Camille Stochitch is a Paris-born author, director, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, where she has lived and worked for over a decade. She studied American literature at the Sorbonne before building a successful career in film and television, co-creating original projects and earning recognition on the festival circuit. Alongside her creative partner and husband, Alexander Berman, Camille has expanded her storytelling into young adult fiction with her debut novel Love Goes Viral—co-written with Berman and fellow author Estelle Laure.
Camille’s work blends humor, heart, and contemporary themes, exploring how digital culture shapes identity, relationships, and what it means to find authentic love in a world obsessed with likes. Love Goes Viral has been praised for its relatable dual-perspective narrative and its thoughtful look at life in the spotlight, marking a striking debut in the YA romance landscape.
Love Goes Viral follows Love Thompson, an aspiring pop star whose life explodes online and then crashes just as fast. What inspired you to explore the highs and lows of social media fame through Love’s story, and what do you hope readers learn about the real impact of going “viral”?
Before this project even started, I was working as a director in Los Angeles. I directed a YA series called “Attaway General” for Youtube and Hulu, and the producers decided to only cast famous influencers in the main roles. This experience inspired the story for “Love Goes Viral”. It was an eye-opening to work with young adults or teens who were thrown into stardom overnight because of TikTok, and now had to work non-stop to keep that status, between posting, dance classes, partnerships, parties, networking… It was not all positive for sure, and the idea in “Love Goes Viral” was to explore how you stay true to yourself among this chaos that is internet fame.
The book blends contemporary YA romance with internet culture and a “fake relationship” trope — all while touching on fame, image control, and authenticity. What drew you to this particular combination of themes, and how did you approach balancing humor, heart, and commentary on online life?
The idea was to have a bit of an updated “Notting Hill” rom com for young adults in the social media age. So instead of a famous actress (Julia Roberts) falling in love with a “nobody” (Hugh Grant), we have an aspiring pop star / current internet star who falls in love with the boy next door. Adding classic romance tropes like a fake relationship, a small-town boy, and a love triangle was a bonus. As you pointed out, the goal was to keep a romcom tone and make fun of this crazy world and internet culture we live in, while still addressing important subjects that everyone needs to navigate today. But interestingly, the tone became a bit more serious with each draft.
Love’s relationship with Austin Grey starts as a strategic PR move but evolves into something much deeper. How did you and your co-authors work together to craft an emotional arc that feels grounded and real despite the spectacle of fame and followers?
That’s such a good question! It was very hard – lol. We really wanted readers to connect with Love, because deep down she’s just a girl with artistic ambitions who got thrown into a world that’s not hers. With each draft, we tried to work in more of Love’s backstory and made sure her inner monologue highlighted her true personality and her struggle with the whole fake dating scheme. Ultimately, she chose Austin because she always had a crush on him, and he always reminded her of who she truly is (and not just because she’s from Austin!).
You studied American literature at the Sorbonne and now work as a director and screenwriter in Los Angeles. How has your background in film and story craft influenced your approach to writing a YA novel — especially one so focused on performance, image, and storytelling both online and off?
I was an English major and always thought I’d become a teacher, but then realized I needed more (like Love, I guess?). I moved to LA to go to film school in my 20s and then started working as a screenwriter and director. Like I mentioned before, my experience with young actors on set heavily influenced the story of “Love Goes Viral”. And a lot of my writing process is to imagine a scene visually, then add dialogue.
Love Goes Viral is a collaboration with Alexander Berman and Estelle Laure. What was your creative process like working as a team on this story, and how did you navigate blending different voices and perspectives into one cohesive narrative?
Alex and I were already a writing team before “Love Goes Viral”, so we have our own process as screenwriters. Basically, we outline the whole story together, then split the sequences between each other, write them, give each other notes, then rewrite. Having never written a novel before, we partnered with Estelle, who’s an experienced YA author, to navigate this new medium. We swapped drafts back and forth and rewrote together until the story felt ready to be shared. Our editor at Simon & Schuster, Alexa Pastor, helped a lot in the process too.
INTERVIEW: YA SH3LF