Unpacking the Clique Franchise
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- #theclique
Hello everyone! I've been waiting to do this video for a while and I'm so excited to share it with you all. Even though I tried to include as much as possible - I inevitably left out even more crazy moments from the Clique series. Def drop your favorite moments in the comments. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy me talking about tweenage media for far too long.
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I’m forever haunted by the fact that my little 12 year old self convinced my parents to name my little brother Landon after reading all the books
the power u hold is indescribable
Incredible
Omg kinda similar but 10 yr old me convinced my parents to name my brother lucas because of the actor lucas grabeel from hsm
Girlboss
@@grey.poupon Lol I also convinced my parents to name my sister after a Disney star (Brenda Song) when I was 10.
i, too, tried to stand up to my 5th grade bullies by going “did i invite you to my bbq? then why are you up in my grill?” 🤪 it made the bullying worse!
I hope you're still slaying
they were haters who couldn’t understand your vision
Every time you mentioned a book I thought “oh, THATS the one where I stopped reading” and to my horror I slowly realized that I, too, actually read the entire clique saga
Hahahahaha holy shit I had forgotten what a sociopath Claire was. This is amazing
hi sarah!! love your videos so much!
Claire reminds me a little of Greg Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. At least in her attitude and some of her behavior. lol
@@Angela.Perkins or Cady from Mean Girls or Jenny from Gossip Girl
Sarah!!! Hi :)
@@caitlingilltai from clueless
Not me refusing to wear gold and silver jewellery together my entire middle school existence because of this series
I still refuse to combine gold and silver for the same reason.
I do too 🤦🏼
Oh my...I forgot where I got that irrational fear from. It was these books.
omg I didn’t realize this series is where I got this from 💀
Also did anyone else get the random hate on for Keds from this series 😂😂😂 I had no opinion on them before but
It's kind of wild to look back on books like these from my childhood as a queer girl. Like they're so aggressively straight on the surface but the boys themselves don't even matter, its ALL about the girls and their relationships
oooooooooohhh
This blew my mind.
Similar to Mean Girls I guess?
ooooh that makes sense.
thats me with all the barbie movies lmao. though a few did have solid male characters, mostly it was all about the girls "friendships"
Me thinking there were like seven books… “THERE WERE TWENTY?!? DOES IT FOLLOW THEM THROUGH RETIREMENT?!?”
Funny enough no they don't even graduate middle school
@@leahdavis9434 yep. it ends during the winter of their 8th grade yer
BRO THEY GOT AS FAR AS HAVING MASSIE DATE A 14 YEAR OLD AND THAT WAS IT. SO MUCH DRAMA FOR LITERALLY 2 YEARS OF THEIR LIFE (7th-8th grade) 😂😂😂
lol I follow the author on Instagram and she hinted at making more books ❤️
Wait until you hear about Warrior cats-
“ehmagawd” the way i modeled my entire life after these books back then is embarrassing 🤣
becoming brand aware and wanting to be “alpha” of my own clique did not do me or my personality any favors
UR NAME HELP
I have been saying "Ehmagawd" for the longest time and forgot where I had got it from. 😩
stop because i did the same thing…
Girl I was 12 years old born into poverty tryin to be Massie Block of all people 💀 the cope I had tryin to get through middle school by pretending to be a fictional spoiled character 😭
The fact that middle school boy books were fantasies about the hero within yiu but middle school girl books were realities about the villain within you...
Diary of a Wimpy Kid tho
@@morbidsearch greg heffleys frightening villainy and psychotic behaviour is an outlier and should not be counted
@@morbidsearchpop
As an Autistic person, I remember reading these books back in middle school and viewing them almost as anthropological studies that I thought could help me understand how to navigate middle school social hierarchies. They ultimately didn’t end up teaching me much about how to be “popular” (thankfully I could tell that most of things these characters do are not something you’d want to emulate lol), but they were actually kind of a useful guide of what things were considered particularly socially awkward or weird or uncool. And they helped me understand the politics of cliques and all the complex rules to social interactions beyond the basic “be yourself and be kind” rule that I’d previously believed was the only rule I needed to know.
I mean I was still bullied terribly all throughout middle school lol, but at least these books made me a little less confused about why that was happening.
hot damn me too!! undiagnosed at the time, but looking back I was totally convinced this book was gonna help me
dude same!! as the other commenter said, i was also undiagnosed at the time, so books like this and any "how to be a person" books were my BIBLES
I feel like this would be true for me, too (if I read the books), and I'm autistic as well. And I think I secretly wanted to read the books but I had a "not like other girls" image to maintain.
Also autistic, also studied these books LOL 😂
Yesssss
OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN MAD OVER THAT SLEEPOVER LINE CHANGE FOR YEARSSSSS
I've never read these books, but I knew that line sounded familiar haha-- I think you mention it in a video
Tell me how I am 26 years old and I can still tell you exactly how I pictured Massie’s pure white bedroom and how I thought it must’ve been so classy
And pop of purple cmon
With the green apples 😅😅
I wanted a MacBook because of her 😂
@@Mej111
I wanted a Palm Pilot because of her hahaha
I read these books religiously in middle school. The era of The Clique, Gossip Girl, The A List, Pretty Little Liars, The Luxe, and Private remains unmatched.
my friends and i had a "nice clique" that we called "PSA: pretty, smart angels" in middle school because of these literary masterpieces. we also had a "blah-g" wherein we would detail the crushes we had with their clever nicknames we gave them 😭 some of my favorite memories
That's so cute 💕
You forgot the completely plot necessary bet that Claire and Massie had where Claire couldn’t outfit repeat and Massie just… couldn’t buy new clothes for a month? What a world we grew up in…
And then at the end they became friends. I loved that book
Massie had 13yr old me fighting with my mom to wear high heels to middle school 😭 the unrealistic chokehold The Clique had on us…..
I was trying dressing like them I used to try an emulate their vibe at church or when I went to town with my mom, church for goodness sake😅
I always wore heels in middle school or at least ballerina flats and I hated taking them off for gym
i love this video sm thank u for ur service
Thank you!! And love your vids 🥺
Same
As someone who had literally never seen these before in my life, I cannot explain to you how lost in the plot sauce I became at Bark Obama
as someone who read all the books, I don’t understand why they decided to name him Bark Obama..
The absolute CHOKEHOLD these books had on me and my personality from ages like 11-14.... Oh *man*. I had a weird preteen/early teenagehood so I still look back on them so fondly despite some of their more... Problematic aspects 😂 And can we just take a moment for the cover designs??? Lives in my head rent free. Those summer novellas tho... Absolutely and truly iconic in every way. 👏🏻
i dont think that publishing company understands how much they impacted zoomers or millennial cuffs. its absolutely crazy and i would love to find out why we have so much mean girl content? it was a big shift from the "nice goofy girl" was it the rise of documented bullying going on in schools?
ex: the clique vs dear dumb diary (to me which is the original finsta) vs the clique the pendulum be pendalin'
I think it all came from the book mean girls was based on - because it was basically a scare piece for parents to worry about clique culture and then mean girls, bratz, gossip girls were all written by the adults who read that book. That’s my guess anyways
There definitely was a rise in bullying awareness. Kids before we’re told they were weak if they got picked on. At least by this point they were calling out the bullies. A lot of us really struggled with mean girls so I was glad about this.
The characters feel so much older when you’re also twelve when you’re reading them. Lmaooo
You could have held me at gunpoint and I probably couldn’t tell you these kids were supposed to be 12 years old.
especially if you also read something like The Babysitters Club and you're like, 'wait, these girls are the same age?'
@@writteninthestars02 esspicially them ! Like I could’ve swore they were at least freshmen in high school😭
I read these back in 2005-2006 and the only line I remember is "there's a letter in your mailbox", said by massie to alicia's cousin for the heinous crime of wearing a thong 💅
😂
My biggest takeaway from these books is how much I wanted a lipgloss of the month. Lol
I don’t (and didn’t at the time) even wear lipgloss.
I wanted that soooo badly
Glossip Girl
I remember when I was reading "Bratfest at Tiffany's," my friends grandparents saw me and chimed, "Oh I love Breakfast at Tiffany's!" And already feeling shame for my literary choices, I did not correct them, but agreed, I too loved that book I have never read.
Hopefully you eventually learned that it’s a movie. Lol
@@CosmicGaijinit was a novella too
Mentioning Bean the black pug unlocked a core memory for me... I would love to see your analysis of the A-List books! Other than Gossip Girl I feel like they are the natural sequels to the Clique novels.
Omg I read so much of the A list as a young teen!!
Was it the mannequin she had for the dog that she put the dog's outfits for her walks on?
i always identified with dylan bc i was the “fat girl” in a diet culture world.. if only if i could go back and tell my younger self i didn’t need weight watchers and i was literally a healthy normal weight☹️
The girl who plays Claire said that the reason the other movies they signed for didn’t get to be made was because of the 2008 recession.
Kind of unfortunate like I lowkey wanted to see how they used the books
yesss, Alicia was my favorite bc i'm Black, and she was described as having olive skin, so she was the closest character I could attempt to identify with😂(I also technically have the same name, so that helped)
LITERALLY the same😂😂😂😂😂 come on POC !
@sewer~rat Was she latina? Or was she Spanish?
Lmaooo me too but she was white bc her mom was Spanish aka white 😂
@@cashmoneychanel1209 nooo literally in my brown bb mind she was latin like me 😭
So I’ve never read the books (I read the Ashley’s instead) but I was obsessed with the film and I never picked up that Dylan was supposed to be “fat”?!? I just thought her mum was toxic af and forcing her ED habits on her child!
They (very understandably) toned it down for the movie. But still wild
To be fair I'm pretty sure that was the point. Like the kids don't know but you're supposed to. There's also an ED plot line with Massey during the camp book.
The Ashleys was such a wild series
Omg I remember the Ashleys. Wasn't the alpha girl terrified of losing her status over a peanut allergy?? Absolutely wild.
The 13 y/o really jumped out with the "well actuallys" on so many minor details you mentioned, that's humiliating for me. jsyk the Hart-netts is a play on Josh Hartnett who was a teen dream actor at the time, not calling themselves harlots
My older brother would always blame my bitchy antics on The Clique Series. Said he was going to sue Lisi for doing this to girls. 🤣🤣🤣
Your older brother got involved with and read up on your favourite book series for that burn? Joke's on him, he was actually being thoughtful
I 100% lived vicariously through Massie. I wanted to be her. I was bullied so badly and dreamt of being popular and running the school as a middle schooler.
Here's the thing...I lived in Westchester at one point in my life. In two places actually. In one town, yea it was more diverse and representative. In another town though? It was a pretty affluent town. And I was one of the maybe 4 black families in the entire place. My family and I felt like circus animals when we moved there cause we were watched so much and seen as different. So the representation in this book?....not that far off
I always was able to picture these books in my head cause I kind of knew where they came from
I’ve been to westchester before. So the books were definitely accurate. Lol 😂
1:46
- 20 books (15 main, 5 novels)
- 1 extra book (Cliquetionary aka dictionary)
- Manga Spin off
- 1 Movie
- 1 Nintendo DS game
- Spin off series (The Alphas)
I still pat my face with my towel after I shower because of these books. Sooo glad this series is being addressed. I aged out only 5-6 in, but...damn, they've really stuck in my brain.
Literally i was considering starting a youtube channel to talk about this series 😂 you beat me to it haha
EDIT: Id also like to add that Lisi is also is the author of the Monster High books
omg i loved the monster high books it makes so much sense that she wrote those too
The monster high books are lowkey great
You should still do it! I'd be super interesting to hear different experiences, opinions, and analyses about this series. Plus, it would be neat to compare and contrast your and Ashley's thoughts. There's not really many videos about this topic, so the market is far from saturated, and you might offer something that hasn't been voiced anywhere else.
Good luck if you end up creating a channel :)
that's insane because when she was describing the school uniform contest i was like "this literally happened in the monster high books".... i loved those things. truly the greatest of all the monster high media.
The monster high books are so good. I still wish they would make a version of MH that matches the book. I know it probably wouldn’t appeal to kids or match with the new gen of Monster High but they could make it for adult fans
As a grown adult, I have played The Clique: Diss and Make Up and I can confirm that it is 3 hours of petty glory
i have too! i still have mine and my pink Nintendo DS and I’ll play it every now and again for the nostalgia, the fun , and petty drama filled storylines ✨
I remember this series for being entertaining for the drama, but also very weird given the characters' ages. I was old enough when I read it to realize how ridiculous the plots and characters were. And there were odd moments of sexualization for characters who were 15 at the oldest, most frequent example is a girl describing hers or another girl's breasts (happened too many times). I vividly remember Maisie (14) being jealous of a 10 year old with B cups bc she was still an A. She gave Alicia a lot of crap for being a C cup too. I still don't know if it was trying to be satirical or serious.
Lmao Massie is the prime example of toxic friendship. I remember points where she would defend Alicia if she got sexually harassed but then insult her in the same breath cause Alicia did one thing that Massie HATED 😭
@@luckystarberry I remember it was because Alicia had the potential to be rival queen B to Massie or even more popular. Alicia was most likely to go against her too. So keeping her as 2nd in command was better for Massie, and constantly putting her down was part of it. Massie was a little demon.
That seems pretty normal pubescent behavior.
If you're interested there's a podcast called "Girl Like Us" that breaks down the plots of each book as well as other tween books like Monster High that came out in the day. Unfortunately the quality fluctuates in terms of meandering conversations and kind of cringe opinions on the characters and Lisi Harrison herself, but since it's literally one of the only other places that deepdive into my favorite nostalgia book series I'll take what I can get :')
mood i found that podcast precisely because i wanted to find discussions about these wild books but yeah forewarning they do A LOT of tangents and meandering which not necessarily bad but i stopped listening because I wanted to hear more about the books
@@yukijames1321 Yes! They'd talk about such out of pocket things like their high school orgy parties??? And what kinds of s*xual things they thought the (12YR OLD) characters might do.. They even go as far as to call Lisi Harrison a bitch and a garbage human being in multiple episodes. I was so surprised when they had her on as a guest!
The first few episodes were excellent esp because it was the first fresh clique content I'd seen in years. But it so quickly derailed into tangents and skipping entire sections of the book because it was 'boring' and then getting mad because the plots seemed nonsensical and confusing! The only episodes I liked were the ones where they brought on a guest star cause the guest usually kept them on track of discussing fun plot points and actually getting through the whole book. Idk why I'm so heated about a literal children's book but oh well :'D
The Clique was just my gateway drug into the Gossip Girl books. As insane the clique was for only featuring 2 years of insane shit for 5 girls its nothing compared to the plot lines in the GG novels 😭
Gossip Girl books are truly unmatched. Love them so much!
Just thought of a great comeback:
“Claire are you a bad driver?”
“Because you can’t seem to stay in your lane!”
Omg this is great! 🤣🤣🤣
I once ended up with a paper grocery bag full of these novels that had been donated to the church library. They wanted me to read them and make sure they were appropriate. Needless to say, they weren't, but it was fun to laugh at them. Massie and her cohorts seem more like a cautionary tale than a fun series for kids.
"Remember children, wealth makes you stupid."
I grew up around upper middle class people who were just... way too well adjusted for any of this shit. The parents, teachers, students, the whole damn community would never allow any of the evil shit that goes on in this book. None of the beauty standards, pop culture references, lack of diversity, obscene wealth, etc represent my teensge years at all. I feel bad for people who actually grow up with adult supervision like the community in this book. Not a single character would be considered normal to anyone I know in real life.
WOW THAT PURPLE STREAK WAS A MEMORY UNLOCKED wow did I really read all of these books too. I was obsessed with the Clique so much I blacked out a lot of this. Thank you for this.
I bought the movie on iTunes and watched it on my little iPod Nano EVERY night before bed, IN FULL, for probably the entirety of 5th grade. This chokehold was simply unmatched
I really like your analysis of this series that I loved when I was growing up. I think you illustrated its strong points really well. My main issue with it, once I grew up, was that to me at least, I felt like yeah obviously girls like Massie aren't often kind girls. They're bullies. BUT they are still popular, still fashionable, still have friends and people who are interested in them and their lives. And that made me want to be like Massie, and I definitely put too much focus on trying to be fashionable and popular, shirking some of my true nerdier interests in the process. I don't think I had enough critical thinking skills to engage with these books properly lol. And I was such a Claire honestly lmao, a poor wannabe with strict parents and no true fashion sense. But, we live and we learn.
God I read all these books as a kid- and now being a lesbian, realize I felt the Massie/Claire drama. I also really liked Kristian and wished she’d leave the group and have real friends, and Dylan stop worrying for her weight. Funny what did go over my head as a ten year old in terms of content in the book- and also me being a complete ‘lbr’ I found it funny and mean girls are just iconic I cant help it
as someone who grew up in Westchester let me tell you the demographics of all the characters being white is not surprising. i won't deny the entire county is pretty affluent, but the upper part is where all the celebrities and rich people live in their mansions with their fancy prep schools and the main demographic there is definitely white. i didn't grow up with a ton of minorities either, but the towns around me had more because they were more urban centers close to the bronx
The Clique was the first series I had to go to the YA section of the library for and I was terrified of the YA section as a middle schooler. 🙃
Me too! funny how I felt like I needed to sneak around as if I'd get in trouble for being there
I remember liking the prequel and owning it, Dylan should have blamed Massie for her ED because she didn’t have one before she met her.
WHAT this video unlocked a previously buried and inaccessible part of my brain.... I can't believe I forgot about this series! You do God's work Ashley
I remember first reading the books in 7th grade, the same grade all the girls are in. It never clicked that they were all my age, 12-13, they just seemed so much older and cooler, like wearing heels to school. But darn it, if I didn’t model my own sense of style after what the books described
thank you algorithm for giving me this gift of a video🙏🙏 the clique stan to english major pipeline is real lmao! subscribed - so excited to support your channel!
How did I not realize how problematic Kuh-Laire was
I hated Kuh-Laire as a kid and now I knew why 😭 I never cared for her in the back of my brain. Honesty she’s “not like other girls” main character like Gabriella or any 2010s movie main female character
Wow your commentary on Alicia being your favorite makes so much sense to me now lmao she was also my favorite, and I am in fact queer
i went to a private, catholic, all-girls school in westchester for middle school & high school. the school demographics definitely didn't reflect the actual diversity of the county, especially since a lot of the girls there actually lived in new jersey/connecticut/the bronx. a teacher made us all watch the clique movie in 7th grade and i was at first like "this is so true...... i hate popular girls...... fuck rich people" while also disliking the franchise. i enjoyed this video, thanks for making it!!!
I wanted to have this on in the background while at work but I've now realized that it needs to be listened to in the comfort of my room with a big glass of wine and possibly the movie playing in the background. Can't wait!
One thing that I remember vividly from these books that made me really uncomfortable was when Layne dressed up as a Native American as a form of protest. I think it was the book with the overflow trailers
I think that was bratfest at Tiffany’s
Dial L for Loser! I actually have that one on Kindle from forever ago
I wrote a spec script for a pilot for a Clique series just like for fun once. I was going through all the books and highlighting them. They’re so friggin funny
That seems sm fun - I’m going to try it 😭 did you use like the first book or stretch it out in several books ?
I also have all of these books taking up space in my brain from middle school so thank you for making this 👍
this series had suchhhh a hold on me in my preteen years 😂😂 like this video unlocked so many memories i forgot i had.
seriously it’s so hilarious to me that i actually read everyone one of these books like these plots are so insane 💀
this book series turned me into a teen drama addict in middle school, which in turn introduced to the gossip girl books. very cursed time indeed.
I was WAITING for a video like this
dude i'm so honored. My parasocial heart can't handle this
@@ashleynorton HAHAHA I FELT THIS COMMENT
Alicia is white her parents are from Spain, Spaniards are not Latinos.
This series was the og influencer for me. I wanted the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume for YEARS!
how did we literally live together and NEVER talk about the clique
Lmao the only thing we didn’t talk about probably
I didn't know your dog's name was goose so when you were so calm about "goose hair" in your drink i was shaken
This series got me into reading. I read it from 12-16, slowly collecting the books as I saw them at the thrift store. I never tried to emulate the characters' bad actions and I understood when they were being insecure or stupid. I mostly admired Massie's combacks and all the parties the characters threw. I still have all my copies plus the movie tie-in and manga editions of the first book.
me, who has never heard of this franchise about 12 year old rich girls ever in my entire life, sitting alone in my room and intently listening to this while solving sudoku puzzles: wow, very interesting
The line “one does not simply skim the Bible” finally got me to sub omg what a zinger
this video is so iconic. I’d forgotten how much wild shit had happened in these books and yr commentary had me dying. Also thinking about it now these books were bascally written reality tv for me in middle school. Like I was obsessed with the fascinating trainwreck of insane events that happened coupled with all the girls hogwild actions. This series was so entertaining and just chefs kiss. I literally have lines from this series seared into my brain even after all these years which quite honestly is an amazing feat.
Oh jesus I always felt like nobody remembered these books but as a very young preteen I was OBSESSED with them (even though I ended up being very unpopular lol) and would roleplay on stardoll in several "the clique RP" groups as like...a rich 20 something which is hilarious in retrospect
I still own the entire series, it’s just too iconic to get rid of
I honest to God don't remember Claire cheating on her boyfriend unless you're referring to the time she kissed Josh. In her defense, she thought her boyfriend dumped her and Alicia wasn't interested in Josh anymore.
I definitely didn’t realize there was so much animosity towards Claire until now. As someone who did not have any true friends at that age and desperately wanted acceptance and attention for a lot of my childhood, she was the only person I could relate to in those books 😅 yikes
I didn’t not like her I just always struggled with what her intentions actually were. Sometimes it seemed like it wasn’t actually true friends she wanted. But I also didn’t realize people hated her this much. She was 12 and trying to survive, she had flaws but nothing that bad. I didn’t realize people nitpicked her personality sooo much.
no bc my cousin owned ALL the clique books, which i never read, but i got EXTREMELY into the "Alphas" spin off where a bunch of girls went to like, a sci fi island survivor hunger games-esque competition to become the ultimate "Alpha"? I'm pretty sure Skye (the 8th grade alpha) was one of the main characters. Like does anyone else remember those or am i insane
Omg yessss and then at the end it turns out they were being filmed for a reality show the whole time
@@andreabuchanan7697 OMG YEAH and the island was shaped like an "@" sign that whole series was an absolute fever dream
And they had to wear gladiator sandals as part of their uniforms
these books literally shaped my entire YA life, i remember printing out a wikihow on "how to be like massie block" while reading the books and saving up to buy the newest one from target
"I didn't trust the movie to do the book justice so I refused to watch it"
GIRL SAMEEE
I remembered these books, and thought I had read a couple… nope, I recognized every single one of those synopses 😂
My best friend in middle school read this series and others similar to it, so I was able to read part of the first book and little snippets of other books she'd show me. Was there a character named Haley/Hayley in any of the Clique books? My friend showed me a part where the girls were cooking (for a show I think, but maybe just class), and one girl dumped pasta sauce on another girl's head and called her something like "Chef Boyar-Hayley." That line still lives in my head rent-free years later, and I still think about it anytime I hear the name "Chef Boyardee" out loud 🙏
it was hadley! she was in one book for like three chapters lol
Yep! It was Dial L for Loser
I now understand why my mom wouldn't let me read these books when I was a kid...
I LOVED THE CLIQUE SO MYCH GROWING UP! I WISH PEOPLE WOULD TALK ABOUT MORE!
I no joke fell asleep to this movie every night for a good 3 years
So grateful UA-cam recommended me your channel! I clicked on this video SO FAST because I’m obsesseeeed with your breakdown! Congrats on almost 5k subs!
my mom had to ban me from reading these because I started regurgitating their terrible comebacks and bad attitudes lmfao. mirror neurons go brrrrr
I didn’t know I needed this video in my life, but I did and I’m so glad it exists. I was obsessed with The Clique growing up, and watching this video made my younger self so happy it felt like an act of self care. So glad I found your channel from Tiffany Ferguson - keep up the amazing content!!
This is ✨ healing for me because I borrowed them from the library and no one else lived in the delusional world I did. And if the movie didn’t exist on UA-cam I would’ve thought it was a fever dream
I don't know why, but this has made me want to write tween book series about a group of girls, similar to clique, but without problematic shit like ED.
Same! 💕
So glad someone finally cracked the code of what the Heart-Nets was supposed to be referencing. This has perplexed me for over a decade. Thank you for your service.
I think it might actually be a play on Hartnett like the actor Josh Hartnett 🤔
@@LaurinwithHoney You're right, Josh Hartnett the actor was really hot at the time (I think) and I remember him mentioned in previous books in the series
This feels like the books Charlize Theron's character wrote in the Young Adult movie
the way my head whipped to my ipad once you mentioned lisi harrison! i never read the clique but i did read her monster high book series and it sure was…. something
Wow thank you for this public service. I have an absolutely formative memory of learning both the Claire and Massie monologues for a competition that sold itself as an American Idol-type audition for the first movie but was actually just a sweepstakes to get to visit the set for a day or something, but boy did I seriously believe that was gonna be my Big Break for at least a day. I still remember the Claire one started "Uh oh, I taste pennies. That means I'm gonna throw up." I don't remember the Massie one as much but I think she was talking to Bean. Anyway I absolutely read these books in secret because I was "too old" for them (13 when the first one came out, a full adult!!) but my younger sister wasn't, and I thought I had only read the first 3 or so but I am SHOCKED to discover I still remember Skye's riddle from book 7. Thank you for this nightmare 5K down memory lane, sealed with a taco-flavored Glossip Girl kiss.
yeah i read the hell out of these. favorite bit of lore is derrington's name going from being spelled derek to derrick
anyway i'm later in the video now. thank you very much for bringing these books back to the forefront of my mind. i remember so vividly reading lisi harrison saying that these books were supposed to be funny and being like "i didn't think they were that funny"... i didn't think that these were people i was supposed to aspire to be like, though, so that's a win. (also i saw the movie relatively recently and it immediately gave me SO much nostalgia. it was almost exactly how i pictured the books.)
ALSO THANK YOU FOR RECOGNIZING KRISTEN AS THE GAY ICON SHE IS
Aww I remember me and my best friend used to love these then we tried reading Gossip Girl and agreed it was to sexual for us lol
I owned every single one of these books as a teen 😅 These made me love soccer (in theory- never played or watched cause sports bore me) and are the sole reason I still cannot bring myself to buy Keds 10+ years later.
I think I really related to Claire as a fellow poor kid, but Massie was definitely the most interesting/funnest part of these books, for me.
this came up in my recommended as i've been watching your content a lot and omg it unlocked SO many memories. i grew up with these books as well and i was neurodivergent, homeschooled, and growing up in a Christian cult so i was so vastly interested in what i thought were such "glamorous" lives of people with friends who were like allowed to socialize n go to parties n kiss boys (u know like. normal teenager things) bc i wasn't. but i totally agree with your ending point, it did kinda show me that the lives i so desperately craved and the people i wanted to be so badly had insecurities and problems too. i very much DISAGREE with that article abt it being like woman-hating bc even tho some of it aged poorly n there's misogynistic tropes that i wish weren't there, it rlly did help me get a bit out of my NLOG mentality a bit at the time and see the "other girls" as just people with different interestes than me, not better and not worse.
side note: my main critique is if it was satire ... why go SO hard on the fatphobia n classism bc u can portray that it's a real issue that young girls deal with without those insane jokes abt Dylan. i used to think Tumblr was the start of my ED but...this was the real origin story I'm realizing, yikes!
I swear this comment could have been me 😅 homeschooled, christian cult, definitely not average up in my head (but no diagnosis yet). These books were such an escape for me, even though on some level I knew they were toxic as heck.
Did you ever read the book series Private by Kate Bryan? Same era, same kinda books, boarding prep school girls in their chaotic lives of trying to ruin each other. I think there were either 9 or 10 books in the series. Canada made a low budget TV movie for just the first book, and it sucked balls.
ISTR those take place in some sort of alternate history where there wasn’t an American Revolution- it was either that or some Clique copycat series
me and my friends in middle school almost got suspended because we were a bunch of nerds who got obsessed with the books and would call each other the insults. it did not end well.
this series had a palpable effect on me as a child lmfao. I was so happy yt recommended this video (and your channel) to me :-)
Dang, I never read these books but I REALLY related to you saying your favorite character was inexplicably the generic hot girl because you didn’t know you were attracted to women so you didn’t know you only liked her because she was attractive. I did this SO often as a kid and I would often blindly support whoever the prettiest girl character was even if she was boring or rude or just not a very good character in general. I couldn’t ever explain why I liked them, and then I finally got old enough to realize I just thought they were cute 🤣 kid me was a real simp lmao
I read all 20 of these books in 7th grade. Twice.
I remember the first one I read was Dylan's summer novella, then tried to go back to the beginning but the first couple were checked out from the library so I started on like book 3 and annihilated them. I read all of Alphas, read the Cliquetionary, read the prequel (I think they're in like 4th grade in that one??). I was a movie anti and I wish I knew about the DS game because I definitely would have loved it. I was unhealthily obsessed with these and I wanted to be Massie Block so bad. In hindsight it's so clear they're satire but oh god I was 12, had no critical thinking skills, and no thoughts head empty like these propelled me into insecurity for years 😭