Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek

Maya Van Wagenen

4.03 · Rating details · 10,221 ratings · 2,141 reviews

A touchingly honest, candidly hysterical memoir from breakout teen author Maya Van Wagenen

Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here,” Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornel ...more

Get A Copy

Or buy for

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published April 15th 2014 by Dutton Books for Young Readers (first published January 1st 2014)

More Details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Popular, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Nerdfighting Blurbing Book Club

9 books — 13 voters

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

YA Nerd/Geek Books

185 books — 334 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

4.03 ·

Rating details

· 10,221 ratings · 2,141 reviews

Filter

Sort order

Jun 14, 2014 Christine Riccio rated it it was amazing

<3 so much love for this book here's the video i made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBbyue...

flag 99 likes · Like · see review

Apr 15, 2014 Rachel Hartman rated it it was amazing

Full disclosure: my agent sent this to me to read. I told him I might, if I had time. I didn't imagine I'd have time, and this didn't really sound like my kind of thing.

Well, I think this line from one of my reply e-mails says it best: "I wasn't going to read it, and then I couldn't stop reading it."

This wins on voice, darlings. Witty, wry, honest, heartfelt voice. Of all the elements of writing, I really feel like that's the one you can't fake.

flag 52 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2016 Kristina Horner rated it it was amazing

This book was so delightful, and so much better than I expected it to be! Maya's writing is a treat, and the message in this book - while absolutely perfect for younger readers - still rang true for me as well in my late twenties. I am so impressed this was written by a 15 year old. It's hard to believe, but the voice is so genuine and honest it must be true. :)

flag 35 likes · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2016 Sophia rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars

it's hard to review this book because i want to review it like i review novels (works of fiction), but that wouldn't be very fair. overall, this book, in the end, shares a good message, despite having some issues with telling it in the most effective way.

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2014 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2014, biography-memoir, books-readers-writers, on-shelf, nonfiction-reference, humour-satire

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

In a nutshell: Popular is the story of a brave and beautiful young girl, Maya, whose account of her school year is as fun as it is inspirational. I found myself wishing that I could have been like Maya when I was at school; if not that I could have been able to befriend her.

Memoirs are something I usually shy away from. On one hand, they’re very interesting reads but at the same time, I struggle to relate to the authors. The
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

In a nutshell: Popular is the story of a brave and beautiful young girl, Maya, whose account of her school year is as fun as it is inspirational. I found myself wishing that I could have been like Maya when I was at school; if not that I could have been able to befriend her.

Memoirs are something I usually shy away from. On one hand, they’re very interesting reads but at the same time, I struggle to relate to the authors. The great thing about Popular is Maya’s voice - it’s young and it’s fun. It’s the perfect narration for a life that’s very similiar to my own, up until the social experiment. Reading Popular took me back to a time when I was at the bottom of the social hierarchy, sometimes with friends but more often alone. Like Maya, I spent a lot of the time in the library and there was something both in terms of my appearance and my poor social skills and elf esteem meant that I was always a huge distance from the ‘popular crowd’. This is where my story dramatically differs from Maya’s. I probably won’t be remembered, unless I’m referred to as ‘that nerd who likes books and didn’t talk much’. Maya did become popular - eventually.

I felt so connected to her and her story. My own experiences with popularity helped me to fully appreciate what she did. I was in awe at how bold she was and in turn, I was inspired. I hope that people who were in my situation (and Maya’s) read this book and learn from it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you should go around wearing pearls and lipstick, but learn from Maya’s experience and take action in your own life. I don’t think I could ever do what Maya did - I can’t put into words how much respect I have for (and how crazy I thought she was) - but I do regret isolating myself. Popular taught me many things but above all it taught me that sometimes other people are as anxious as I am. Sometimes it’s best to take the initiative and start a conversation, because someone else might be just as worried about meeting someone new as you are. It also made me think about what popularity really meant and that becoming popular isn’t so much about what you wear or how you have your hair, but how you act. Just standing a little straighter and having more confidence in yourself can make a difference.

I’m so genuinely happy for Maya’s success. She’s only 15 years old and she has a book and a movie deal, and she was named one of the most influential teenagers of last year! Her journey was a wonderful experience to read. Sometimes I laughed, other times I cringed but by the end, I felt uplifted. This book will touch the hearts of a lot of young people. ...more

flag 26 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2015 Colette rated it really liked it

All middle-school girls should read this book! Maya creates a relatable voice and acts as a role model for all adolescents facing the same social issues as she faced. Thank you Maya for being brave enough to share your story and in turn inspire others to put themselves out there and have the courage to face rejection, but more than that, to be accepted as their true selves!

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Apr 13, 2014 Fenia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-like-drugs, fluffiness, my-horcruxes-in-books, my-current-book-obsessions, forever-re-reading

I flew through the pages of this book. It sucked me in and i couldn't get out. It is such a beautiful book. Maya is so brave and strong and talented and knowing that she did all those things,that THIS is her life..its brilliant and genious. I LOVE IT.

I used to be that girl. The unpopular girl. (maybe still am,just dont care,or maybe i do) And this book is amazing. The courage it takes to follow through her plan,the tests she went through...were all worth it in the end. You can see her ('see' yes ...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2014 Kate rated it it was ok

I feel a little guilty giving this book 2 stars. The author is young, and obviously a very nice, driven person who will go far. I wouldn't want her to stumble across this and feel badly. But I use this website to keep track of my reads and my thoughts, so I had to be honest. And then I saw that Steven Spielberg had bought the rights to her book, and I didn't feel so bad anymore.

I picked this book up because I was looking for something quick and mindless. It had such great ratings, I thought this ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2018 Alice-Elizabeth (marriedtobooks) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2018

I found an ARC of this one day by chance, after this was sat on my shelf for over two years, I finally sat down and read it in two sittings. It was such an interesting read, following the life of Maya, who goes to school on the US/Mexico boarder and isn't popular. She then learns about a guide written by Betty Cornell, published in the 1950s and having tips on how to be popular. Maya decides to follow the guide, with a chapter tested each month. In the process, she learns about fashion, hairstyl ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Jul 19, 2014 Viola rated it liked it

Considering that this book was based on the diary of a thirteen-year-old, it was fairly well-written.
I say "based on", because I'm pretty sure about 60% was cut, and the other 40% were heavily edited by people including, but definitely not limited to Maya van Wagenen.
I love the original concept of this book: Taking popularity tips from the 1950s and applying them to a modern middle school, and indeed, my favorite parts of the book were actually the quotes from Betty Cornell's popularity guide.
Ma Considering that this book was based on the diary of a thirteen-year-old, it was fairly well-written.
I say "based on", because I'm pretty sure about 60% was cut, and the other 40% were heavily edited by people including, but definitely not limited to Maya van Wagenen.
I love the original concept of this book: Taking popularity tips from the 1950s and applying them to a modern middle school, and indeed, my favorite parts of the book were actually the quotes from Betty Cornell's popularity guide.
Maya seems like a very nice and smart kid, but the problem is that I can't connect to her because the book was so heavily edited so it'd only display how her changes were received at school. I could glimpse snatches of her family life, but really, I only knew two things about Maya: She liked writing, and she wanted to be popular.
I also think that instead of placing some emphasis on her hobbies and passions (I don't even know what her favorite book is), she and all the editors involved tried to tug on my heartstrings a little TOO much. Yes, she lives in a bordertown near Mexico where the drug and gang wars are actually visible and audible across the border, and yes, one of her favorite teachers dies, but how am I supposed to sympathize and empathize with this girl when all she can say is that "she cried", and I really don't know anything about her?
I'm not trying to diminish her suffering, which I'm sure was painful to endure, but I don't see why to include it in the book when she's not keen on sharing anything else about her life.
Semi-spoiler: I also felt that maybe she was spewing a few too many "kindness is totes important, kids" lines toward the ending. Especially because the whole outer changes got way more pages than the inner ones about changing your attitude. That would be fine, because lamenting pacing changes in a non-fiction book is just kind of stupid, but there are other ways to drive your point home in a few pages than to just repeat the same pseudo-inspirational bogus over and over again.
That said, I thought the ending was very cute and would've emphasized the ultimate lesson even more if it hadn't been for all the set phrases leading up to it.
Ultimately, I just really want to read Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide. ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2014 Vivek Tejuja rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don’t think I have ever been popular. I don’t even know if I ever wanted to be popular in school or at college. It would have been nice to be known by everyone and probably accepted, but then looking back it was not so bad, or maybe it was and that is why I do not remember half or most of it. There are times, some things are better forgotten. This month, right at the start of the month I have finished reading a book I would love everyone to read. It was then written by a fifteen year old who i I don’t think I have ever been popular. I don’t even know if I ever wanted to be popular in school or at college. It would have been nice to be known by everyone and probably accepted, but then looking back it was not so bad, or maybe it was and that is why I do not remember half or most of it. There are times, some things are better forgotten. This month, right at the start of the month I have finished reading a book I would love everyone to read. It was then written by a fifteen year old who is now seventeen. The book is called, “Popular: A Memoir: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek” and I also think all teenagers should read it, because they will need it the most.

“Popular” is all about fitting in and at the same time it is about trying to find the person you are and will become and perhaps be for a very long time. Maya was facing a problem at school. She was right low at the social chain. She did not seem to exist to the others. And she wanted to change all of it, without knowing how. Till she stumbled on “Betty Cornell’s Teenage Popularity Guide” – which was written in the 50s by Betty Cornell and decided to follow most sections or tips from then book on how to be popular and make diary entries of her experiences each month. Maya decided that she would do it for a year, which later turned out to be this fascinating book.

This book is mostly aimed at teenagers (or maybe not) and yet at thirty, I felt I could connect the most with the book. The book is in sections – diary entries, Betty’s tips and Maya’s Popularity tips as well. The action plays out on the Texas/Mexico border and in Maya’s school, her home, her neighbourhood - almost everywhere and place she is acquainted with.

“Popular” is a personal account of how things can change for you, if you want them to, with a little help. The writing is honest and more so from a fifteen-year old perspective, it is mostly endearing and you can almost feel what she goes through at various stages of making changes and yet goes with them anyway.

I think what works with this book is the stark reality of growing-up which at some point all of us have faced. I think that is what made me go through the book – with smiles and tears. “Popular” can be read at any age and by anyone. It is most reassuring and also makes you believe that things can change and perhaps people will look at you differently if you allow yourself to be just you.
...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Nov 16, 2016 Lady Midnight rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-irl, review

Omgness I really enjoyed this book and I admire Maya so much!
4 out of 5 stars

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2016 Adiee rated it really liked it

Книга за порастването на едно момиче...

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 26, 2014 Alison (AlisonCanRead) rated it liked it

Have you seen Popular gracing the shelves of your local bookstore? I picked it up, because it's been all over mine, along with the reissued copy of Betty Cornell's Popularity Guide, which Maya relied on for advice. Not only that, but Maya is in a bunch of teen magazines and even got a movie deal. I had to see what the hype was about. Popular is an enjoyable, quick read, but I also found its premise somewhat troubling and thus finished it with mixed feelings.

The basic premise of this book is that Have you seen Popular gracing the shelves of your local bookstore? I picked it up, because it's been all over mine, along with the reissued copy of Betty Cornell's Popularity Guide, which Maya relied on for advice. Not only that, but Maya is in a bunch of teen magazines and even got a movie deal. I had to see what the hype was about. Popular is an enjoyable, quick read, but I also found its premise somewhat troubling and thus finished it with mixed feelings.

The basic premise of this book is that 8th grader Maya follows a popularity guidebook from the 1950s. Each chapter of the book reflects a month Maya spent focusing on a particular part of herself to change. Things like hair, makeup, weight, posture, and eventually personality.

My first complaint is that this book is focused so much on altering one's appearance. Semi-spoiler: Maya concludes that her increase in popularity over her 8th grade year is actually due to working on her personality - on being open and nice to everyone. So the message of beauty from the inside is there, but doesn't get as many pages.

I wonder what I would have thought of this book when I was 13. Maya looks and sounds like a very typical awkward 8th grader. In fact, with her glasses, braces, dark hair, and a tan complexion, she looks so much like me in 8th grade that it's almost scary.

As an 8th grader, I desperately wanted to be popular. I literally dreamed about it. As an adult, I realize that 8th graders are inherently evil, surpassed only by the cruelty of 7th graders. If she'd given herself a year or two, she would have found a comfortable social home without having to change herself. Also, she did have a best friend at the start of 8th grade - a time when I had 0 friends. They are still friends at the end of the book, but not as close. I think she should have appreciated what she had rather than looking for something better, a mistake I often made as a teenager.

I wish the book had given us greater insight into what Maya liked to do for fun other than try to become popular and write. I learned more about her from the book flap than I did the book itself. Rather than portray herself as a normal, geeky girl, she tried to tug at our heartstrings by playing up all the bad things that were happening in her life. It's the downfall of many a college applicant. Regular life is too boring, so you have to make everything seem like life or death.

She tells us about the illness and eventual death of a teacher. She tells us about the death of her infant sister 8 years prior that apparently permanently changed her psyche. She tells us about lockdowns at her admittedly scary-sounding Mexican border-town school. At all these things, she describes herself as crying. This girl cries so freaking much. I am not as sympathetic to her tears as I should be, because I felt like she wrote that she was crying, because she's not a good enough writer to adequately describe her emotional state. If she was indeed crying as often as she said, I hope her parents took her to a doctor because that's not normal. My middle school experience (apart from various deaths) was a lot worse than what she described and I didn't cry nearly that much. She needs to develop a thicker skin.

On the plus side, the book was very readable, fairly well-written, and quite amusing. I particularly liked that Maya didn't present herself as a fairy tale transformation. Not all of her changes were received well. In fact most weren't (honestly, she looked so ridiculous in her attempts to dress "classically elegant" that 8th grade me would have laughed at her too). It seemed quite realistic. Also, Maya seems like a cool girl with a good head on her shoulders. She was going about this with good intentions. I can't be too hard on her for that.

Popular is a book worth flipping through to see how 1950s advice can be translated to the modern day. Plus it'll take you back to 8th grade - a year that I'm sure all of you would love to relive. I can't fully support it, because I dislike the idea that Maya needed to change herself at all and also wish she'd told use more about herself instead of focusing on the irrelevant drama in her life.

Also, I can't shake the feeling that this is a publicity stunt. Doing something weird and then writing a memoir about it is a popular choice these days, but I don't know that it's wise to thrust a teenage girl into that position. Plus I wonder if the book was at least partially ghost-written. I didn't see a reference to a writing assistant, but I'm always suspicious. I wouldn't buy this one, but definitely grab it at the library or skim it at the bookstore and let me know what you think!

Rating: 3 / 5
...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2015 Kristen (kaymaldo) rated it it was ok

Shelves: memoirs, contemporary, high-school, diversity, e-books, coming-of-age, family, friendship, 100-book-challenge-2016, reviews

I was really excited going into this book because I had heard a lot of great things about it. I think the concept is really smart and interesting, but to be honest it fell short for me.

The beginning of the book was kind of boring and there were a few moments where I felt like the author was judging people who didn't do things the way she did. For instance there's a part where she says she wasted a bunch of hours away reading a bunch of teen fashion websites and should have spent her time reading ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2014 Kathy rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, read-in-april-2014, young-adult

Cute. It's an interesting idea, and it's very well done. Who'da thunk pearls would be one of the items that translated well down the generations? And there is a really strong "message" (don't worry it's NOT a sermon, and there is no preaching) about the way we see ourselves and what it really means to be "popular". Did I say "well done"? I meant it.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2015 alexandra ling rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: penguin, influential, read-2015

i really enjoyed this novel and watching maya experiment/grow was so much fun. full review to come! (:

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2014 Aleishas Reviews rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, top-favourites, stand-alone

What an inspirational book!

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 24, 2015 Hannah rated it really liked it

This book gives a whole new insight on the hell hole that is High School. We follow a girl who is at the bottom of her schools "popular" hierarchy, till one day when she finds a book about how to be popular taking place in the 50's. She uses the skills the book has and applies them to modern day life. She goes through this whole self- discovering and meanings chapter in her life and the character growth is astounding! It shows what the definition of popular has different meanings to everyone and ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2014 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014-reads, non-fiction

Honest, funny, and FREAKING ADORABLE. Would my daughters hate me if I said I wished they were more like her?

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Nov 02, 2017 Fernanda Granzotto rated it it was ok

2.5 stars
This book has really good and important points, but unfortunately I could not connect with the characters.
But it's a book that I recommend you try to read, maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2017 Racheli Zusiman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: teenagers-young-adults

ספר מקסים מקסים מקסים המבוסס על יומן אמיתי שניהלה הכותבת בכיתה ח'. הוא מתוק, נוגע ללב ובעל מסרים מאוד יפים, וממש נהניתי לקרוא אותו. מומלץ לכל בנות הנוער באשר הן.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 03, 2014 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography-memoir

This girl's amazing. I know that she probably had some editorial help, but I still can't believe a thirteen-year-old girl can write so well. Thirty-year-old Jessica is jealous, and the ghost of thirteen-year-old Jessica is crying her eyes out somewhere deep inside me. I wish I'd had this back then. It would have been a really good thing for me, I think.

I had a really unique high school experience. I went to a small, rural school district where almost everyone was somebody’s cousin. If there wer This girl's amazing. I know that she probably had some editorial help, but I still can't believe a thirteen-year-old girl can write so well. Thirty-year-old Jessica is jealous, and the ghost of thirteen-year-old Jessica is crying her eyes out somewhere deep inside me. I wish I'd had this back then. It would have been a really good thing for me, I think.

I had a really unique high school experience. I went to a small, rural school district where almost everyone was somebody’s cousin. If there were serious clique issues in my graduating class, I was completely unaware of them. I wasn’t a particularly social teen, so it’s possible that I was just oblivious but the social strata I experienced was primarily made up of what we called “rutters” (the poor kids you might otherwise think of as rednecks) and everyone else. It might have been a lot harder if you were considered a “rutter,” and I know it was a lot harder for the few minorities and gay kids, but otherwise social status wasn’t a huge part of the conversation. It’s not like everyone was friends or we existed in some teenage utopia or anything, but we didn’t have the strictly defined cliques you’re used to seeing in media portrayals of high school.

All that being said, I did spend a lot of time thinking about being “cool” and fitting in. I was shy and socially awkward. I had a hard time making conversation with people and often resorted to sarcasm as a defense mechanism. In retrospect, I probably came off more as a jerk than as an insecure girl but it’s really hard to put yourself out there in such a confident way. It’s still something I’m working on in my thirties. That’s why thirteen-year-old Maya is so impressive.

Maya describes herself as living on the bottom rung of popularity – above only the people who are paid to be at school. She hangs out with her small group of Social Outcasts, all of whom mostly just try to keep their heads down and get by. Then one day, she finds an old copy of the sixty-year-old book Betty Cornell’s Guide to Teenage Popularity and decides to follow the advice inside for her entire eighth-grade year and write about the experience. She does things like follow specific haircare and skincare routines, dresses like a 1950s teenager, and learns how to go out and talk to the kids she’s always been scared of.

Maya strikes me as what we old fogies would call “precocious” – I mean, she managed to get a book published by the time she turned fifteen. And she had the stones to undertake this kind of project in the first place. Not many adults would be brave enough to walk up to total strangers and make conversation. The lessons that Maya ultimately learns—popularity isn’t so much about your clothes or your hair as it about your attitude and the way you make others feel – may seem kind of obvious to anyone who’s out of school, but I super highly recommend this book for parents of daughters who are in middle or high school.
...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2014 Jeann (Happy Indulgence) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, review-copy, penguin-australia

This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

Popular is an incredible, hilarious, and achingly honest and emotional memoir about popularity. It asks and answers, what is the definition of being popular? Is it to have the most friends, be the most respected and known at school, is it to be the prettiest or the one that is best at sports?

Maya Van Wagenen’s journey is a real life social experiment and she’s written her day to day accounts of following a vintage guide to po This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

Popular is an incredible, hilarious, and achingly honest and emotional memoir about popularity. It asks and answers, what is the definition of being popular? Is it to have the most friends, be the most respected and known at school, is it to be the prettiest or the one that is best at sports?

Maya Van Wagenen’s journey is a real life social experiment and she’s written her day to day accounts of following a vintage guide to popularity - Betty Cornell’s Teenage Popularity Guide. Each chapter, she follows a different part of the Guide, and slowly works her way up to the major changes she’ll have to make. It’s sprinkled with charming photos of her and her family, and Maya’s honesty, wit and bravery shines through her words and her photos.

At the start, Maya is an insecure teenager at the bottom of her schools’ social ladder. She feels fat and ugly and gets teased and bullied by countless people at school. Seeing her transformation into a confident, self-assured girl who makes a mark on her peers was extraordinary. From changing her hair everyday, to wearing vintage 1950s gear to school, to sitting at different tables dominated by the different subgroups at school, nothing is out of bounds in her quest for popularity. No matter how embarrassing it is, Maya is to be admired for her bravery and devotion to Betty Cornell’s advice.

“Maya, go play with those kids over there. They look nice.”
“No,” I’d protest.
“Well, why not?”
“Because I don’t like the other children.”
That statement has shaped my entire life.

The glimpses of the rough neighbourhood on the Mexican border that Maya lived in were fascinating, as a world so different from mine. Mexican drug lords making a deal? No problem. Pregnant teens and gangster members at her school? Sure. The school under threat from an armed assailant? Just another walk in the park.

This book made me laugh (Hobbit monologue anyone), it made me cry, and it made me root for Maya and hope for the best. I absolutely LOVED this book for the inspirational message behind it. It helps us understand that things are never what we perceive them to be and if we take time to find out about the wonderful people around us, we will be rewarded with the same respect and consideration too.

Maya’s journey was an inspirational one, and her achievement of being a published author at 15 is amazing. Her memoir hits home that no matter how impossible the task is, if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything.

For anyone who ever felt unsure of themselves, this book is for you.

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen Australia for bringing this book into my hands at PTA Live, because I never would have have heard about it otherwise! ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2014 Katy Noyes rated it it was amazing

Maya would have been my heroine at thirteen. I'm still socially awkward now, but have grown up to cope adequately with new people (though I avoid may social settings where I'd be uncomfortable). What every school needs is a Maya.

This is no-fiction, if you're wondering. A diary of teenager Maya's life. But not an ode to 'why haven't I got a boyfriend?'. This is her warts-and-all portrait of herself and her efforts to become more popular through one school year in middle school.

It impressed me fr Maya would have been my heroine at thirteen. I'm still socially awkward now, but have grown up to cope adequately with new people (though I avoid may social settings where I'd be uncomfortable). What every school needs is a Maya.

This is no-fiction, if you're wondering. A diary of teenager Maya's life. But not an ode to 'why haven't I got a boyfriend?'. This is her warts-and-all portrait of herself and her efforts to become more popular through one school year in middle school.

It impressed me from the cover that Maya is the youngest ever (non-actor) to be offered a film deal with large studio Dreamworks, and the writing inside impressed me more still. Maya writes with maturity, humour and insight. She goes on a quest to improve herself, to improve her social standing, and ends up improving her own self-knowledge, self-worth, and self-confidence. It's a moving transformation and one I smiled and warmed at.

The remarkable thing about the book (apart from Maya's tender age) is that Maya gets her inspiration to begin this journey from a fifty year old Guide to Popularity, written by a teen model of the 50s, Betty Cornell. Following her guidance on clothes, makeup, poise and eventually moving on to extending her social group by talking to those outside her usual circle, Maya gradually blossoms through her writing into a strong-minded and passionate young woman.

I loved this. Really, truly loved this. If only I could have been there to see this teenager fly in the face on convention and wear pearls, dare to sit with the Popular kids, talk to strangers everywhere she went.

Strictly Ballroom has always been one of my favourite films, and I hope Maya wouldn't mind this comparison. She includes photos of herself throughout, bravely. And from the start, it is obvious she is attractive but low in confidence. Like Fran, she has to push herself on others to get what she wants, like Fran she takes risks with her appearance and approaches the unapproachable. And even if her Scott doesn't appear (though at 13, that would be a miracle), she's both a swan inside and out, and a real role model herself.

I felt quite emotional when she contacted Betty Cornell herself, and have so much admiration for this young girl who stuck her neck out (with her loving family's support) and dared to do more than most teenagers I've ever met. Especially in America, the land of the Clique. And in her town too, so vivid here, with regular random drugs raids, teenage pregnancy and social deprivation.

A joy to read, one I will watch as a film, and one I want desperately to put on the UK National Curriculum for secondary school already! ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 03, 2014 Scott rated it it was amazing

Bought the book in the morning and finished reading it in the afternoon. Literally could not put it down (and had to reach for a Kleenex more often than a 52-year-old father of four might be expected to). Teenager Maya Van Wagenen lives and writes an engaging adventure -- a social experiment -- that will, doubtless, inspire many others. She manages to bring precociously-deep insight into the human condition through a fun, and often-dramatic, personal story.

I've often told young people that I wis ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2015 Gabby rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone attending school (preferably Middle School)

Shelves: 6-stars, favorites, z-may-2015, own

I really, really loved this book. Not only was it incredibly relatable, it was also inspiring and funny and heart breaking and all sorts of other things that would take too long to list. And considering I'm in the same grade, if not age, as Maya was when she wrote this and when these events took place, I can relate to this on a whole additional level. I'm so happy that I read this now and not any time later, since I think that I can take things I've learned from this book and use them in the fut ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 20, 2014 Abby rated it really liked it

Shelves: would-read-again

Maya Van Wagenen is an inspiration to young girls everywhere. This girl followed a popularity guide from the 1950's to climb the social ladder and it ACTUALLY WORKED. I never considered myself popular in middle/high school, but when I was reading this book, I realized that I was totally Maya. While I didn't play sports and was a complete nerd, I was the person who was friendly with everyone: dweebs and preps alike. Everyone in my grade knew me and I was never picked on. So according to Maya's de ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2017 K. rated it liked it

Shelves: biography-autobiography-or-historic

3 1/2. Darling. I love Maya's bravery and the things she learned about true popularity.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2015 Sara➽ Ink Is My Sword rated it really liked it

4 Stars

+ I highly enjoyed, it was fun and interesting.
+ I liked how her perspective of popularity changed through the novel, I personaly don't like the idea of WANTING TO BE POPULAR so the annoyed me a little.
+ It was easy to read and quick.
+ I feel girls or boys in middle school would feel more related to it, because I am older I felt something were kind of inmature but I understood I was probably like that as well.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Van Wagenen Bespoke MLB and LinkedIn Images	1	3	Dec 17, 2018 11:08PM
Play Book Tag: Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen - 5 stars	16	31	Dec 12, 2018 06:21PM
2017 Reading Chal...: Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek	1	15	Aug 15, 2015 02:12PM
2015 Hub Reading ...: Popular	1	11	Mar 04, 2015 05:14AM

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

Nonfiction

506 users

Autobiography > Memoir

85 users

Contemporary

82 users

Biography

74 users

Humor

71 users

Young Adult > Teen

53 users

See top shelves…

About Maya Van Wagenen

Maya Van Wagenen

313 followers

Maya Van Wagenen is fifteen years old. When she was eleven, her family moved to Brownsville, Texas, the setting of Popular. When not hunched over a desktop writing, Maya enjoys reading, British television, and chocolate. She now lives with her parents and two siblings in rural Georgia. She is a sophomore in high school but still shares a room with her sixth-grade brother. Remarkably, they have not ...more

Books by Maya Van Wagenen

Quasi famosa. Da nerd a star in 21 capitoli

More…

Trivia About Popular: Vintage ...

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Popular: Vintage ...

“Popularity is more than looks. It’s not clothes, hair, or even possessions. When we let go of these labels, we see how flimsy and relative they actually are. Real popularity is kindness and acceptance. It is about who you are, and how you treat others.” — 78 likes

“No popularity exists when tragedy strikes. All that's left are human hearts and love and ache. We all love each other, deep down, and when we see another soul in pain we can't help but hurt too.” — 48 likes

More quotes…