Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek

Are you popular?

There was no character development, no advancement of any kind. Very one-dimensional.

So, I was billed that a “teenager” found an old “How to Be Popular” book and decided to implement it for a year and see what happens. I think only middle schoolers consider 13 year olds to be teenagers. I think this book would have felt quite different if written even by a 14 year old, but the maturity gap between middle school and high school looms large, and I found this too juvenile to appeal to an adult audience. In addition, I found myself really judging the amount of makeup, attempted dating and dieting that occurred. To be fair, I judge the relationship of adult women and makeup, dieting and weird interactions with men, but I simply don't think middle school is the right age for these things.

I also felt really disheartened by the throw-away comment at the end that in her pursuit of popularity, Maya found herself distanced from her actual close friends. She seems overjoyed that she now has lots of friendly acquaintances, but I felt really sad for her. As someone who's been on both sides: a few really close friends, and a lot of friendly acquaintances (the key to being popular in my current life is having an adorable small child, and I succeeded!), it's the few close friends that are worth the long time investment.

So, juvenile book or old-fashioned fuddy-duddy reader? You decide.

OK, so when I started hearing buzz about this I didn't realize that the author is currently 15 years old? I knew the gimmick was about a girl who used an old 50s “Guide to Popularity” to try to give herself a personality makeover, but for some reason I assumed it was written by someone who like, grew up in the 90s or 00s, found the 50s book, and then wrote this memoir about this years later? But no, it's ~fresh.~ I think that will make a huge difference in selling it to teens & tweens!!

Anyway, it's a really fun and funny read, with some actual good advice–mostly that pretty much everyone feels shy and awkward sometimes and might be waiting for someone else to make the first move. But Maya also doesn't hold back on writing about times when following this 50s advice got her teased. Interwoven with the popularity stuff are some pretty moving moments involving a beloved teacher's death from cancer, her younger sister, who has autism, and memories of her other younger sister, who tragically died before the timespan of this memoir.

Smart, funny, and relatable. I also think this is a great one for adults who work with kids but don't have kids to read for its portrayal of high school life–how, at least, at Maya's school, some things (cafeteria table claiming) seem about the same as we remember, but others (lockdown drills) are a liiiittle different.