In 2005 author Scott Westerfeld published Uglies, the first book in a best-selling series about a dystopian world where everyone is considered “ugly” until they get beautifying plastic surgery at the age of 16. He’d been inspired by a friend who moved to Los Angeles, and was told by his new dentist he needed a “five-year plan” to fix his teeth.

Set 300 years in the future where every citizen undergoes a government-mandated plastic surgery to make your face symmetrical, your eyes big and bright, and your body perfect, “Uglies” is a masterclass in young adult dystopian literature.

Even filming wrapped up three years ago. How did you remain patient for so long with this project? Scott Westerfeld: Well, I mean, it is kind of funny. First, there was a pandemic, and then there was a writer’s strike and an actor’s strike. I felt like ...

At long last, fans of Uglies, Scott Westerfeld’s iconic 2005 YA dystopian novel, have received the long-awaited screen adaptation. Somehow, Westerfeld’s series—a teen-targeted social commentary on beauty standards and our collective obsession with them—was skipped over in the late-aughts-to-early-2010s era of making movies out of bestselling postapocalyptic YA novels that gave us franchises like The Hunger Games,

Based on Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 novel, and starring Joey King, Uglies is full of dated YA dystopia cliches. Uglies is streaming on Netflix now.