"School is the armpit of life," my best friend Kenzie once told me. My School is no exception.

A memoir, POPULAR is written by 15 year old Maya - a self-proclaimed 'geek' who's baffled at her school's Social Ladder. The jocks, the volleyball girls, the band kids, the outcasts, it felt like a jungle to her. Then Maya meets Betty - or more specifically, the 1952 edition of 'Betty Cornell's Guide to Teenage Popularity' andshe embarks on a brave - and secret - social experiment.

Maya follows Betty's vintage wisdom - one chapter at a time (from 'poise' to 'personality' to 'hair' - and even her seat in the dreaded cafeteria) for each month of her school year ahead. In POPULAR, she chronicles the hilarious and poignant results - right up to the culmination of her grand experiment: prom.