The Wakefield twins aren't real; they are the main characters of the Sweet Valley High series. I started reading the Sweet Valley High books when I was eight or nine years old. I was cross-eyed and wore thick bifocals. Other than my younger brother, I was the only black kid in school,
Analysis: This piece connects with me because, as an immigrant when I moved to Boston I was the only student in my ESL class that couldn't speak english or spanish, and I was picked on because of that so I was going to be noticed even though I wanted very much to go unnoticed. I was shy and awkward and didn't know how ot fix myself. My hair was wild, stood on end, earning me the inexplicable nicknames Hair, Bear, and Mustache even though I had nether a beard nor a mustache
Analysis: Getting bullied at such a young age truly affects ones life in the future. Because I was bullied when a first came to America, I still struggle with some insecurities. My classmates also called me Don King. I looked nothing like Don King. He's a man, for one. I was told my parents "talked funny,"
Question: Why do the children analyse everything in her life including her parents? Also why would they analysie an accent as "Talked funny"? which I later realized was a reference to their thick Haitian accents, which I did not hear until they were pointed out to me,
Analysis: I also do not realise that I have an accent even when people point it out at me, I think that the reason why she also did not hear her parents accent till then is because she was so used to them speaking with it. and then suddenly those accents were all I heard. I read books while I walked to school. I had the strangest laugh – somewhat halted and tentative – and a bit of a bucktooth situation. I regularly wore overalls by choice and didn't really know and curse words
Question: Why is cursing such a big deal that makes you cool as a child?, so that should give you a sense of where I was on the social ladder– reaching for the bottom rung.

When I first started reading Sweet Valley High books, I wanted girls like the Wakefield twins to love me. I wanted the handsome boys who chased girls like those Wakefield twins to love me. I wanted the popular kids to pull me into their shelter of their golden embrace and make me popular too. Popularity is contagious.
Expansion:It kind of sucks that even movies and books make popularity seem like such a big deal. At the end of the day I just wished that I was happy and it seemed that the only way that I could be happy is through being popular. Many movies from the 1980s bear this theory out. I had hope, is what I'm saying, though certainly that hope was fragile.
Expansion: Hope is fragile and can be lost after your it gets crushed once to many times
Feedback: I can truly relate to this story, since I have gone through similar experiences when I first came to America. The authour makes some great points expecially on hope and popularity. She states that Hope is fragile which is very true, and also about how popularity is made such a big deal through pretty much every media including books.

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