Reed Brennan, The Newbie

Reed Brennan, the protagonist of the series, is a sophomore who has just started attending Easton Academy. She has reddish/brown hair, brown eyes (sometimes reported as blue) and is athletic - she plays both soccer and lacrosse. She is also academically gifted. 

She wants to be friends with the fast-lane, high society Billings girls desperately to escape from her boring background and messed-up family. She's ambitious - she is willing to do various tasks the Billings girls assign her, from bringing them food to stealing an exam. She's somewhat of a follower, but knows where to draw the line. 

I always compare Reed to Lucy Hale. Lucy has the dark hair (even though it's not reddish) an eyes that take on different colors. Reed is obviously attractive if she can get the attention of people like Noelle Lange and Thomas Pearson. 

Here are a few pictures of Lucy: 

Taylor Bell, The Brainiac

In the books, Taylor is described as the sweetest of the bunch. She's a junior, with messy dark blonde curls and blue eyes. She has a cherubic face and although she typically goes along with everything her friends say and do, she is the most sensitive. 

She's a helpful person, having tutored Reed when she was struggling. She's very smart - she completed her semester's work at the beginning of the school year. She claims to have a photographic memory. 

For me, Taylor was the hardest to imagine. I think of her as Chloe Grace Moretz, but Chloe has lighter blonde hair and is similar in appearance to Gabriella Wilde (Ariana, for the books). So, I jumped to Taissa Farmiga from American Horror Story and the Bling Ring. Although Taissa has brown eyes while Taylor's are blue, I think it's a good match. Taissa is really sweet and innocent-looking. What do you think? 

Kiran Hayes, The Fashionista

Kiran Hayes is a junior at Easton Academy. She's a model, having done ads for Abercrombie, for example. She has brownish-gold eyes, tanned skin, light brown hair and of course, good physique. She is the most glamorous of the four, and can transform anyone from drab to fab. She can be very condescending and shallow and very self-absorbed. Her popularity is important to her and is subject to peer pressure from the other Billings girls, particularly Noelle. 

I couldn't find anyone who really matched Kiran's appearance while looking 16-17 years old. At first, I thought of Kendall Jenner, but then I looked at Alexandra Chando as Sutton Mercer from the Lying Game. Sutton is kind of like Kiran in their bitchy attitude. Here are a few pictures! 

Ariana Osgood, The Good Girl

Ariana Osgood is what you can call a Southern Belle, a wealthy girl from Georgia, with light blonde hair and ice blue eyes. She has an ethereal beauty. She's delicate and petite, too - Reed mentioned that if there was a gust of wind, Ariana would be blown away. She's quiet and bookish - she always has her nose in a book and is the editor of the school paper. She is a successful poet. Ariana is a senior and is Noelle's best friend. 

I imagine her as Taylor Swift or as Gabriella Wilde - but I think I'll stick with Gabriella Wilde and Gabriella Wilde has starred in teen films like Carrie (which is set at a high school) and Endless Love. Here are a few pictures, tell me if you think she'd be a good physical match for Ariana! 

Kiss and DON'T tell

Wispy as a flower

Perfect picture as Ariana is the editor of Easton's paper

Ariana's death glare...you'll get it when you read the books 

Detached, disheveled Ariana

Noelle Lange, The Queen Bee

According to the books, Noelle has long, dark hair and brown eyes. She's from New York City. She;s confident, sporty, a natural born leader. She cares a lot about her status and likes to be in charge of everything. She knows everything about what goes on at Easton, so much that it actually scares Reed. She can be blunt and won't hesitate to make bitchy comments to her friends. She's also very loyal, though, and will protect her friends if they are in danger. 

So, I imagine her as Emma Watson as Nicki Moore in The Bling Ring. Here are a few pictures:    

Tell me what you guys think! 

Private

Hi guys! I know I haven't posted in FOREVER. I'm not very consistent, am I? Anyway, it's summertime, and that means it's time to whip out a book and read by the pool, under the sun. I read the Private Series by Kate Brian books a while ago, but I decided to re-read them. 

Now, I'm not saying they're a work of literary genius, but they're interesting. They're kind of like Gossip Girl, but with murders and dangerous secrets and scandal. 

It starts off with the protagonist, sophomore Reed Brennan, arriving at Easton Academy, a boarding school for over-privileged kids in Connecticut. Easton had been her dream school for years, because it was a way out of her boring, miserable town in Pennsylvania. She's accepted to the school on a scholarship, and of course, feels completely lost at first surrounded by girls and guys too wealthy for their own good. She meets senior Thomas Pearson, a hot, popular and mysterious boy. Her wildest dreams come true when the most popular girls of the school, the girls of the exclusive Billings House, actually acknowledge her existence. She's particularly fascinated by the leader of Billings House, beautiful and confident senior Noelle Lange, and her little group of friends - Ariana Osgood, quiet good girl and poet, Kiran Hayes, a gorgeous model, and Taylor Bell, the smartest girl in school. Even though they make her do demeaning things, Reed is determined to be one of them - these girls go on to be great people who make their mark on the world, and she wants that for herself, too. Essentially, she'll do almost anything to get into their group. It kind of reminds me of Mean Girls, but Noelle and her friends are much more manipulative than Regina George and her "army of skanks." 

I won't spoil anything - you'll just have to read the series for yourself! There are 14 books (a handful, I know), and while at a certain point it feels like the author is just dragging the series on for no particular purpose, just get to the end.


Actually, I've always imagined what Noelle and her friends would look like. In the next few posts, I'm going to post what I think these characters would look like. I'll start with Noelle Lange. 

Bring Poppy Back!

It's been over a month since I last posted - I can't believe it's already March! Anyway, in my last post, I talked about charm bracelets. Well, I also have another unhealthy shopping obsession: purses. I have a couple of wristlets (mostly from Coach or Vera Bradley), a super cool Converse bag shaped like a shoe (I've gotten tons of compliments about it!) and other bags, like 2 full sized Coach ones, two Coach wallets, a full size Vera Bradley bag.

You could say I'm obsessed with purses. I prowl websites like eBay, Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Coach, etc, looking for cute bags. What I really wanted to post was to lament about Coach. In the past few years they've released NO fun designs - the Poppy bags from before were sparkly and young and eye-catching. Yes, Coach is not a company that tries to target youth, but I'm sure there are a lot of older teens-mid-twenties women who buy Coach purses. I, for one, haven't bought a single Coach purse in years because nothing particularly appeals to me. The simple, one color designs are frankly boring and I would never spend $200+ on a bag I hate. 

In my opinion, Coach should still try to target older, rather wealthier women but also try to make an effort to appeal to young people by bringing back the Poppy line from a few years ago. I'm sure that if Coach offered even a few bags designed to attract younger women they'd get more sales profits. I miss those bags so much! 

Here are examples of the kinds of Coach bags I'm talking about: 


These are so much more youthful and fun than their dreary one-color leather ones! Bring them back Coach!