The It Girl

Gossip Girl spawned a bunch of similar YA titles about rich, over-privileged, mostly white teens and their drama. My favorite of the bunch was this series: The It Girl, featuring Jenny Humphrey from the Gossip Girl series. It Girl was touted as being created by the same author as Gossip Girl but we all know this shit was ghostwritten like crazy and that's fine by me. 

The series follows sophomore Jenny as she makes her way from NYC to Waverly Academy, a posh boarding school in Rhinecliff, NY. Probably the best way to get the plot explained is just listing off all the characters and what they're up to. 

JENNY: Jenny is trying to reinvent herself from a series of bad decisions and drama that got her kicked out of her old school. But she immediately falls into the same bad habits because let's face it, she loves partying and cute boys. She's also an artist and she's genuinely a sweet character, so you have to like her. Jenny has curly brown hair, she's super short, and she's got a DD chest, all of which combine to get her a lot of attention. Jenny is rooming with juniors Callie and Brett.

CALLIE: Callie's mother is the governor of Georgia, though she's never mentioned as having a Southern accent. She's from Atlanta. Tall and skinny with long strawberry-blonde hair. Callie is dating Easy but when he sneaks into the room and then a frustrated Callie flees, Easy plops himself on Jenny's bed wearing only his boxers, and they get caught by one of the dorm supervisors. Callie's main plot is that she's manipulating Jenny to take the fall for her in the Easy incident because Callie, Brett and their former roommate Tinsley all got caught on E the year before, and she's worried about getting kicked out and having to go to Atlanta public school. Callie is a very manipulative character, called out on this by both Easy and Brett. She's very difficult to like. 

Polish cover. I like the color.

BRETT: Brett has my favorite look of anyone in this series aside from Tinsley. And I'm still mad all these years later that she never got a cover. That's Jenny there on the cover for this first book. Callie is on the second but Brett? Never gets shown. Maybe they couldn't find a model so specific. Brett has a sleek chin-length bob that's bright red, "pale, milky-white skin," "almond-shaped" green eyes, seven gold hoops in one ear, and "both her nose and chin came to mischievous-looking points." Easy describes her later as having a "wide-jawed, wide-eyed beautiful face, a little like Mandy Moore's." She sounds like a funky fairy and I've always been disappointed they didn't try to replicate her. A lot of the later books use cover models that don't even match characters. Anyway, Brett's parents are embarrassingly nouveau riche and none of her friends know. She's dating a jock from the neighboring school but gets a teacher crush on her 6-years-older new advisor, who happens to be from a super rich family, and ends up dumping her younger boyfriend and almost hooking up with him. These YA books always have this not-quite-sex thing going on. Most of the couples have been naked together but not actually had sex. 

BRANDON: Callie's ex. Obsessed with grooming and sensitive so a lot of the guys think he's gay. Easy "stole" her from him at a party over a year ago and he's not over Callie yet. He's nice but also too nice. It's annoying. But at least he's there for Jenny a few times when she needs an ear. He's a blond.

HEATH: Also blond, only messier. Heath is the school's male slut, even called Pony because he gets as much ass as one. 

EASY: Horse-riding Kentucky artist boy. Almost hooked up with Tinsley before getting with Callie. They were one of those naked together but no sex pairings, though not an actual couple. Why he is with Callie is beyond me. I don't love Easy because he's always into some kind of trouble and blows off a lot of stuff, but anyone can see the uptight, neurotic, jealous Callie is not a good fit for him. Hair so brown it's almost black, blue eyes, tan. He's got some kind of accent, according to Jenny, so he can't sound overtly Southern. Everyone knows what a Southern accent is. 

JEREMIAH: Brett's doomed boyfriend from neighboring St. Lucius.

Those are the main players. I'll do a quick run through of the others, mostly for my own happiness. I'm trying to keep tabs on what people look like because maybe it will help me make guesses at who some of the later cover models are supposed to be, if anybody.

YVONNE: "Thin birdlike girl with a British accent." Won't be on a cover, poor thing. Nott a popular girl.

BENNY: From Philadelphia. "Pretty in a horsey way." Tall, lithe, thick brown hair, big brown eyes. Major gossip.

RYAN: Very tall boy with a nose ring. His name is Ryan Reynolds. I always snicker about it.  

ALISON: "Short Asian girl with pigtails." This isn't clarified as her but my memory is telling me Alison was the Asian girl. 

CELINE: Olive skin, straight black hair. Field hockey captain alongside Callie. 

SAGE: Ice blonde. Went on safari. Wears too much glitter eyeshadow.

ALAN: Stoner guy. Short brown crew cut. 

EMILY: Gossiped in one of the IM transcriptions. Nothing else on her.

HELENA: Sage's friend. Into theater. Blonde.

TEAGUE: I can't remember if this is a guy or a girl! Future books will tell.

I think that's everyone except for Tinsley because she's not there. Yet. But she will be. 

All's well that ends well. Easy takes the fall for the incident in the girls' room and is put on probation. Again. He's a legacy so he's hard to kick out. Brett and Callie finally discuss the Tinsley drama from last year. Each suspected the other set up Tinsley to take the fall but Tinsley apparently did it all on her own. But she's being allowed back after all. Yay. I love Tinsely. Brett and Jeremiah are broken up. Easy and Callie are basically broken up. Easy and Jenny genuinely like each other. I think that's it.