange.

Mia Mercado is a writer whose work focuses on feminism and identity politics. She is a staff writer for Bustle and has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, McSweeney’s, Reductress, Bust, American Bystander, Gizmodo, and The Hairpin. She lives in Kansas City, Kansas.

Mia Mercado: Weird But Normal