Maya Van Wagenen's Analysis

When Maya has friends over she tries to keep them sheltered from that part of her life, because she doesnt want them to know about the kind of culture she belongs to. When you look out into the world many people relate to Maya, they all want to hide the kind of culture they grew up in and the kind of lifestyle they live in. These people will hide who they are on a day to day basis because of their culture. These people try to avoid the question “whats that” or “why is that hung up and what does it mean” or they just want to avoid being bullied because of

In An Argument for Being a Poser, Liz Armstrong describes the crucial dilemma every young person faces about their identity, and to which subgenre do they belong to. Armstrong argues that such question can be both totally ridiculous, and actually very important; which leads to beginning of the process of discovering “who you are.” Furthermore, she describes the fictional subculture that you chose for your escape; within your chosen subgenre you don’t have to pretend to be different, and people understand you. In other words, your chosen subgenre is your place of escape, it is the place where acceptance and freedom is present. Besides, the fact of looking for a hidey-hole, she informs us with a life changing situation at the age of 16 years old. She describes the experience as being life changing, the kids she came across were simultaneously were role-playing and professing as being someone which they weren’t part of. Consequently, Armstrong used that moment to adapt to new change, which she describes as “not dressing up or being normal again.” She describes herself looking like a punk one day with a spiked collar, a crushed-velvet mini skirt the another day. Thus, for that reason she couldn’t fit in with honor students, nor the art kids. She couldn’t fit in with the honor student because for them she was too weird, but for the art kids she couldn’t draw. For this reason, she went from being a straight-A student to a what she describes a poser. Furthermore, Armstrong argues

Julia decided to conform to the new style that she saw on the Miss America Pageant. She shaved her legs and straightened her hair to look more “American” (Alvarez 92-93). Julia changed her appearance to hide the fact that she was an outsider and this cosmetic change made her fit in better. Since she began watching the beauty pageant, she watched the contestants have careers like being a lawyer or an accountant. This gave her hope that she could do something besides being raised to be a housewife (Alvarez 95). She was able to get through having to change her looks, knowing she could someday have a

Author, Alexandra Robbins, in her novel The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, describes her quirk theory and establishes its credibility as she centers her theory around seven different characters as she narrates their high school experiences. Robbins focuses on the negative effects of popularity and how social norms can affect an individual, regardless of what social group they belong to. She creates an amusing, informative tone in order to appeal to the geeks, freaks, and popular crowds with relatable experiences and strong essays in regards with the social scene, exclusivity, and how one handles a given situation.

To begin with, in the memoir Popular by Maya Van Wagenen, Maya is faced with numerous external challenges. In particular, talking to the most popular people at school. Maya has always wanted to be friends with them but she has always been afraid and intimidated by them. For someone at the lowest of the popularity chart to talk to the most popular would be like breaking a rule. To illustrate, “I’ve been working up this moment all month long. All year, for that matter. Today I sit with the jocks, the most popular people at our school: the highest of the Volleyball Girls and Football Faction all together at one table” (203). This shows just how how hard it is for her to talk to them. In fact, she’ll have to face Carlos Sanchez, who makes fun

First of all, there was this body whose daily changes she noted behind the closed bathroom door until one of her sisters knocked that Carla’s turn was over. How she wished she could wrap her body up the way she’s heard Chinese girls had their feet bound so they wouldn’t grow. She would stay herself, a quick, skinny girl with brown eyes and a braid down her back, a girl she just begun to feel could get things in this world.” (Alvarez,71)

“Mean girls, jocks, band nerds, geeks, and freaks” are all terms used to stereotype and group teens in the 2004 movie hit, Mean Girls. This film created controversies in the content that it delivered. The credibility of adolescents is questioned greatly in this film. Mean Girls taught us that popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, in fact, they taught us that it’s actually meaningless. Through extreme character development, this movie shows the viewer that at the end of the day, all of the teens are the same. They all struggle to fit in, and that’s really the moral of this hilarious, but raunchy story. Mean Girls captures the struggle that every teen seems to have at some point of where they belong and how they relate to everyone around them. The film takes those stereotypes and melds them into what all high schools should aspire to be: a community.

Both artists, Maya Lin and Andy Goldsworthy, use nature to express their feelings through art. Goldsworthy uses nature more in a temporary art setting. The sculptures he creates are all from objects surrounding his project. Whether it is made of rocks, leafs, branches, ice sickles, and many other surrounding objects. Maya Lin on the other hand brings in all the materials that she uses on her sculptures. Lin strives to show the way nature or a piece of land once was and how important it was to the tribes that lived off the land. Lin has also done a lot of memorials such as the veteran’s memorial in Washington D.C. and she also did a statue or table for Yale University showing the amount of women that have gone to Yale over the years.

In the 2011 WNBA Finals, the Minnesota Lynx swept the Atlanta Dream, 3-0. It was Maya Moore’s first year of playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). In her five year WNBA career she has already won 3 championships, played in two summer olympics', played in a women's basketball league overseas, and won many different awards. Today she is recognized as one of the best women´s basketball players in the world.

I bought the memoir “Popular” knowing a good amount about the topic mainly because I attend a school where popularity is a big thing. Even though this memoir is mainly for females, I believe males would find this book intriguing. Maya Van Wagenen’s adventure is informed in this memoir about how she turned from being at the bottom of the popularity scale, to climbing up to the higher up spots. What was unsettling about this memoir was how deficient and cruel Maya’s area was. For example, an innocent eighth grader from another school even got shot at for carrying a pellet gun to school. A drug war also took place in Maya's area, making me change the way I looked at the world. Realizing that the world isn't always in joyful times. Also, this

Maya had a very difficult childhood. At a young age her parents split up, and she and her brother were sent to live with their grandma in Stamps, Arkansas.

The short story that is being analyzed is titled, “Note to Sixth Grade Self” written by Julie Orrigner. The central idea of this short story is a grown woman reflecting the troubles she faced in the time that she spent in the sixth grade. The main focus was the author trying to illustrate the struggles she experienced as an adolescent girl growing up in a world where she felt she was outnumbered by the popular students and the girls that were more pristine than she. This story beautifully illustrates the challenges many women face growing up and the insecurities that people face as they develop as humans. The author faced troubles being viewed as an awkward social outcast; the story is written in a way that illustrates the thoughts process and anxiety that a typical sixth grader would feel in a position where he or she feels out of place.

Discovering that the topiary was closed, A.J and the guard converses about disappointing a child at a young age and its growing consequences. However, A.J. reveals that the main purpose of taking Maya to the topiary was not solely to give her the experience, but because of a personal motive. “Even if her father’s real purpose was a sexy girl in Providence.” (Zevin 123)

The hallways of Central High School were filled with greetings and decorated with friendly smiles as Stephanie Herron entered the crowded campus. As the Central High “Golden Girl” and Junior Student Body President, everyone naturally admired her: teachers, students, parents. A smaller, less noticeable figure walked alongside the idol. Although vice-president Maria Anderson was as popular as Stephanie, she always felt a twinge of jealousy when Stephanie was given more attention than her. Whatever Stephanie had, it was everything Maria had wished for. Whether it was something as big as popularity or something as small as getting the last fry at lunch. Stephanie was always the star and Maria was just the mere sidekick.

Furthermore, Robin makes a note to highlight the manner in which Maya royals manipulated art and architecture to express power i.e. location of buildings (center, north, elevated) and depictions of the lower class as captives, depriving them of agency and value. An even more nuanced observation of Maya life can seen in the comparison