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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In my DD’s grade, the most unlikely girl emerged as the queen bee and still is two year later. She is short, average looking, and by many accounts quite mean. [/quote]

Read an article somewhere about popularity and the factors that are good predictors of whether someone will be popular are often whether they are older than their classmates and whether they are the youngest or the oldest sibling in the family.  There was a boy that everyone wanted to hang out with in my son's first grade class and it was because he had older siblings (sixth grade, middle school) so he was very 'cool' for a first grader -- wore trendy clothes, knew slang, rock groups, etc.

The studies that talk about whether being popular is ultimately good or bad for children also point out that the popular groups do tend to grow up faster than the regular kids -- an earlier interest in hair and makeup, rock music, dating and flirting.

I also remember one girl who was friends with my daughter who had a mother who seemingly couldn't wait until her daughter became a teen ager.  she had a birthday party for her daughter in maybe second grade where she invited high school girls to come and teach the girls all the trendy dances.  This isn't as blatant as setting up all the play dates and choosing all the friends, but it's behavior aimed at helping to ensure your daughter becomes one of the popular girls.

As I recall, psychologists also distinuish between popular and powerful kids, especially girls.  There are those who are kind of like feared and respected because they practice relational aggression, but also those who are simply charismatic. [/quote]

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