My typical weekend when I was a teenager was the same as now, nothing has changed.
[LAUGH]
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>> I was definitely not sporty in high school.
I grew up in New York City, in Queens.
My elementary school and my junior high school, they had no fields,
and almost no sports.
The one sport I remember from elementary school was something we played
called war ball.
Where you went in the gym and people threw balls at you as hard as they could,
and you had to run and hide and try to save your life.
And I pretty much never played sports again.
>> So in high school, I was definitely a nerd.
I took all of the advanced placement classes I could.
I was just a big overachiever.
I did not actually have a lot of extracurriculars after school.
And that was in part because I worked after school.
But one of the things that I did all throughout high school was,
I was super into quiz ball, and I did that all four years.
And our senior year, our all girls team was actually pretty good.
We went to the state championships.
We did not win the state championships, but we made it there.
>> In high school, I was the new girl.
So yeah, I was the new kid, and my friends were all theater people in the orchestra.
I played the harp in the orchestra.
And so I was in the orchestra pit.
[LAUGH] And so when her song came on, Over the Rainbow, when she sang that song.
I was the one who played the glissando,
which is like [SOUND] when she begins the music, begins the song.
So yeah, I was the new kid and also adjacent to
the theatre people, but not a theatre person.
But not necessarily an orchestra person, either.
>> So in school, we were definitely in band.
We started band in middle school and ever since,
we were playing instruments up until grade 12.
>> I played the alto saxophone.
>> And I played the flute.
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>> So yes, I was a very good student.
I graduated number five in my class.
And I know it's kind of weird that I remember that.
But I remember being very, very proud of that ranking when I was in high school.
>> I would say we were both good students.
We both studied for tests,
we both were in band, and that really helped us with our classes.
>> Yeah, I think we were both good students, and we both really studied hard,
and we did well, and I'm really proud of our accomplishments in school.
>> I was a good student in English class,
but maybe not the best student in some other subjects.
I went to a science and math high school, and
my sophomore year we had to take an entire year of mechanical drawing.
And you had to carry this huge stick called a T-square, it was this big,
on the subway every day.
And I had to commute from Queens to the Bronx for an hour and
15 minutes each way carrying this giant stick poking out of my backpack.
And people on the crowded subway would get so mad.
They'd be like, move your stick, kid.
So, good times.
>> I was a good student, I think.
I got all A's, except for
one B in Spanish, sorry, mom.
Yeah, I think I was a good student, I ranked maybe in the middle.
My class of 75 [LAUGH] were a little higher, maybe a little above average,
we'll say that.
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>> It was definitely All of Me by John Legend.
>> And also Summer by Calvin Harris, which was the perfect song going into summer
after graduating high school, it just had the right vibe.
>> Tik ToK by Ke$ha.
And I can still probably remember all of the words of that song.
I do remember dancing to it at prom.
>> Growing up, I actually didn't listen to a lot of American pop music, or
the top charts.
I did listen to albums of artists I liked, but I did listen to a ton of K-pop.
And so for this question, I'm gonna answer with one of the top songs of 2008,
which is when I graduated high school.
And that was Nobody by The Wonder Girls.
The Wonder Girls was this amazing girl group.
They sang retro funky pop music.
They actually opened for the Jonas Brothers.
>> Miss You Much by Janet Jackson and Love Shack by B-52s, two great songs.
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>> Probably not, unless there were some caveats there.
Because I had a really great high school experience, but I was somebody who
really chafed at a lot of the restrictions that are placed on you as a teen.
Check in whenever you had to go somewhere.
Just something that was not my favorite.
And I say that as somebody who had a relative amount of freedom in high school.
So if I could go back for a single day as the person I am now, that would maybe be
kind of fun, but I would not wanna go back for an extended period of time, for sure.
>> Personally, I wouldn't go back to high school.
The only reason I would want to go back would be to go back to music class and
just kind of jam out with friends.
But otherwise, we really both loved the university experience a lot more.
>> No, I wouldn't want to go back to high school.
I loved college because there was so much freedom to study anything you wanted.
But high school [LAUGH] there definitely wasn't that freedom, so
I definitely don't wanna go back again.
>> I would not go back to high school mostly because I don't wanna do
the homework.
[LAUGH] I still have stress dreams about waking up and
not having done my math homework.
So no, I would not go back to high school just cuz I don't wanna do homework.
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>> I'd say to my teen self, when you get to college and
that really handsome guy asks you out, do not go out with him.
[LAUGH] Say no, go out with the nice guy.
Please, save yourself some heartbreak,
thank you, >> I would say, specifically in terms of
publishing, because we started publishing when we were teenagers and
we also pursued querying and finding a book deal when we were teenagers.
So I would say, don't rush, everything will come in time, and
you'll be able to find an agent and find a book deal sooner than you know.
>> To my teen self, I would say, you're doing great.
All that K-pop you listen to is gonna help you in the future.
You've always been true to yourself, you always will be.
And yeah, proud of you, teen self.
>> Take a breath, and don't worry so much about where you're at right now,
but really just appreciate all that you have.
And keep working at your goals, you are going to achieve them.
Even if it doesn't look like what you expect and
even if your pace isn't the same as everyone else's, that is okay.
Don't measure yourself [LAUGH] up to anybody else, and you're gonna be fine.
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>> I had two best friends in high school, Julian and Mila, and we had so much fun.
We'd take the subway from Queens to the West Village on weekends and
we'd go thrift store shopping.
And we loved this diner called Cozy Soup and Burger.
And my friend Mila's aunt knew how to sew,
and we'd take these cool clothes back to her and she'd help us shorten skirts and
alter them to make them fit, and it was so much fun.
And back then we didn't have cell phones, so we could go all over the city and
our parents had no idea where we were, and that was pretty amazing.
>> We both loved going to the library.
We loved signing out books, we love reading.
We were huge readers in high school, and I kind of miss that.
I feel like I don't even read as fast as I did when I was a teenager.
>> And back in high school, that was really kind of part of the early boom
of YA, especially with books like Divergent and The Hunger Games.
And those movies were coming out too, so that was really fun.
>> Probably involved me staying at home reading.
I loved YA books when I was a teen.
And I actually had a YA book blog that I maintained and
was really active online with.
Most of my weekends were probably devoted to reading and blogging.
However, lest you think I was a complete hermit,
I did have friends and we did spend a lot of time together on the weekends.
I grew up in a really small town.
So frankly, there wasn't always a lot to do beyond going to the hockey games
on weekends and just sort of driving around looking for something to do.
So, that's what you do when you live in a small town.
>> My typical weekend when I was a teenager is mostly what I do now.
I read a lot.
I play video games, watch movies and TV shows, K dramas, and anime.
And I guess my friends in high school, they all drove.
I didn't get my license till 18.
So I didn't drive until I was 18.
So my friends would come pick me up, we'd go out to eat, we'd go to the movies.
Just the same as now, nothing has changed.
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