Sarah Jones – on being the most popular girl.

June 24, 2000

Deirdre: What’s your name, how old are you, and what grade are you in?
Sarah: My name’s Sarah Jones, I’m 12 years old and I’m in sixth grade.

Deirdre: Where do you go to school?
Sarah: Shirley Street School in Toronto.

Deirdre: How many kids are there in your school?
Sarah: I would predict 300 people. I don’t know.

Deirdre: Who’s the most popular?
Sarah: Me. I’m number one.

Deirdre: What does number one mean?
Sarah: Everyone likes you. Everyone loves you. Everyone wants to be around you and stuff. You’re good to them. They’re good to you. When you’re the populist girl in the school, you get like free chips at lunch time. Everything.

Deirdre: The populist?
Sarah: Yeah, the most popular.

Deirdre: Who gives you chips?
Sarah: Little kids. And you see little kids come up and hug you and stuff. They like you so much.

Deirdre: Is there a number two and three?
Sarah: Yes. Two is Chantelle and three is Samantha.

Deirdre: Who’s Chantelle?
Sarah: She’s one of my friends. She used to be number one.

Deirdre: Does everyone know when number one changes?
Sarah: Yeah.

Deirdre: How can they tell?
Sarah: They can just see.

Deirdre: What can they see?
Sarah: If we’re in a group, I’m the first one and then there’s the second, third, fourth and so on.

Deirdre: You mean you actually walk at the front of the group?
Sarah: Yeah.

Deirdre: So how many times have you been number one before now?
Sarah: I’ve had it a couple of times.

Deirdre: When was the first time?
Sarah: Probably in December.

Deirdre: Do you remember it?
Sarah: A little bit. It was fun. It wasn’t really a surprise. Everyone said that I should be number one.

Deirdre: What did it feel like?
Sarah: It felt like you were top of the world and stuff.

Deirdre: How did you find out?
Sarah: You just knew.

Deirdre: What time did you know?
Sarah: At lunchtime.

Deirdre: What happened?
Sarah: The kids were giving me all kinds of stuff.

Deirdre: How long does it usually last?
Sarah: Maybe a month, two months.

Deirdre: Can you remember what made you go from number one to number two the last time it happened?
Sarah: Um, probably Chantelle would act better than me.

Deirdre: Like what?
Sarah: She’d give people gum and chips and everything.

Deirdre: Chips count for a lot in this school.
Sarah: Yeah.

Deirdre: So what made you become number one this time?
Sarah: The guys stopped liking Chantelle and started liking me.

Deirdre: Why?
Sarah: Well, I’m not cruel to people. But Chantelle is, sometimes. And she’ll act all hotshot. She’s pretty but everyone doesn’t like that if you go against her you’ll be in a fight.

Deirdre: Why doesn’t anyone want to fight with her?
Sarah: Because she’ll get mad at you and you’ll be like an outcast. She’ll outcast you.

Deirdre: How?
Sarah: She won’t let anyone talk to you. She’ll be like, OK people, don’t talk to Sarah. She can hang out with the nerds.

Deirdre: So if she has all this power, how’d you replace her as the most popular?
Sarah: I don’t know. She was the prettiest girl there until I came, but she had a bad attitude. I have an OK attitude. They like my personality and I’m not mean to them. Sometimes I get so frustrated I just freak out and get mad at everyone, and after that they’d start loving Chantelle again. But I just get a break. And after that I become the most popular again.

Deirdre: How many different people have been number one so far this year?
Sarah: Me, Chantelle, and Judy one time.

Deirdre: Tall Judy?
Sarah: Yeah.

Deirdre: How’d she get to be so tall?
Sarah: She drinks a glass of milk a day. Her mom makes her drink milk so much.

Deirdre: How’d Judy get to be number one?
Sarah: Frankie just started liking her butt, and after Frankie started liking it everyone else did.

Deirdre: Why did having a nice butt make her popular?
Sarah: They’d tease her and play with her more. But now everyone hates her.

Deirdre: Do you remember how Judy lost number one?
Sarah: Frankie said she had a nice butt and then one day he woke up and goes “uh, her butt’s ugly,” and then everyone agreed with him.

Deirdre: Doesn’t it bug you how the guys decide everything?
Sarah: No. We wanted them to tell Judy she had an ugly ass. The girls used to complain because it was all she talked about.

Deirdre: How does she feel about her ass now?
Sarah: She doesn’t think a lot about it.

Deirdre: Does number one, two, three include boys?
Sarah: No. It’s only for the grade six girls.

Deirdre: What about kids in fifth grade?
Sarah: Fifth graders don’t have to deal with this.

Deirdre: Why?
Sarah: They just can’t. They’re not graduating.

Deirdre: So?
Sarah: It’s never happened before. They can’t do it because they’re going to do it next year.

Deirdre: Do the boys think it’s stupid?
Sarah: They don’t care. But the populist girl and guy have to go out. Last year it was Chantelle and Jesse, and the year before it was Chantelle and Jesse, and this year it changed.

Deirdre: You broke up the tradition?
Sarah: Jesse likes me more than Chantelle because he says that I’m pretty and have a nice personality. He doesn’t like Chantelle’s looks. He says that she’s too fat for him and stuff.

Deirdre: Was she less fat last year?
Sarah: No, she was always like this. She has a big chest for a young person. Jesse said he went out with her because that’s what everyone wanted, but then one day he thought, “Why am I going out with her?”

Deirdre: Did he explain that to you?
Sarah: Yes.

Deirdre: Where?
Sarah: At the spring concert. He was backstage with me and I asked him, Why don’t you like Chantelle? Then I asked him, So who do you like, because I just wanted to hear him say it, and he said me.

Deirdre: Do the guys always decide who’s going to go out or do girls sometimes decide?
Sarah: The guys.

Deirdre: That isn’t annoying either?
Sarah: You don’t have to listen to them always, but sometimes they’ll have a point.

Deirdre: Can you already tell which fifth graders are going to be popular next year?
Sarah: Next year Samantha, Amanda, Cecilia, and Ada are going to rule the school.

Deirdre: How come?
Sarah: They’re stylish, they’re nice, they hang out with us.

Deirdre: Will the whole thing start all over again next year in junior high?
Sarah: Yes.

Deirdre: How do you feel about that?
Sarah: I’m proud of it, that it’s going to keep going on and on and on.