Anonymous wrote:A cool popular person would NEVER ask this question.

+1
very strivery question.

Urrrrgh.

As a Brit growing up in london I always noticed Americans cared so much about being popular from movies and tv. We never used that word and it didn’t even really work like that there. People had different friend groups but no one was ‘popular’. Who cares if larger groups of people find you palatable? Large groups of people like terrible things like Applebees and guns. Raise a kid who is themselves.

Anonymous wrote:A cool popular person would NEVER ask this question.

PP clearly peaked in HS and can’t let go of the glory days.

Height athleticism and ridiculous good looks is my motto

You will never be satisfied

You can’t.

The goal is not "to raise popular kids." The goal is to raise authentic kids. Being authentic attracts the right kind of relationships and can result, but it's not what's important, can result in being very popular.

I think the better question to ask is "how raise confident kids?"

For girls it is social skills + looks + money. The social skills part is about confidence. You can’t really give it to someone, but a horrible abusive parent can quash it. Looks are what they are, but style goes part way — grooming, knowing how to style your hair, what to wear and how to style it and wear it casually and with confidence (there is that confidence again). The money part is controlled by parents—so OP if you have it, that will help; vacay at the right places, the right clothes, a cool car at 16. But this probably has the least affect on things.

For boys social skills, height, sports ability and money. These don’t really need explaining, other than that I would add that for boys humor is a key part of the social skills component.

Anonymous wrote:Like, our country is burning.. and this is your question? Why..

Look at the date when this thread began.

Cool kids are born, not raised. I can’t tell you how many families I know with one cool kid and one who is not. They had the same parenting and opportunities. Popularity is based on characteristics that are innate. The last thing you want to raise your poor kid to be is a striver, which is someone who does not naturally have the “it” factor and tries so hard it’s obvious. Please don’t do this to your kid.

Anonymous wrote:How is it that some kids just naturally seem to be “cool” and popular? How much of parenting/social grooming is involved? How much is natural?

Have good genes, good JEANS and money.

Popularity in school doesn’t matter after school. Any mature, well-adjusted parent should know their job is to raise a successful, productive adult, not relive their own self-esteem issues from school years and project them onto their children. So many PPs and OP need to grow up.

There are 8 pages on this?

A cool popular person would NEVER ask this question.