Stargirl By Jerry Spinelli

“When you say “Yes” to others, make sure you are not saying “No” to yourself,” Paulo Coelho once said. This quote ties in with the novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli because one of the main characters, Stargirl, tries to be someone she is, not to get people to like her instead of being who she really is. Stargirl Caraway, who has homeschooled her whole life, enrolls in the Mica High School and quickly becomes the center of attention because of how different she is. A boy on the more popular side named Leo Borlock falls for her, little did he know she liked him too. Due to Stargirl falling for Leo, she falls to peer pressure of wanting to be like everyone else for Leo not to be embarrassed by her. Through Spinelli's characters, he teaches the reader that even when genuine friendship develops, the pull of social pressure is almost impossible for most teens to overcome.

Leo tells the reader how he pretends Stargirl isn’t different from the other students. “I pretended she would become more like everyone else and they would become more like her” (Spinelli 108). This shows the peer pressure from the shunning makes Leo want Stargirl to be like everyone else. Leo is pressured by the other students to either pick others affections or Stargirls affection and he has to figure out which he desires more. Next, the reader sees pressure from society when Stargirl changes everything about herself to be liked by the rest of the students and to make Leo happy. Leo speaks to the reader about how “perfect” Stargirl looked when she looked like any girl there. “She looked magnificently, wonderfully, gloriously ordinary. She looked just like a hundred other girls at Mica High. Stargirl had vanished into a sea of them and I was thrilled” (Spinelli 117). Leo didn't like Stargirl being herself because she was so different from everyone and they judged her for