Unpacking the Clique Franchise 

Every time you mentioned a book I thought “oh, THATS the one where I stopped reading” and to my horror I slowly realized that I, too, actually read the entire clique saga

i, too, tried to stand up to my 5th grade bullies by going “did i invite you to my bbq? then why are you up in my grill?” 🤪 it made the bullying worse!

The fact that middle school boy books were fantasies about the hero within yiu but middle school girl books were realities about the villain within you...

It's kind of wild to look back on books like these from my childhood as a queer girl. Like they're so aggressively straight on the surface but the boys themselves don't even matter, its ALL about the girls and their relationships

I’m forever haunted by the fact that my little 12 year old self convinced my parents to name my little brother Landon after reading all the books

Not me refusing to wear gold and silver jewellery together my entire middle school existence because of this series

Me thinking there were like seven books… “THERE WERE TWENTY?!? DOES IT FOLLOW THEM THROUGH RETIREMENT?!?”

As an Autistic person, I remember reading these books back in middle school and viewing them almost as anthropological studies that I thought could help me understand how to navigate middle school social hierarchies. They ultimately didn’t end up teaching me much about how to be “popular” (thankfully I could tell that most of things these characters do are not something you’d want to emulate lol), but they were actually kind of a useful guide of what things were considered particularly socially awkward or weird or uncool. And they helped me understand the politics of cliques and all the complex rules to social interactions beyond the basic “be yourself and be kind” rule that I’d previously believed was the only rule I needed to know. I mean I was still bullied terribly all throughout middle school lol, but at least these books made me a little less confused about why that was happening.

my friends and i had a "nice clique" that we called "PSA: pretty, smart angels" in middle school because of these literary masterpieces. we also had a "blah-g" wherein we would detail the crushes we had with their clever nicknames we gave them 😭 some of my favorite memories

OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN MAD OVER THAT SLEEPOVER LINE CHANGE FOR YEARSSSSS

Hahahahaha holy shit I had forgotten what a sociopath Claire was. This is amazing

Massie had 13yr old me fighting with my mom to wear high heels to middle school 😭 the unrealistic chokehold The Clique had on us…..

“ehmagawd” the way i modeled my entire life after these books back then is embarrassing 🤣 becoming brand aware and wanting to be “alpha” of my own clique did not do me or my personality any favors

You forgot the completely plot necessary bet that Claire and Massie had where Claire couldn’t outfit repeat and Massie just… couldn’t buy new clothes for a month? What a world we grew up in…

I read these books religiously in middle school. The era of The Clique, Gossip Girl, The A List, Pretty Little Liars, The Luxe, and Private remains unmatched.

I remember when I was reading "Bratfest at Tiffany's," my friends grandparents saw me and chimed, "Oh I love Breakfast at Tiffany's!" And already feeling shame for my literary choices, I did not correct them, but agreed, I too loved that book I have never read.

Tell me how I am 26 years old and I can still tell you exactly how I pictured Massie’s pure white bedroom and how I thought it must’ve been so classy

The absolute CHOKEHOLD these books had on me and my personality from ages like 11-14.... Oh *man*. I had a weird preteen/early teenagehood so I still look back on them so fondly despite some of their more... Problematic aspects 😂 And can we just take a moment for the cover designs??? Lives in my head rent free. Those summer novellas tho... Absolutely and truly iconic in every way. 👏🏻

As someone who had literally never seen these before in my life, I cannot explain to you how lost in the plot sauce I became at Bark Obama

i love this video sm thank u for ur service

I 100% lived vicariously through Massie. I wanted to be her. I was bullied so badly and dreamt of being popular and running the school as a middle schooler.

The girl who plays Claire said that the reason the other movies they signed for didn’t get to be made was because of the 2008 recession.

i dont think that publishing company understands how much they impacted zoomers or millennial cuffs. its absolutely crazy and i would love to find out why we have so much mean girl content? it was a big shift from the "nice goofy girl" was it the rise of documented bullying going on in schools? ex: the clique vs dear dumb diary (to me which is the original finsta) vs the clique the pendulum be pendalin'

I read these back in 2005-2006 and the only line I remember is "there's a letter in your mailbox", said by massie to alicia's cousin for the heinous crime of wearing a thong 💅

As a grown adult, I have played The Clique: Diss and Make Up and I can confirm that it is 3 hours of petty glory

I bought the movie on iTunes and watched it on my little iPod Nano EVERY night before bed, IN FULL, for probably the entirety of 5th grade. This chokehold was simply unmatched

The characters feel so much older when you’re also twelve when you’re reading them. Lmaooo You could have held me at gunpoint and I probably couldn’t tell you these kids were supposed to be 12 years old.

yesss, Alicia was my favorite bc i'm Black, and she was described as having olive skin, so she was the closest character I could attempt to identify with😂(I also technically have the same name, so that helped)

WOW THAT PURPLE STREAK WAS A MEMORY UNLOCKED wow did I really read all of these books too. I was obsessed with the Clique so much I blacked out a lot of this. Thank you for this.

Mentioning Bean the black pug unlocked a core memory for me... I would love to see your analysis of the A-List books! Other than Gossip Girl I feel like they are the natural sequels to the Clique novels.

This series was the og influencer for me. I wanted the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume for YEARS!

If you're interested there's a podcast called "Girl Like Us" that breaks down the plots of each book as well as other tween books like Monster High that came out in the day. Unfortunately the quality fluctuates in terms of meandering conversations and kind of cringe opinions on the characters and Lisi Harrison herself, but since it's literally one of the only other places that deepdive into my favorite nostalgia book series I'll take what I can get :')

My biggest takeaway from these books is how much I wanted a lipgloss of the month. Lol I don’t (and didn’t at the time) even wear lipgloss.

The Clique was just my gateway drug into the Gossip Girl books. As insane the clique was for only featuring 2 years of insane shit for 5 girls its nothing compared to the plot lines in the GG novels 😭

So I’ve never read the books (I read the Ashley’s instead) but I was obsessed with the film and I never picked up that Dylan was supposed to be “fat”?!? I just thought her mum was toxic af and forcing her ED habits on her child!

I once ended up with a paper grocery bag full of these novels that had been donated to the church library. They wanted me to read them and make sure they were appropriate. Needless to say, they weren't, but it was fun to laugh at them. Massie and her cohorts seem more like a cautionary tale than a fun series for kids. "Remember children, wealth makes you stupid."

My older brother would always blame my bitchy antics on The Clique Series. Said he was going to sue Lisi for doing this to girls. 🤣🤣🤣

I remember first reading the books in 7th grade, the same grade all the girls are in. It never clicked that they were all my age, 12-13, they just seemed so much older and cooler, like wearing heels to school. But darn it, if I didn’t model my own sense of style after what the books described

This series got me into reading. I read it from 12-16, slowly collecting the books as I saw them at the thrift store. I never tried to emulate the characters' bad actions and I understood when they were being insecure or stupid. I mostly admired Massie's combacks and all the parties the characters threw. I still have all my copies plus the movie tie-in and manga editions of the first book.

this series had suchhhh a hold on me in my preteen years 😂😂 like this video unlocked so many memories i forgot i had. seriously it’s so hilarious to me that i actually read everyone one of these books like these plots are so insane 💀

Here's the thing...I lived in Westchester at one point in my life. In two places actually. In one town, yea it was more diverse and representative. In another town though? It was a pretty affluent town. And I was one of the maybe 4 black families in the entire place. My family and I felt like circus animals when we moved there cause we were watched so much and seen as different. So the representation in this book?....not that far off

The line “one does not simply skim the Bible” finally got me to sub omg what a zinger

Literally i was considering starting a youtube channel to talk about this series 😂 you beat me to it haha EDIT: Id also like to add that Lisi is also is the author of the Monster High books

The Clique was the first series I had to go to the YA section of the library for and I was terrified of the YA section as a middle schooler. 🙃

I also have all of these books taking up space in my brain from middle school so thank you for making this 👍

1:46 - 20 books (15 main, 5 novels) - 1 extra book (Cliquetionary aka dictionary) - Manga Spin off - 1 Movie - 1 Nintendo DS game - Spin off series (The Alphas)

Just thought of a great comeback: “Claire are you a bad driver?” “Because you can’t seem to stay in your lane!”

One thing that I remember vividly from these books that made me really uncomfortable was when Layne dressed up as a Native American as a form of protest. I think it was the book with the overflow trailers

this book series turned me into a teen drama addict in middle school, which in turn introduced to the gossip girl books. very cursed time indeed.

I wrote a spec script for a pilot for a Clique series just like for fun once. I was going through all the books and highlighting them. They’re so friggin funny

these books literally shaped my entire YA life, i remember printing out a wikihow on "how to be like massie block" while reading the books and saving up to buy the newest one from target

I remember liking the prequel and owning it, Dylan should have blamed Massie for her ED because she didn’t have one before she met her.

this came up in my recommended as i've been watching your content a lot and omg it unlocked SO many memories. i grew up with these books as well and i was neurodivergent, homeschooled, and growing up in a Christian cult so i was so vastly interested in what i thought were such "glamorous" lives of people with friends who were like allowed to socialize n go to parties n kiss boys (u know like. normal teenager things) bc i wasn't. but i totally agree with your ending point, it did kinda show me that the lives i so desperately craved and the people i wanted to be so badly had insecurities and problems too. i very much DISAGREE with that article abt it being like woman-hating bc even tho some of it aged poorly n there's misogynistic tropes that i wish weren't there, it rlly did help me get a bit out of my NLOG mentality a bit at the time and see the "other girls" as just people with different interestes than me, not better and not worse. side note: my main critique is if it was satire ... why go SO hard on the fatphobia n classism bc u can portray that it's a real issue that young girls deal with without those insane jokes abt Dylan. i used to think Tumblr was the start of my ED but...this was the real origin story I'm realizing, yikes!

I still own the entire series, it’s just too iconic to get rid of

i went to a private, catholic, all-girls school in westchester for middle school & high school. the school demographics definitely didn't reflect the actual diversity of the county, especially since a lot of the girls there actually lived in new jersey/connecticut/the bronx. a teacher made us all watch the clique movie in 7th grade and i was at first like "this is so true...... i hate popular girls...... fuck rich people" while also disliking the franchise. i enjoyed this video, thanks for making it!!!

The 13 y/o really jumped out with the "well actuallys" on so many minor details you mentioned, that's humiliating for me. jsyk the Hart-netts is a play on Josh Hartnett who was a teen dream actor at the time, not calling themselves harlots

Wow your commentary on Alicia being your favorite makes so much sense to me now lmao she was also my favorite, and I am in fact queer

I still pat my face with my towel after I shower because of these books. Sooo glad this series is being addressed. I aged out only 5-6 in, but...damn, they've really stuck in my brain.

I remember this series for being entertaining for the drama, but also very weird given the characters' ages. I was old enough when I read it to realize how ridiculous the plots and characters were. And there were odd moments of sexualization for characters who were 15 at the oldest, most frequent example is a girl describing hers or another girl's breasts (happened too many times). I vividly remember Maisie (14) being jealous of a 10 year old with B cups bc she was still an A. She gave Alicia a lot of crap for being a C cup too. I still don't know if it was trying to be satirical or serious.

i always identified with dylan bc i was the “fat girl” in a diet culture world.. if only if i could go back and tell my younger self i didn’t need weight watchers and i was literally a healthy normal weight☹️

I was WAITING for a video like this

So glad someone finally cracked the code of what the Heart-Nets was supposed to be referencing. This has perplexed me for over a decade. Thank you for your service.

I really like your analysis of this series that I loved when I was growing up. I think you illustrated its strong points really well. My main issue with it, once I grew up, was that to me at least, I felt like yeah obviously girls like Massie aren't often kind girls. They're bullies. BUT they are still popular, still fashionable, still have friends and people who are interested in them and their lives. And that made me want to be like Massie, and I definitely put too much focus on trying to be fashionable and popular, shirking some of my true nerdier interests in the process. I don't think I had enough critical thinking skills to engage with these books properly lol. And I was such a Claire honestly lmao, a poor wannabe with strict parents and no true fashion sense. But, we live and we learn.

Wow thank you for this public service. I have an absolutely formative memory of learning both the Claire and Massie monologues for a competition that sold itself as an American Idol-type audition for the first movie but was actually just a sweepstakes to get to visit the set for a day or something, but boy did I seriously believe that was gonna be my Big Break for at least a day. I still remember the Claire one started "Uh oh, I taste pennies. That means I'm gonna throw up." I don't remember the Massie one as much but I think she was talking to Bean. Anyway I absolutely read these books in secret because I was "too old" for them (13 when the first one came out, a full adult!!) but my younger sister wasn't, and I thought I had only read the first 3 or so but I am SHOCKED to discover I still remember Skye's riddle from book 7. Thank you for this nightmare 5K down memory lane, sealed with a taco-flavored Glossip Girl kiss.

I owned every single one of these books as a teen 😅 These made me love soccer (in theory- never played or watched cause sports bore me) and are the sole reason I still cannot bring myself to buy Keds 10+ years later. I think I really related to Claire as a fellow poor kid, but Massie was definitely the most interesting/funnest part of these books, for me.

i’m such an LBR for finding this video 2 years later , but this was perfection 👌🏼

Hi, Ashley. Your video inspired me to finally rent The Clique movie. I watched it with 2 friends who graciously agreed to experience it with me. Massie's pronunciation of "CUH-LAAIRE!" - iconic. Thanks for this video.

How did I not realize how problematic Kuh-Laire was

thank you algorithm for giving me this gift of a video🙏🙏 the clique stan to english major pipeline is real lmao! subscribed - so excited to support your channel!

WHAT this video unlocked a previously buried and inaccessible part of my brain.... I can't believe I forgot about this series! You do God's work Ashley

Gosh I used to be OBSESSED with these books but once I got to high school I stopped ready at book 5. This was very nostalgic for nervous me who was going to an all-black poor middle school which was EXTREMELY different than the books I read😅 thank you for the trip down memory lane👏🏾

This series was such a significant part of my middle school experience. Macey taught me what was “cool”😂

I was OBSESSED with the Clique DS game when I was about 9. I played it all the way through about five times. You have to get in with multiple cliques in order to get into the Pretty Committee. The first group that accepts you is the eccentrics (scene/emo kids), then the art clique, the music clique, the athlete clique, and then the Pretty Committee (i may or may not be forgetting some cliques, its been about 12 years since I played). For the "jobbies", I remember there being at least one being a food mini-game and one being a fashion mini-game. You would unlock different clothes to buy when you gain access to each clique. You could customize the appearance of your character a bit in order to make them look like you. I never read the books, but the Clique game was legitimately my favorite DS game of all time.

I’ve never read or heard of this series but I was so entertained by and invested in this video omg I found your channel the other day and I binged all your vids immediately, love your stuff and congrats on 1K ❤️

I definitely didn’t realize there was so much animosity towards Claire until now. As someone who did not have any true friends at that age and desperately wanted acceptance and attention for a lot of my childhood, she was the only person I could relate to in those books 😅 yikes

I've watched this video so many times and I just now noticed that the book Ashley uses throughout the video is "The Scarlet Letter." This truly displays how "The Clique" franchise should be viewed: as an iconic piece of classic American literature

Congrats on surpassing 1k!! Your channel is gonna blow up soon, it’s crazy how quality your content is! I’ve never read the clique but I get excited every time you upload because you do such a good job of presenting information

God I read all these books as a kid- and now being a lesbian, realize I felt the Massie/Claire drama. I also really liked Kristian and wished she’d leave the group and have real friends, and Dylan stop worrying for her weight. Funny what did go over my head as a ten year old in terms of content in the book- and also me being a complete ‘lbr’ I found it funny and mean girls are just iconic I cant help it

I wanted to have this on in the background while at work but I've now realized that it needs to be listened to in the comfort of my room with a big glass of wine and possibly the movie playing in the background. Can't wait!

"I didn't trust the movie to do the book justice so I refused to watch it" GIRL SAMEEE

I'm stuck at home with COVID and I cannot express to you how grateful I am to have stumbled upon your channel this is the one thread of sanity I'm clinging to

omg you are my new favourite youtuber - I cracked up so many times in this video but I also really loved your retrospective at the end, especially the bit about boys being allowed no-thoughts-head -empty media but girls not being allowed it. thanks so much for making amazing videos!!!

I'm 8 years older than you are, so this book series was out when I was past reading YA novels. I saw the movie though, and liked it. So, I was interested in hearing someone talk about the books. This was a lot of fun!

I liked your closing remarks a lot! I read most of the clique books and also some of the alphas books in middle school and I really enjoyed them. Even as a nerdy little middle schooler I initially was skeptical of the books at first glance, like why would I want to read about a bunch of mean popular girls? But once I gave it a shot I had much of the same thoughts as you did, like the books provided an interesting insight on the “other side” of popularity as well as a deconstruction of the social order in schools like theirs and mine. Obviously it has its problems (thankfully, I personally was not influenced by Dylan’s ED behavior) but I don’t think it’s right for people to judge these books on a surface level without actually knowing what they’re about

I learn something new every time I come to your channel! Thanks for making videos about stuff you like, because you help make the world a more interesting place.

I read all 20 of these books in 7th grade. Twice. I remember the first one I read was Dylan's summer novella, then tried to go back to the beginning but the first couple were checked out from the library so I started on like book 3 and annihilated them. I read all of Alphas, read the Cliquetionary, read the prequel (I think they're in like 4th grade in that one??). I was a movie anti and I wish I knew about the DS game because I definitely would have loved it. I was unhealthily obsessed with these and I wanted to be Massie Block so bad. In hindsight it's so clear they're satire but oh god I was 12, had no critical thinking skills, and no thoughts head empty like these propelled me into insecurity for years 😭

this video is so iconic. I’d forgotten how much wild shit had happened in these books and yr commentary had me dying. Also thinking about it now these books were bascally written reality tv for me in middle school. Like I was obsessed with the fascinating trainwreck of insane events that happened coupled with all the girls hogwild actions. This series was so entertaining and just chefs kiss. I literally have lines from this series seared into my brain even after all these years which quite honestly is an amazing feat.

how did we literally live together and NEVER talk about the clique

I think the only exposure I had to this series was the fact that I bought their summer vacation books as a box set from a scholastic book fair in school - BUT this was such a throwback, I'd completely forgotten about them!! Also, I know this is a Major longshot but at this rate I think you might be my only hope - I remember reading this book when I was in third grade, and I THINK it was part of a series called like the 5th Avenue Girls or the Main Street Boutique Girls or something like that. All I distinctly remember about it is that it was a book that had recently come out because it was a gift in hardcover (so probably 2005) and that it was one of those books where every chapter was in a different POV. It definitely fell into the archetype of being "wealthy/upper middle class white girls going on an adventure" that a lot of these sorts of books were. And the fact that it was a thicker book - like, probably longer than the five Clique summer novels put together. I feel like it was an inch to an inch and a half thick - if you can think of it, please let me know!!

So grateful RU-vid recommended me your channel! I clicked on this video SO FAST because I’m obsesseeeed with your breakdown! Congrats on almost 5k subs!

no bc i'm so glad i stumbled on this video bc i didn't have any friends who read The Clique series when i was younger so revisiting this series that's consumed the niche corners of my brain was so refreshing! these girls had sucha chokehold on me that i even made them on sims 4 once HELP 😭 but this was such a fun walk down memory lane and i enjoyed this video sm

I now understand why my mom wouldn't let me read these books when I was a kid...

I remember getting these from the library as a 10 year old immigrant kid still learning English and being confused as hell. I completely forgot about them until recently and I read the blurbs on Goodreads. It's... a lot more than I remembered lol

The way this video unlocked memories .... I definitely also read the whole Alphas and Monster High series lol

This video just made me consider the hold that Alloy Entertainment had on my pre-teen years. I read the first nine Clique books and the first two Vampire Diaries trilogies in middle school and early high school (circa 2007-10). Sad to say, they helped inspire my love of reading, so I guess I do owe Alloy a debt of gratitude.

I was helping my parents clean out my old room now that I have my own home and uncovered these books I LIVED FOR. I used ‘given’ on the regular. Love this vid!

I don't know why, but this has made me want to write tween book series about a group of girls, similar to clique, but without problematic shit like ED.

finally catching up with all of your video's that i missed ! as a big fan of TVD the show and the books this was really interesting to watch !! (also thank you for not going into depth about dylan's ED i really really appreciate it)

as someone who grew up in Westchester let me tell you the demographics of all the characters being white is not surprising. i won't deny the entire county is pretty affluent, but the upper part is where all the celebrities and rich people live in their mansions with their fancy prep schools and the main demographic there is definitely white. i didn't grow up with a ton of minorities either, but the towns around me had more because they were more urban centers close to the bronx

aaa I used to love these books ! I find it hilarious that you mentioned that your mom was like "wow ! what a young academic" when you were reading the series bc my dad used to *hate* that I read all of these books and referred to them as "trashy novels" 😩 but they were ~literature~ to 13 yr old me lmfao maybe i'm just materialistic but tbh i think the clique kinda fomented my love of fashion ?? anyways u r hilarious and thank you for making this vid !!!