Maya van Wanegen

ABOUT MAYA VAN WANEGEN

Teen author known for the novel Popular, which chronicled her attempts to become popular in school in eighth grade.

She started her social experiment after reading Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide, which was published in 1953.

Her book was published by Penguin and the movie rights were bought by Dreamworks.

She grew up in a Texas border town, but later moved to Georgia. She has two siblings.

She appeared on the Today Show to promote the book, where she was interviewed by Savannah Guthrie .