Canada’s Waterside Studios is developing a new live-action teen series for Netflix based on the Geek Girl book series by British author Holly Smale.

The publishing range follows a socially awkward neurodivergent 15-year-old girl, who must learn to juggle high school and high fashion after she lands a major modeling gig. Waterside’s 10 x 30-minute series will launch on Netflix everywhere except Canada, where it will air on Corus Entertainment’s broadcast platforms. 

Corus-owned Waterside and Nelvana (The Hardy Boys) are co-producing the project with London-based RubyRock Pictures (Heartless) and Toronto’s Aircraft Pictures (Circuit Breakers).

The Geek Girl book series features eight titles published by HarperCollins between 2013 and 2017. They have collectively sold more than a million copies worldwide, and are available in more than 30 languages. In 2014, debut novel Geek Girl won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in the teen category, and the Leeds Book Award in the 11-14 category. 

This latest adaptation is a part of Waterside’s fledgling development slate, which also includes limited series The Last Wish of Sasha Cade, based on Cheyanne Young’s 2018 book of the same name. Corus set up the studio last year under the leadership of YA author Jeff Norton to cater to a market demand for more book-based and live-action youth programming.