If you were the popular kid in school...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I guess all of the PPs went to high schools that were VERY different from my own. At my HS, the "royalty" in the popular crowd could only be described as vicious - downright nasty, vindictive, unkind people. There was a second circle of nice popular people - well liked by all and also attractive and wealthy (which goes a long way toward being popular - the poor kids aren't often top of the social heap). Interestingly, two kids who would have been considered total nerds during our freshman year ended up being homecoming king and queen our senior year, because they were awesome people and universally liked by everyone...except the competitors for the crown. You would not believe the shock and horrorified looks on the faces of the queen bee and her assumed king when the "dorks" got crowned homecoming king/queen. Priceless.

You went to high school in a high school movie?

Different poster, but I went to the high school that Mean Girls is based on- New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL and it was VERY much like this. There were maybe 10 or 15 different lady's restrooms around the school and they had to lock most of them so that they could proctor the unlocked bathrooms because of bulimia and cocaine use. All the popular girls had Louis Vuitton planners and wore loads of Tiffany jewelry to school. There were certainly "theme" days, girls of certain cliques would dress up and go to school in like outfits. Boob jobs and nose jobs were a common Sweet 16 gift, hell they were a common Bat Mitzvah gift when we were in junior high. The school parking lot had a couple crazy expensive cars, I knew a kid who drove a Lamborghini to school, another who drove a Rolls Royce. Range Rovers were the NORM.

Needless to say, I was a HUGE dork and spent every free period and lunch in the dark room developing photos or eating my lunch alone at my locker. I played field hockey but no one on the team would really talk to me. I was the chubby/ugly girl on the team and all the others were pretty popular.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you so much for your answers... I'm loving it!

[Anonymous]

This post is so funny! One can only guess at the age range of responders, but it's so easy for all of us to time warp back to our social standing in high school! Anyone else think it's amusing that one of the pp's resorted to accusing op of lying about whether she was really from another country or actually just lying about being "unpopular?"

I was probably a total dork, though I desperately tried to be an

[Anonymous]

See, goofy enough to be incapable of finishing my sentence before hitting "submit!"

Anyway, am self-professed dork who wanted to be anything but in high school. Having said that, college was a blast!!!

[Anonymous]

I graduated from a local high school in fairfax county in 97. The "popular" crowd included the somewhat pretty girls/cute guys (mostly who had money to have nice clothes/cars) and they were aloof to the rest of the school for sure. A girl I was "best friends" with in second grade before I went to another school completely snubbed me when I saw her again. And yes, she remembered me.

I was part of the "smart kids" group, we were not popular, but towards senior year, we blended a bit with the popular group.

Our homecoming queen was beautiful, sweet, not terribly wealthy, and NICE TO EVERYONE. Like went out of her way to talk to everyone from every social status all the time.

Today...I'm happy. Much more so than in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was part of the in crowd. I tried hard to be there, I guess. In fact I think I might have been the "hottest girl in school"s slightly less hot sidekick for a while. I enjoyed high school but the effort to maintain the look, the attitude, etc, was a bit exhausting. I was relieved to leave high school and reinvent myself as someone who was NOT lurking at the edges of the cool crowd. I was never mean to anyone, nor did I really feel most people were mean to me, though there were a few ferociously bitchy girls, I think there are some of those everywhere. The meanest girl in our "crowd" was not the most popular -- kind of like Rizzo in Grease, you know? Kind of an outlier herself. I have no earthly idea what happened to her but most of the girls who were popular in my high school have aged poorly. I feel that I've aged well, but maybe that's just wishful thinking! I do know that the dudes I longed to date in high school have completely gone to seed. I feel really mean just saying that, but it's true. They're all really heavy and unhealthy looking, and many of them are now sporting completely non-ironic mustaches.

I went to a large public HS that fraternized with mainly another large public and a parochial HS. There were super people at the other public and popular crowds in various areas. Gossip about who dated who and cool v not cool. I was a nerd but got caught up in social scene based on who [guys] liked me because of looks. Range of outcomes for people.

I did see the mean girl stuff in college and it is similar to what DC's experience in privates here. Entitlement based on social position, girls used to being the princess [ despite looks], blatantly aggressive girl on girl behavior.

[Anonymous]

Different poster, but I went to the high school that Mean Girls is based on- New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL and it was VERY much like this. There were maybe 10 or 15 different lady's restrooms around the school and they had to lock most of them so that they could proctor the unlocked bathrooms because of bulimia and cocaine use. All the popular girls had Louis Vuitton planners and wore loads of Tiffany jewelry to school. There were certainly "theme" days, girls of certain cliques would dress up and go to school in like outfits. Boob jobs and nose jobs were a common Sweet 16 gift, hell they were a common Bat Mitzvah gift when we were in junior high. The school parking lot had a couple crazy expensive cars, I knew a kid who drove a Lamborghini to school, another who drove a Rolls Royce. Range Rovers were the NORM.

Needless to say, I was a HUGE dork and spent every free period and lunch in the dark room developing photos or eating my lunch alone at my locker. I played field hockey but no one on the team would really talk to me. I was the chubby/ugly girl on the team and all the others were pretty popular.

I went to a summer camp with a lot of girls who went to New Trier, and although the PP doesn't need me to vouch for this, I'm going to anyway. Those girls were unbelievably, jaw-droppingly, eye-poppingly mean, and looking back I seriously doubt they were even close to the stratosphere of cool at that school but that's how it was. The summer that we all became high school freshmen it was so bad I never went back to that camp again.

[Anonymous]

On the flip side, I didn't really like a lot of the popular kids in my high school and didn't want to be close friends with them or anything other than polite conversation. I found a lot of them boring to talk to and a lot of them were super jocks and talked about sports way too much. I got stuck as a lab partner junior year with a cheerleader who was very popular and played 3 other sports. She was nice enough but spent so much time playing sports that she had few other interests. I was into shopping, make up, movies, boys, etc. I remember it was hard for us to find something common to talk about - thanks goodness we were both honors students so we could complain together about teachers and assignments at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different poster, but I went to the high school that Mean Girls is based on- New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL and it was VERY much like this. There were maybe 10 or 15 different lady's restrooms around the school and they had to lock most of them so that they could proctor the unlocked bathrooms because of bulimia and cocaine use. All the popular girls had Louis Vuitton planners and wore loads of Tiffany jewelry to school. There were certainly "theme" days, girls of certain cliques would dress up and go to school in like outfits. Boob jobs and nose jobs were a common Sweet 16 gift, hell they were a common Bat Mitzvah gift when we were in junior high. The school parking lot had a couple crazy expensive cars, I knew a kid who drove a Lamborghini to school, another who drove a Rolls Royce. Range Rovers were the NORM.

Needless to say, I was a HUGE dork and spent every free period and lunch in the dark room developing photos or eating my lunch alone at my locker. I played field hockey but no one on the team would really talk to me. I was the chubby/ugly girl on the team and all the others were pretty popular.

I went to a summer camp with a lot of girls who went to New Trier, and although the PP doesn't need me to vouch for this, I'm going to anyway. Those girls were unbelievably, jaw-droppingly, eye-poppingly mean, and looking back I seriously doubt they were even close to the stratosphere of cool at that school but that's how it was. The summer that we all became high school freshmen it was so bad I never went back to that camp again.

Were you at New Trier in the late 90's? The reason I ask is that my friend went there in the late 90's and I hung out with some of her friends, it never came up that things were that bad. If it's at the same time period, I want tto call her and ask her. I did play soccer against New Trier and I remember all fo the girls being fiercely competitive and at least a head taller than all the girls on my team. They looked pretty glam even on the soccer field.

[Anonymous]

I went to a Fairfax co HS--graduated in 1988. There were no cliques--everyone got along. We were a very successful and accomplished class---many over-achievers.

I was in a large group of the student body officers, athletes, etc and ppl were nice to everyone. There was 'zero' mean girls or stereotypical Hughes-film jocks and freaks.

My sister is 4 years older and her class def. had that 16candles type atmosphere--but their class had a lot more 'burners' and kids not set on going to a 4 year college.

I think 99.8% of my graduating class went directly to a 4 year college--and there were a lot of top schools--ivies and public ivies, etc.

[Anonymous]

There are highschools with zero mean girls?

I'm not sure my life would have been the same without the popular girls putting me in my place. I think I developed a great sense of humor and an ability to smile while being stomped on that has served me well.

Although, I do have to say I am embarressed to look back and realize I was probably mean to the kids in the group that was less popular than me. Not sure why.

[Anonymous]

I had a lot of friends but wasn't a "cool kid." I'm still in touch with some of the popular kids from my high school. there were a few that were mean girls, but not many. Most were nice people - they just didn't circulate much outside their circle. I went to a really big high school (nearly 2,400 people) so it was hard to know everyone. I had a few diverse activities (chorus, lit mag, track/cross country) so I probably knew a wider range of people than most.

It's funny, my high school was like the anti-John Hughes-movie high school. Everyone pretty much got along. There were a ton of jocks and cheerleaders in my honors classes and Natl Honor Society, and they were generally nice to the geeks. (the band was pretty geeky, plus the chess/math clubs, etc.) The somewhat nerdy class valedictorian was dating a very popular cheerleader; they later married. Went back for my 20-year reunion recently and nobody had really changed all that much. The nice people were still nice; the mean girls weren't there. Most people seemed pretty happy with their lives. I hope my daughter gets a similar experience!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are highschools with zero mean girls?

I'm not sure my life would have been the same without the popular girls putting me in my place. I think I developed a great sense of humor and an ability to smile while being stomped on that has served me well.

Although, I do have to say I am embarressed to look back and realize I was probably mean to the kids in the group that was less popular than me. Not sure why.

Yes. I posted directly above you and I think my HS had none because:

1) the popular kids were also the smart kids, athletes, etc. (our jocks were not dumb jocks)
2) the HS had a very middle class pool..there were no extremes (very rich or very poor); everyone came from a fairly similar financial background.
3) we did have ethnic diversity and there was no bias
4) the class was predominantly filled with over-achievers with 4year college on their minds.
5) we were of the nancy regan 'just say no to drugs'--while there was alcohol at parties--very little drugs.
6) maybe we were all a little dorky.

[Anonymous]

I was way too cool to be popular. So, of course, I WAS sought after - by the boys in particular. I partied, hung out in the city with artsy college kids, etc. Oh, how rebellious and cool I must have seemed! haha. Went to a lily-white rich suburban school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different poster, but I went to the high school that Mean Girls is based on- New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL and it was VERY much like this. There were maybe 10 or 15 different lady's restrooms around the school and they had to lock most of them so that they could proctor the unlocked bathrooms because of bulimia and cocaine use. All the popular girls had Louis Vuitton planners and wore loads of Tiffany jewelry to school. There were certainly "theme" days, girls of certain cliques would dress up and go to school in like outfits. Boob jobs and nose jobs were a common Sweet 16 gift, hell they were a common Bat Mitzvah gift when we were in junior high. The school parking lot had a couple crazy expensive cars, I knew a kid who drove a Lamborghini to school, another who drove a Rolls Royce. Range Rovers were the NORM.

Needless to say, I was a HUGE dork and spent every free period and lunch in the dark room developing photos or eating my lunch alone at my locker. I played field hockey but no one on the team would really talk to me. I was the chubby/ugly girl on the team and all the others were pretty popular.

I went to a summer camp with a lot of girls who went to New Trier, and although the PP doesn't need me to vouch for this, I'm going to anyway. Those girls were unbelievably, jaw-droppingly, eye-poppingly mean, and looking back I seriously doubt they were even close to the stratosphere of cool at that school but that's how it was. The summer that we all became high school freshmen it was so bad I never went back to that camp again.

Were you at New Trier in the late 90's? The reason I ask is that my friend went there in the late 90's and I hung out with some of her friends, it never came up that things were that bad. If it's at the same time period, I want tto call her and ask her. I did play soccer against New Trier and I remember all fo the girls being fiercely competitive and at least a head taller than all the girls on my team. They looked pretty glam even on the soccer field.

I am a little younger than that (I must be what someone on another thread considered an "uneducated" mom because who would have kids soo young!?!?!)... I only went to NTHS for a year because I couldn't take the atmosphere. I transfered to Catholic and had the best high school experience after leaving the super catty and status driven popularity contest that was New Trier. However, I went to grade school with all those kids and they started acting that way in 5th grade. They are still that way from what I see on Facebook. Looking back, it's bizarre that in 7th grade I thought I needed $150+ jeans and head-to-toe designer outfits.