Emma Straub says Miss Piggy shaped her confidence and new novel

By AI, Created 4:31 PM UTC, May 18, 2026, /AGP/ – Emma Straub says Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life helped form her confidence, taste and body image, in a new conversation on Books That Changed My Life. She also ties that lesson to her latest novel, American Fantasy, which draws on a New Kids on the Block cruise and the joy of middle age.

Why it matters: - Emma Straub links a childhood pop-culture obsession to the values that shaped her life as a novelist and bookstore owner. - The conversation connects her personal formation to American Fantasy, her latest novel about pleasure, self-possession and reinvention in middle age. - Straub’s comments also frame bookstore ownership as creative but demanding, offering a candid look at the real work behind a romanticized independent-bookstore life.

What happened: - Straub appeared on the YouTube series Books That Changed My Life with host Chris Collins. - In the conversation, Straub described Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life as a formative influence she first absorbed at age 7. - Straub also discussed the cruise experience that inspired American Fantasy, out now from Riverhead Books. - The episode included Straub’s reflections on running Books Are Magic, the Brooklyn bookstores she owns with her husband.

The details: - Straub said she grew up in an Upper West Side brownstone with books all around her, as the daughter of a novelist and a literacy specialist. - She said Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life landed as more than comedy and became transformative. - Straub credited Miss Piggy with shaping her confidence and her sense that authenticity matters more than outside approval. - Straub said Miss Piggy offered a model of womanhood centered on self-possession: “What matters is your supreme confidence in yourself.” - Straub connected that influence to Books Are Magic, where she said she once dreamed of working in a bookstore because the job seemed like talking to people about books all day. - In 2016, after her former employers announced their retirement, Straub and her husband opened Books Are Magic within six months. - Straub said bookstore ownership has realities she did not fully anticipate, including public access, managing employees, thousands of unread emails and rain coming inside the store. - Straub described bookstore ownership as the “most challenging and most rewarding” part of her life. - Straub said American Fantasy grew out of her desire to write something joyful after This Time Tomorrow, which she wrote in the wake of her father’s death. - She said she went on a New Kids on the Block cruise to find that energy. - Straub described the women on the cruise as people who spend their lives caring for others and then, for a few days, put themselves at the center. - American Fantasy follows a recently divorced woman on a fan cruise and centers on pleasure in middle age. - Straub said fiction gave her room to be more honest than memoir would have allowed.

Between the lines: - Straub is using a playful, highly specific pop-culture reference to make a broader point about identity, aging and permission to want joy. - The Miss Piggy connection also reinforces a recurring theme in Straub’s work: self-invention can be serious, even when the source material is funny. - Her bookstore comments cut against the polished image of literary entrepreneurship and suggest the emotional labor is as real as the cultural cachet.

What’s next: - Straub’s American Fantasy is now on sale from Riverhead Books. - The Books That Changed My Life conversation is available to watch in full here. - Books That Changed My Life says future episodes will continue featuring public figures sharing the books that shaped them. - The show’s recent guest list includes Eric Benét, Susan Lucci, Andrew Bustamante, Lisa Rinna, Jenna Johnson and Kelsey Grammer.