An Interview with Meg Cabot

Who is your ideal teenage heroine?

My ideal teenage heroine is probably someone who is still questioning who she is, but is confident enough in herself that she isn’t going to let someone else tell her who she should be…at least, not completely. Oh, and she has a sense of humor!

Many of your protagonists have friends that are always there for them; does this represent how you think most teens’ lives should be?

Well, ideally, but this certainly isn’t always the case, nor was it always the case when I was a teen. I went through periods when I had friends desert me…It certainly makes things easier when I had lots around, though!

Do you think it is harder to be someone who wants to be popular, but isn’t, or someone who was popular, but isn’t anymore?

Wow! That’s a good question! I think it’s much easier to be someone who was popular but isn’t anymore, because you’ve already experienced it, and know it wasn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. When you’re dying to be popular, but aren’t, you think you’re missing out on something that really isn’t all that great. Speaking from experience.

In your personal life, have you been popular or well-liked by people?

When I was a teenager I was kind of popular within my clique of “drama freaks,” as we were referred to by the popular people in my school, with whom we were vastly unpopular. Weirdly, NOW I am quite popular with those same popular people … they all act like we were best friends back in high school when the truth is they never even spoke to me. It’s so odd.

In many of your books, the guy that the protagonist falls in love with is handsome with dark hair. Is there a pattern? Is this in any way related to your life?

Ha. Well, statistically, there are way more dark-haired people in this world than there are light-haired people, so it makes more sense for my heroes to be dark-haired. I actually only know one or two light-haired guys, but I know tons of dark-haired ones, and so I hardly ever make my heroes light-haired, because I’m afraid my blonde haired friends will read the books and think I based the hero on them. This can be a problem when your friends and family are always thinking you’ve based your characters on them, when you haven’t. It can get annoying to have to keep explaining, “Stop being so vain! It’s not you!” So I just try to keep my characters as unlike people I actually know as possible to avoid it.

In some of your books, the protagonists were able to find missing people, touch and see ghosts, and go back in time. If you could have any special ability, what would it be?

I’d love to be able to find missing people. That would definitely be my gift of choice. Seeing ghosts and time travel I wouldn’t care for. I have a new series coming out about a girl who can journey to the land of the dead. I wouldn’t want that one either!

Do you remember the details of all the books you have written?

Oh, my gosh, no. Sometimes people ask me questions about them and I have no idea what they’re talking about. I have to let go of the least recent books to make room for the new ones!