In the book Brand-New Emily by Ginger Rue, Emily is not popular. She wants to be part of the coolest clique “The Daisies” but instead becomes a target for them. “The Daises” are made up of Alexa, Meredith and Heatherly--the leader and the meanest of the group--who love embarrassing and teasing Emily. When Emily gets an interview with Colby Summers, the 17 year old pop teen sensation for her school newspaper, she knows that the days that she has spent getting embarrassed and teased will be over. After her interview with Colby, she walks out slowly and overhears that Colby is a 28 year old guy, has a wife, a child, a name that is not his own and is totally fake. Getting an opportunity of a lifetime, Emily goes to New York’s most powerful public relations firm; the company that Colby’s publicist works at, and threatens to tell his secret if they can’t give her what she wants: popularity. She gets Colby’s publicist named Brynn, who teaches her how to become a teen sensation just like Colby. While going through different sessions with Brynn about how to dress, act and talk; Emily learns that being popular is hard but staying true to yourself is harder.
Popularity is an issue everybody knows. This book doesn’t only speak about popularity, it explores what it means to be truthful to yourself. In the beginning of the book Emily is a sweet, nice and caring person. But by the middle of the book, she becomes mean and selfish to everyone who is not popular. Instead of setting a good example to others, she turns into a “Heatherly”. This book made me think differently about popularity because unlike in other books, Emily realizes what she is doing is wrong when she is doing it but doesn’t stop. The reason why she keeps on doing it, confused me as I became more engrossed in her story. Does she only care about being popular? Does she not care about hurting others? Does it make her feel good to have other people under her control? These questions pulled me into the book.
In many other books, popularity is a central issue. Most of the time there is a “popular crowd” and a main character who wants to be popular. This is also seen in movies, such as Mean Girls. But in every book or movie, the main character realizes that being popular isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Initially the thought of being popular would bring them more friends, boyfriends, power and the ability to do what you want when you want it. But in this book Emily is so hungry for the popularity, that she just can’t stop-it’s like eating a tub of ice cream even though you feel sick.
This book made me think about the idea of forgiving and forgetting. Emily knew she made a huge mistake and regretted being mean and taking advantage of people. She wanted everyone to know that she was sorry for being unkind, disrespectful and dishonest. She wrote a poem to share with her grade in the hope that the friends that she made while she was popular would forgive her and see who she really is. Are they really her friends though? If they are, would they forgive her? Would they take the time to try to understand? Would they accept the fact that she hurt many people and be willing to move on and forget that? Would they even accept the real Emily? I wondered if the people Emily hurt and manipulated cared enough to forgive her and would try to understand and relate to what she went through.
I believe you shouldn’t change who you are to get people to like you. Popularity can be a good thing if you’re not changing who you are, being mean or taking advantage of people. You can learn how to use popularity in a good way too. You can stop rumors and gossip, stick up for people, make changes to your school and inspire fellow students to do the right things. This book is very different from any other popularity book I’ve read because the main character spoke about her mistakes to her school. Emily and I both learned a lot from the choices and actions that she made in her story. Sometimes, I wish that I was more popular but then I think about how lucky I am to have friends and family that love me, good grades, a home and food; I discern that’s all I need. Getting what you want in life can make you simply want more. Be happy with what you have and reach farther.
i agree many people change as they realize these things. i just think it is sad that they had to change in order for someone to like them. People should just be who they are and not let anyone dictate how they will dress and act. What happens when there is no more popularity contests when u get a job and your twenty six. would it have mattered if you were queen bee in high school or would it matter if you have a good life? it's sad that popularity has come to dictate many kids lives :(
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