The Times - How to be popular: scientists reveal the secret to being liked at school

With a line-up of heroines whose impossible beauty is matched only by their catty one-liners, Mean Girls is supposed to be an over-the-top portrayal of schoolgirls that classmates love to hate.

However, the film may be closer to home than to Hollywood fantasy, according to academics who have conducted research into teen popularity.

The study has found that Machiavellian pupils are at the top of the tree. Liked and feared in equal measure, such teenagers strategically balance aggression with charm.

Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey and starring Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried, was released in 2004 but retains a cult following, with its own Twitter account, annual day of celebration and a Broadway musical that is coming to the West End.

The popular clique of girls — the Plastics — dish out lines including: “I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help it that I’m popular.”

The rest of the article can be found here: Times Article

WHAT THEY SAY IN THE FILM
“I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help it that I’m popular.”
“I don’t hate you because you’re fat. You’re fat because I hate you.”
“Ex-boyfriends are just off limits to friends. That’s just, like, the rules of feminism.”
“So that’s against the rules, and you can’t sit with us.”
“It’s not my fault you’re like, in love with me or something.”
“No offence, but why would she send you a candy cane? She doesn’t even like you that much.”