Some things never change and apparently that stands true for pearls and girdles.
An interesting article by the Associated Press caught our attention. The story highlighted a teenage girl who discovered through experience that when you take a visit back into history, you can gain knowledge that will make the present and the future an extraordinary.
Not a believer? Then read Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen.
“Popular” originated as an experiment encouraged by teenager, Maya Van Wagenen’s parents. They challenged their then non-social, eighth-grade daughter to follow the advice from “Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide” written by teenage model, Betty Cornell in 1951, and used the book’s advice in secret and journal the experience and responses.
“It didn’t seem like a good idea at all,” she commented in a recent interview. “I was terrified because flipping through the pages you read about all teens must wear a girdle and wear pearls to school and wear pantyhose and red lipstick and stuff that I definitely wasn’t comfortable doing.”
“I realized I did want friends and I did want to be liked and I did want to be accepted and while I didn’t have a clear-cut definition of popularity, I knew that it wasn’t what I was. More than anything, I didn’t have anything to lose, so I said, ‘You know what? I’ll try it for a month.’”
We are sure she is extremely glad she followed her parent’s advice because 15-year-old, Maya Van Wagenen is not only social, but she also has a great book and a possible movie in the works with DreamWorks.
In the beginning of Van Wagenen’s experiment, she was 11-years-old and “pretty much [on] the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here” and she realized as she began to follow the Teen-Age Popularity Guide’s steps by spending more than five minutes on her hair, dressing up, wearing curlers, girdles, and even a strand of pearls. She noticed she was becoming more outgoing but she also noticed she was getting “Popular”.
She found that the real-life results were hilarious, painful, and filled with unexpected surprises but she decided to tell the story with humor and grace, along with how she has a better understanding of what it means to be popular.
This is absolutely amazing and inspiring! Sounds like a book definitely worth reading. What about you? Will you be reading?
Photo Credit: shellyandzach.blogspot.com
