Tolentino contextualizes the essays that make up Trick Mirror, explaining that she wrote them in 2017 and 2018, when she was confused and upset about the 2016 presidential election. She notes that current events had instilled self-doubt in her as to whether she is the same person in real life as on paper, writing that “In this book, I tried to undo their acts of refraction. I wanted to see the way I would see in a mirror. It’s possible I painted an elaborate mural instead” (x).

Tolentino briefly summarizes the subjects the book’s nine essays, then explains that the title of the collection as a whole comes from a piece she wrote while at the feminist website Jezebel that she no longer remembers having written. This leads her to the realization that " all my life I’ve been leaving myself breadcrumbs" (x).