Marianne, on the wall

marianne, on the wall

      Social Cliques. Every high school has them. Everyone wants to be in one. However, at Kingsley High, Everyone only wanted to be in one clique. The Kingsley girls. The Kingsley girls was the hardest group to get into. and Marianne was the leader of it all. 

       The Kingsley girls were the hardest group to get into. The bar was set high. The requirements were as following:

1. “you gotta be rich girl. We need you to be able to keep up with ALL the trends”
2. “if you don’t have style you don’t fit the profile”
3. “you must have a boyfriend, it expands our power”
4. “your parents must be in the country club. we hold weekly meetings at the tea bar in Kings Country Side Café”
5. lastly, and most important of all “we want you to be pretty” 

Now luckily for Marianne, she was the queen of fashion. She had never worn an outfit twice, and her parents were king and queen of Kings Country Club. They took over running the club when she was a little girl, so she is the center of attention for every social event and holds all the meetings for Kingsley Girls. Not only did she hold all the power at the club, but also at school. She was the leader of the biggest clique in school, but because of her high standards from her parents, she also ran 3 clubs, was president of Student government, and has a 4.8 GPA. She was in it to win it. 

      Depsite winning over social standard, she saw it different. She painted her own portrait of herself. A portrait of herself in her mirror. A portrait of how she saw herself not fitting societal standards of beauty. She glanced in the mirror hesitantly as mindless, self-critical impressions flooded her mind. Marianne spent passing periods in the school bathroom locking herself in a stall of her own thoughts and as the feeling of self hatred flooded her mind, a rush of tears began to flood her soft, tanned skin. She finally felt she had escaped society for a short period while she sat alone in the quiet captive space. Alone was where she felt the safest, away from rushing society implementing harsh standards which she fought herself over exceeding a perfect image of beauty and character. When alone, Marianne only had to impress herself. In her own eyes she painted beauty as a smile and a heart of gold. But in her perception of herself to fit society’s standards she painted beauty as her looks. You must have perfect olive, toned skin. You have to be tall, but not too tall or the boys won’t like you. Be skinny, but not too skinny, they’ll think you’re gross. Don’t have acne, it makes you look dirty. Wear makeup to look good, but don’t wear too much, the boys won’t like it. The list went on. She tried to paint herself in the image of these standards, but all she could create of herself in the mirror was too pale, too tall, too big, too “dirty”. Even though every girl in Kingsley High wanted to be like her and the other Kingsley girls, she just wanted to be like them. While Marianne asked

 “mirror on the wall, why cant i be like them all”, 

the other girls asked themselves, 

“mirror, mirror on the wall, why don’t i look like Marianne, the prettiest of them all?”

      It was the first day of senior year. Also know has her last year of being queen of the Kingsley girls. It was time she began searching for her successor. All the Kingsley girls began searching for the next best boyfriend, updating their closets, buying new makeup, and reinstating their membership at the club. But Marianne had other plans. She couldn’t take the stress she went through keeping up with extensive standards. 

     August 9, Kingsley crowning day, had finally come. And to everyone’s surprise, the exclusive clique requirements had dramatically changed and had everyone baffled and confused. Marianne began lining up all the girls who wished to be Kingsley high princesses. She asked them all one simple question, 

“who do you want to be?”. 

One by one the girls answered,

“I wanna be famous”

“I wanna be Kingsley Queen”

“I wanna be like you”

Marianne was unimpressed, until she came across one girl who caught her attention. She was soft spoken, yet confident. Known for being intelligent, and hard-working. She replied to Marianne’s question,

“I don’t know yet, but I know I wanna be myself, and the best version of it”

Marianne was astounded. Aubrey didn’t want to be famous, or pretty, or rich. She just wanted to be herself. She just wanted to be happy with who she was, just like Marianne. Without a doubt in her mind, Marianne immediately announced, 

“We have found our queen”

That day, Marianne and Aubrey had seen each other in the parking lot, 

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?”

Aubrey shouted. 

“Of course! what’s up?”

Marianna replied. 

“what made you choose me? I don’t even have a boyfriend and i’m not part of the country club” Aubrey asked confusingly,

Marianna responded,

“You don’t want to fit societies standards. You’re going to make societies standards. Your confidence is amazing, you’re talented, and most importantly, you’re not doing it for the title, the popularity, or the image. You’re doing it because you’re proud of yourself”

Marianne realized what she had been doing all those years was just fitting a standard, when she should have been making it. Aubrey and Marianne worked together the rest of the night gathering a group of ladies who were intelligent, compassionate, and respectful. They wanted girls who could represent good qualities, and not just looks and money. Girls then started changing themselves all around school. The quiet girl who sits by herself near the lockers at lunch, found a new group of friend to sit with in the cafeteria. The girl who sat next to Marianne in math who always matched Angela so she could fit in, started wearing her own outfits. It turns out she is a fashion genius. Carissa on the cheer team, quit cheer, and decided to join chess club, and she has won every match. 

     All the girls in school realized they don’t have to do what society wants, but instead became who they want to be. 

    Marianne, sent out the best message every girl needs.

      Don’t paint a portrait of yourself that looks like every other piece in the gallery, instead, ask,

“mirror, mirror on the wall. How do I make myself. I want my piece realistic after all.”