When I first discovered The Clique by Lisi Harrison and its subsequent movie adaptation, I was what the books’ titular clique, The Pretty Committee, would have labeled an LBR: Loser Beyond Repair. But I desperately wanted to be a GLU: Girl Like Us.
A Middle Eastern American pre-teen growing up in a post-9/11 New York, I attended a single-sex private school not unlike the one featured in Harrison’s 15-book series, which first hit bookshelves in 2004. Between my facial and body hair, darker skin, family’s foreign accents, foods, and traditions, I felt like a fish out of water for the entirety of my adolescence. I was caught between two different worlds: not Middle Eastern enough to be considered fully Iranian; not Western enough to be considered fully American. As a result, I began to idolize my homogeneous peers, who I believed were effortlessly beautiful and confident in every way I was not. I wanted nothing more than to fit in. But the harder I tried, the more I stood out.
