If you think wearing girdles, pearls and clothes that make you identical to a substitute teacher won't help catapult you into middle-school popularity, you might be surprised.
In 2011, a bullied, shy and insecure 13-year-old Maya Van Wagenen reluctantly accepted a challenge from her mother to read and apply advice from a 1950s teen popularity guide as a writing and social experiment. The author of the booklet, titled “Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide,” which Van Wagenen’s father had purchased some years earlier as an amusing piece of vintage pop culture, promised following her guidelines could elevate anyone’s social status.
“I was struggling so much in middle school,” Van Wagenen, now 17, said in an interview. “I had a terrible time making friends. I was bullied and had an incredibly low self-esteem. I didn’t know how to stand up for myself and for other people.”
Van Wagenen’s memoir, “Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek” (Speak, $10.99, ages 12 and up), which was published in June 2013 and has recently been released in paperback, outlines her hilarious, embarrassing and enlightening journey to achieve popularity among her unforgiving middle-school peers while adhering to outdated fashion guidelines and pushing boundaries of established cliques.
Each month, Van Wagenen focused on one aspect from the book, including physical aspects, such as her figure, hair, skin, makeup and clothes, as well as less visible aspects, such as money managing, dating and overcoming her shyness.
“Every day, I would take notes on what people said, their reactions, my own thoughts,” Van Wagenen said. “Over the weekend, I would take all of those notes, written on little scraps of paper or the edges of worksheets … and I would transfer those into a journal format. Day by day, (writing) descriptions of what had happened and taking those notes allowed me to use the actual dialogue and keep some of the details that make the book so interesting.”
Although Van Wagenen has always been a writer (even dictating original poetry to her mother at age 4), “Popular” is her first novel-length project. Now, she has the distinction of being the youngest non-actor to make a movie deal with a studio after selling film rights for “Popular” to DreamWorks.
“Memoir-writing is difficult, especially when it is published so soon after it occurred,” Van Wagenen said. “So that was a little bit nerve-wracking to imagine that these people that I knew would be reading my own personal thoughts and feelings, and some might recognize themselves.”
So far, Van Wagenen hasn’t had any comments from peers who might have recognized themselves, as all of their names were changed in the memoir. Only her best friend knew about the project and was allowed to pick her pseudonym.
But the memoir and Van Wagenen’s entertaining journey aside, it was the result and the impact the message had on both her and readers that made the experiment a real standout. For Van Wagenen, she found courage to become the person she wanted to become.
"Seeing I could help other people and make people feel good made me feel good too,” Van Wagenen said. “I realized that I had a lot to offer, and that realization really shaped the situations I go into and the way I go into them. Even though there is that shyness and that insecurity, and I think there always will be, I try not to let it shape what I do and instead do my best to live boldly. That way, I don't regret situations where I could have helped people or handled things better. I am less afraid to speak out and to be myself, and I think that has been an incredible gift to have throughout high school."
Van Wagenen’s favorite thing to come from the publication of the book has been receiving letters from readers all over the world detailing their own struggles and how her story has affected them.
“Every time I get a letter, I sort of savor it. It’s such a wonderful, incredible experience for me to hear what these girls think of the book and to know that I’ve had at least a small impact on them.”
But it isn’t just young girls. Van Wagenen has heard from boys and girls alike: teenagers, college students, parents and even grandparents who read Betty Cornell’s book when they were young.
Van Wagenen’s true message, however, isn’t about achieving popularity; it’s about redefining it.
“So often in movies and TV shows, it’s shown as something hierarchical and based on bullying and peer pressure,” Van Wagenen said. “But that’s not the kind of popularity that Betty Cornell wrote about, and it’s not the kind that I’ve experienced. Instead, her definition was based on reaching out to other people, presenting yourself in a way that made you feel confident, and extending your circle of friends to those who needed that support. I think that definition is timeless.”
If you go ...
What: Maya Van Wagenen book signing
When: Tuesday, July 14, 7 p.m.
Where: Provo City Library, Room 309, 550 N. University Ave., Provo
Web: provolibrary.com
Note: Event is free; no tickets required.
Hikari Loftus is a graduate of the University of Utah. She blogs at FoldedPagesDistillery.blogspot.com.