Meg Cabot

BIO

Meg Cabot is the author of the bestselling, critically acclaimed Princess Diaries books, which were made into the wildly popular Disney movies of the same name. Her other books for teens include the Mediator series, the 1-800-Where-R-You books, ALL-AMERICAN GIRL, READY OR NOT, TEEN IDOL, and AVALON HIGH, as well as NICOLA AND THE VISCOUNT and VICTORIA AND THE ROGUE. She also writes books for adults, including THE BOY NEXT DOOR, BOY MEETS GIRL, EVERY BOY'S GOT ONE, and SIZE 12 IS NOT FAT. She is still waiting for her real parents, the king and queen, to restore her to her rightful throne. She lives in Key West and New York City with her husband and a one-eyed cat named Henrietta.

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INTERVIEW

August 16, 2006

Meg Cabot is best known for such popular young adult series as The Princess Diaries, The Mediator and 1-800-Where-R-You. In this interview with Teenreads.com's Jennifer Krieger, Cabot discusses the biographical and autobiographical elements that helped shape her latest stand-alone novel, HOW TO BE POPULAR. She also talks about her own high school experiences, a moving encounter with a young reader, and details concerning future projects.

Teenreads.com: The "Rules to Popularity" that Stephanie "acquires" is wonderfully old-fashioned and mannered. With advice like "People are drawn to those who have the ability to make them feel excited whether about a car wash, a weenie roast, or a sock hop," it reads like an early "Miss Manners Guide for Young Ladies and Gentlemen." Yet there is something essentially familiar and timeless about the tips and tasks one must undertake to be popular. Do you think that, despite the onslaught of technical advancements and teens' extreme "computer-savvy," the rules for being popular are essentially the same now as they were 50 years ago?

Meg Cabot: Not only do I believe tips about how to achieve popularity in social settings like school are timeless, but they are actually very similar to the tips you see in how-to books for executives looking to advance in the workplace. The rules about being popular are the same for school as they are for the office! They're totally universal.

TRC: One of the most striking things about Stephanie is her uncanny ability to be hyper-aware, witty and articulate, but also insecure and unsure of herself. This makes her easy to relate to. Was Stephanie, as a character, meant to be easily identified with --- an "every girl" --- of sorts?

MC: Well, I pretty much just based her, as I do all my main characters, on myself when I was her age. I wasn't QUITE as unpopular as she is, but I definitely never got invited to a party in four years of high school, if that tells you anything.

TRC: Stephanie's family and friends, from her donating-happy grandfather to her raisin-wary friend Jason, are all humorously and vividly described. As a reader, I could really see them. How do you come up with your supporting characters? Do you start out with a cast of personalities that you want to put down on the page, or do they develop as the story itself does?

MC: I truly do base ALL my characters on people I know --- although I try to disguise them so the people they're based on won't recognize themselves and sue me. I do this by giving them characters traits that other people I know have. So no one character is truly based 100% on any one person, but a mix of a lot of people. I do think that's why they seem so realistic, though --- because all of their traits really do belong to someone in real life.

TRC: In The Princess Diaries series, you do a wonderful job depicting New York City. In HOW TO BE POPULAR, Stephanie's Podunk town of Bloomville, Indiana is described in laugh-out-loud descriptions and observations. What strikes me is how adept you are at describing two very different settings with equal vibrancy, capturing each place's odd quirks and characteristics. What role does setting play for you in your books? Do you make a concerted effort to really get into describing a place, or is it something that comes naturally to you?

MC: Thanks! I do think the setting of a story is important --- where we live does shape our lives, in many ways. I debate long and hard about where I'm going to set a novel, do research on it once I've decided, and try to set it in a place I've actually been (unless of course it's a made-up place). The more details you can add about a setting (so long as they enhance the story), the more realistic your story will seem to readers.

TRC: You grew up in Bloomington, Indiana and Stephanie is such a strikingly well-drawn and believable character that it's hard not to imagine that some of her and her story is based on your own experiences growing up. How much of Stephanie and her experiences is autobiographical?

MC: Well, like I said before --- almost all of it. My campaign to become popular wasn't quite as calculated or set on as wide a scale as Steph's --- I wanted only to become friendly with people within a certain clique in my school (the drama "freaks," as we were called by the jocks, who were the popular kids). But by devoting all my Saturdays to set building, and all my weeknights to rehearsals, I finally did manage to weasel my way into their group and make friends --- although ultimately I decided the theater was not for me.

TRC: Following that, what were your high school experiences like? Were you popular? Were the rules outlined in Stephanie's "Guide to Popularity" things you wish you had known/practiced growing up? Do you think knowing them would have made any difference?

MC: I did know all or most of the rules in Steph's guide to popularity, because my mom told them to me when I was growing up --- she was popular in high school, so it all came very naturally to her and she could never understand why I had so many problems with it. Ultimately, though, being popular for the sake of being popular wasn't ever one of my goals --- getting to be friends with people I admired was, and I achieved that just by being myself (with the aforementioned sacrifice of my Saturdays and weeknights).

TRC: We are saturated with images of teenage girls as "Queen Bees" or "Mean Girls." Yet even "A-listers" like Lauren Moffatt and her popular friends are not cruel or sadistic in the way teenage girls are so often depicted in our popular culture. What do you think the impact of all this negative press, compounded by the books and movies that perpetuate the image of them as conniving and mean-spirited, has on teenage girls? Do you go out of your way to avoid such portrayals? Do you think there is any merit to the now-popular conception of ultra-competitive and often cruel or manipulative young women running rampant in high schools across America?

MC: I don't actually think these portrayals are unrealistic. There were girls like that in my high school, and I hear from readers about girls like that in their middle and high schools. And I have to say --- as an adult --- there are women like that in my field (publishing and fiction-writing) as well. It seems unbelievable, but it's true. And with the age of the Internet, women and girls like this have gotten, if anything, even nastier and more manipulative than they were when I was growing up. However, I am a firm believer in karma, and I know whatever evil deeds these girls do will come back at them times three --- just as I have been rewarded by the universe for NOT being nasty to my peers.

TRC: You must get approached constantly by your readers, adults and young adults alike, and told how your books impacted, inspired and entertained them. Is there one interaction with a reader you can remember that had a real impact on you?

MC: I do get approached a lot and thanked for helping readers through difficult times, but there was one particularly odd one that I'll never forget --- a young Muslim girl in a headscarf who'd waited in a long line to get her books autographed. She approached my table crying hysterically --- so hard she couldn't talk. I asked her what was wrong but she didn't reply. She just gave me this huge hug and whispered "You don't know what you did for me, but I can't thank you enough," and ran away. I never found out who she was or what was up with the tears. But I'm glad I was able to help.

TRC: Could you see HOW TO BE POPULAR as a movie? If you could cast any young actress today as Stephanie in the film version, who would you choose?

MC: Ha! I don't play that game. If they do make a movie of my book, I don't want whoever ends up playing my characters reading this and then feeling like they weren't my first choice!

TRC: Do you see HOW TO BE POPULAR branching into a series? Where would you take Stephanie and her friends?

MC: I really don't see this book as a series. Generally when I think of a story that has series potential, I think of multiple plots all at one time. For Steph and the gang, it was always just this one book.

TRC: What advice would you offer to young adults who want to be writers? What writers inspired or still inspire you?

MC: Read a lot, then try to write the kind of books you like to read. 99% of writing a book is keeping your butt in the chair and finishing it. If you can do that, you can get it published. See the FAQ section of www.megcabot.com, or visit my online diary, for more tips.

TRC: What are you working on now, and what can we plan to see from you in the future?

MC: Right now I'm working on Princess Diaries 9! Princess Diaries 8, as well as MISSING YOU, the final installment of my 1-800-Where-R-You series, both come out in December 2006, along with the sequel to my first adult mystery, SIZE 12 IS NOT FAT. Go to my online book club, www.megcabotbookclub.com, or my new MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/meg_cabot, for more info!

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

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VIDEO INTERVIEW

April 23, 2002



   • The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Teenreads.com presents a video interview with Meg Cabot, author of THE PRINCESS DIARIES where she talks about her own diary, her thoughts on the movie and future Princess titles.

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PAST INTERVIEW

You know what I like most about the irrepressibly adorable Meg Cabot? Despite being a consummate NY hipster, not to mention a newly famous YA author extraordinaire, she has never, for one minute, forgotten the pain, horror and altogether biteness of high school. Join Teenreads.com editor Jennifer Abbots as she chats with THE PRINCESS DIARIES author about one very special, gawky, Greek princess, what books Meg has in the works and, of course, what she wore to the movie premiere.   

Teenreads: You've said there will be three, maybe even four books about Mia. What is it about her character that makes you want to give her so many adventures? And what is it about her that girls respond to?

MC: There will probably be more than four books about Mia. I hope to write about her for as long as people want to keep reading about her. And I think the reason people want to read about Mia is that she is a genuinely nice person, who always tries to do the right thing, except that sometimes she messes up --- which is very human and appealing. In spite of her best efforts, Mia really can't help being a princess ---someone who strives to right wrongs and make the world a better place. You have to admire that...I know I do. I wish I could be more like her!

Teenreads: I especially like the way the kids in the school know what is going on and know about all the cliques while the teachers and the principal are totally  clueless. Do you think teenagers are much savvier than adults give them credit for?

MC: I think for a lot of people high school was the worst, most painful time of their lives, and after they escape, endorphins rush in and cause them to forget the unmitigated horror of it all (kind of like childbirth). I, however, kept a journal in which I recorded all my thoughts and feelings from that time period, so it is all fresh in my head. As to whether teens are savvier than adults --- well, duh. Still, teens need to keep in mind that their parents: a) were once just like them, b) usually do have your best interests at heart and c) are necessary for things like gas money and college tuition. So try to treat them kindly.

Teenreads: Mia writes so hilariously about her boy crushes and crazy friends. I love  the character of Lilly. Where did she come from? Were you a Lilly, a Mia or a Lana in high school? How did your high school years affect the way you write about Mia's daily dramas?

MC: Lilly isn't based on any one person, but more on two or three girls I knew in high school. The same holds true for Mia, Tina Hakim Baba, Lana, Boris, Michael, Josh, etc. I would have to say I was more of a Lilly than a Mia in high school, in that I was very involved in theater --- I wasn't hugely unpopular, or picked on...but then I wasn't shy, either, like Mia is. Like Mia, though, I had a HUGE crush when I was a freshman on a senior who didn't seem to know I was alive. I won't tell you how it worked out, though, as that would spoil Book 3, PRINCESS IN LOVE.

Teenreads: I've got to ask this because I am an astrology freak: What is your sign? For that matter, what is Mia's sign?

MC: I am an Aquarius. Mia has a spring or early summer birthday. I don't know much about astrology so I don't know which sign suits her best. Any ideas?

Teenreads: It seems like you made a conscious effort to avoid cliches in both PRINCESS DIARIES and PRINCESS IN THE SPOTLIGHT --- for example, after Mia has a makeover she doesn't magically become popular (what would happen in so many other teen books and movies). Did you purposefully write that way?

MC: I try to write the most truthful stories I can, within the confines of the very unrealistic plots I think up. I don't think it would be truthful to suggest that finding out you are a princess would suddenly make you popular or solve all your problems. It would just introduce a whole new set of problems you'd have to deal with.

Teenreads: Mia's life is a modern fairytale. What was your favorite fairytale growing up? What was your favorite kid's book? If you could switch places with the heroine of a kid's book, who would it be?

MC: My favorite fairy tale has always been BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. I would switch places with Belle in a New York minute. My favorite kid's book was always A WRINKLE IN TIME because the heroine's name was Meg, like me, and also Calvin O'Keefe is such a babe.

Teenreads: I have to ask some questions pertaining to THE PRINCESS DIARIES movie. First and foremost, what did you wear to the premiere of the movie -- ballgown and tiara?

MC: HA! No, I wore a dress by Betsy Johnson and left my tiara at home. I didn't want to out-jewel the stars (neither Julie Andrews nor Anne Hathaway wore crowns --- though a lot of the little girls in attendance did)!

Teenreads: There are a lot of pretty important differences between the movie and the books --- for example, the movie takes place in San Francisco while the books  are super New York centric and Mia's father is dead in the movie while he is a main character in the books. Did you have any say in the changes? Did you work on the screenplay?

MC: I didn't work on the screenplay. Once I knew Garry Marshall was directing and Julie Andrews was starring in the movie, I felt confident that the story was in good hands. While there are some major differences, I understood why they were made, and think that they work great in the context of the film. The important thing to remember is that the film is spreading the gospel of Mia. Hopefully girls who see the movie will buy the books, and eventually, if we all work together, we'll be able to eradicate the Lana's of the world!

Teenreads: In a related question, do you like movies that come from books? Or do you worry that your favorite stories will be ruined in an effort to make a big Hollywood sap fest?

MC: I usually think Hollywood does a good job adapting books to the screen. For instance, I personally liked the ending of FIGHT CLUB the movie better than FIGHT CLUB the book (the movie's ending was more optimistic). I have never really been outraged by any movie I have seen based on a favorite book. I always think it is interesting to see how other people's vision of the story compare to mine.

Teenreads: THE PRINCESS DIARIES and its follow-up PRINCESS IN THE SPOTLIGHT are for young adults around 14 or so. The movie, however, has a G rating and is targeted to little kids, 7 and 8 year olds. Do you fear you will alienate your teen readers by having the movie marketed so young? Or do you worry that tweens (kids between the ages of 9 and 12) who see the movie will then go out  and read the book, with their parents not realizing that some subject matter in the books is inappropriate for kids their age?

MC: Gee, I never worried about any of that until now. Thanks a lot. No, seriously, I think only the most cynical readers of THE PRINCESS DIARIES will dislike the movie: it is a sweet, adorable interpretation of the book. As for younger readers getting their hands on the book, well, the book says right on it FOR AGES TWELVE AND UP. I don't think kids will object to the fact that, for instance, in the book Mia's parents never married, but I suppose some parents might. If they are that worried about their kid finding out that (gasp!) unmarried people sometimes do have sex (in which case I hope they aren't letting their kids watch Friends, Gilmore Girls, etc) then they should pay more attention to the age recommendation on the back of the book. I personally think kids are much smarter than their parents give them credit for --- that just because they read about single parents doesn't mean they are going to go out and become one --- but that's just me.

Teenreads: Do you have a favorite place to write? What are your writing habits like --- do you get up at the crack of dawn and write or do you curl up in bed at  night and write?

MC: I work nine to five just like anybody else, at my computer. I don't have any particularly weird writing habits...except that I do have to listen to really loud rock music while I write. I listen through headphones though so as not to offend the neighbors (I live in Manhattan, in an apartment building where some people might object to having to listen to The Donnas at loud decibels at nine in the morning).

Teenreads: What one question do you wish your adoring public would ask you? What question to you wish to god they'd stop asking?

MC: Question I wish they'd stop asking: Are Michael and Mia ever going to get together? I can't tell them the answer, or they'll have no reason to buy the next book!

Question I wish they'd ask: What time would you like me to come over and clean your apartment for you for free, Meg?

Teenreads: Any advice for aspiring teen writers?

MC: Writing is really hard, but really rewarding. You have to work at it, though. It took me ten years after college to earn enough from writing fiction to quit my "day job" as an assistant dorm manager.

My advice to any aspiring writer who wants to make a living writing fiction would be:

--Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.

--Do not write stories about your family that might be read out loud in your English class. Kids will go home and tell their parents, who will then tell your parents, and you will be grounded for revealing embarrassing family secrets, no matter how much you insist it was fiction. Not that this ever happened to me.

--Do not tell anyone you want to be a writer (except an editor or an agent who might get you published). The fewer people who know, the fewer people who will try to talk you out of it (and they will all try to talk you out of it). This problem is easily solved by keeping your mouth shut.

--Two must haves for aspiring writers: Stephen King's new book, On Writing (even if you don't like his stories, his book on writing is great) and Jeff Herman's Guide To Agents, Editors, and HarperCollinss (when you are ready to try to get published).

--Save your rejections so that later when you are famous you can show them to people and laugh.

--Don't put your desk by a window. If you desk is by a window, put down the shade while you write so you do not get distracted by people outside having fun and living a normal life.

--And, lastly, write. Write all the time. Letters, emails, stories, novels, poems, journals, whatever. The more you write, the better you will write, guaranteed.

Teenreads: What can we expect from you --- and Mia --- next?

MC: Obviously, everybody needs to get ready for Book III, PRINCESS IN LOVE, which will be out in April 2002: The truth is out, and there's nothing Mia Thermopolis can do about it: she's the new Princess of Genovia, whether she likes it or not. One thing is certain, she's never going to get asked to the Nondenominational Winter Dance now --- or at least, not by the guy she finally knows she really wants. An excerpt from Book 3 is posted on http://www.megcabot.com/. For a hint on what else goes on in Book 3, read the short story about Mia that was in Seventeen Magazine last December --- it is also an excerpt from PRINCESS IN LOVE! (It is also posted on my website)

PRINCESS IN LOVE will be followed by Princess Diaries 4, as yet untitled, in Spring 2003. A new Princess Mia book will hopefully follow each Spring until I die or people get sick of her.

In the meantime, I am also busy writing my YA books written under the name Jenny Carroll:

THE MEDIATOR: Shadowland, the first book in a new series from Meg Cabot writing as Jenny Carroll, features 16-year-old New Yorker, Suze Simon. Suze has way bigger problems than the fact that her mother has remarried: there's the little matter of the homicidal spirit with whom Suze is sharing a locker, not to mention the way-too-cute-for-comfort cowboy ghost with whom it looks like she'll be sharing a bedroom....

And if Suze thinks California schools are rough, just wait until she tries dating...which she does, with lethal results, in THE MEDIATOR 2: Ninth Key. And in MEDIATOR 3: Reunion, Suze needs all the help she can get when four of the most popular kids in town come back from the dead for a little ghostly revenge.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Jess Mastriani finds out the hard way that you can run, but you can't hide, in WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES, the first in a new series written by me as Jenny Carroll about a girl who develops the psychic power to find missing children. 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU: When Lightning Strikes debuted this Spring. 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU has been optioned by Lions Gate Films. You can read more about all my works writing as Jenny Carroll by visiting http://www.jennycarroll.com/. All of them are available through your local bookseller, or at http://www.amazon.com.

As you can see, I am keeping myself busy...but never too busy for my readers! So stop by and visit at either http://www.megcabot.com/ or http://www.jennycarroll.com/. I'd love to hear from you!

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