Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for the Modern Geek is a 2014 humorous children’s novel by American author Maya Van Wagenen. Written when Van Wagenen was only 15 years old, the novel follows a fictionalized, slightly younger version of Maya as she embarks on a quest to become popular at school. Starting from what she believes is social rock bottom, Maya tries to adopt the mannerisms and interests of the “cool girls,” in particular those of Maya Cornell, a former teen model she idolizes. Ultimately, the curling irons, accessories, and Vaseline on her eyelids only make for a laugh, teaching Maya the value of being herself. The novel is considered a helpful companion to young girls’ coming-of-age in a society that sometimes tells them their natural looks and personalities are not enough.

The novel takes place in the early 2010s. In the eighth grade, Maya says that she is a “social outcast,” though not much real evidence supports this belief. One day, Maya’s dad presents her with a copy of a book by the model and author Betty Cornell, Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide. Maya is enamored of the ideas put forth in the book, which seems to promise to help her solve her unpopularity woes. She doesn’t notice that the book is obsolete, many of its recommendations preposterous; for example, it proposes that teenage girls can smear Vaseline on their eyelids to enhance their beauty. Maya’s mother naively suggests that Maya improve her social standing by doing everything in the book. At the same time, Maya’s father, who found the 50-year-old book in a closet, does not expect Maya to cling to it so fervently.

Maya, who is used to thinking of herself as barely more notable than the substitute teachers at the bottom of the middle school totem pole, devises a new beauty and fashion routine based on a religious adherence to Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide. Beyond the Vaseline trick, she wears old-fashioned pearls, a vintage girdle, and a hat and gloves, even during class. She succeeds in being noticed, if not for the reasons she intended. Rather than helping her fit in, her transformation causes her to stand out. Perceiving her as a bold risk-taker, her classmates start to respect her for bending the middle school’s social norms. Each month, she commits to sitting at a different table in the cafeteria, getting to know her classmates better. Though she faces several setbacks (usually in the form of classroom bullies and judgmental moms), her perseverance, along with the moral support of her best friend, Kenzie, helps her rise in the ranks.



Toward the end of the novel, Maya takes stock of the changes she has made in her life. She recognizes that her newfound feeling of belonging is not due to the changes she made to her looks. Rather, it is thanks to her persistent effort to connect to all of her classmates that she has carved out a space in the middle school’s everyday life for herself, developing a social identity she is proud of. On top of everything else, she gets a chance to meet Betty Cornell. Popular: Vintage Wisdom for the Modern Geek suggests that true popularity is not fleeting or superficial in nature, but the product of being one’s natural self.