Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek

Maya Van Wagenen

Apr 2014 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Amber Faith and Lee Adams

About this audiobook

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 Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular?

The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise—meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.
 

**Includes a PDF of Maya's digital photo album

About the author

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 a rural Georgia.  She is a sophomore in high school but still shares a room with her sixth grade brother.  Remarkably they have not yet killed each other.