Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What ever became of the ‘popular’ kids at your school?

195 replies

Bigchoice · 24/02/2023 21:10

I was talking to DD and she said she wasn’t ‘popular’. She’s 14, got a good group of friends, does sport and generally seems happy. From what she means by ‘popular’ I assume she refers to those who are conventionally very good looking, vape/smoke, engage in precocious behaviour, are generally considered cool. I won’t pretend I didn’t understand what she means by it and to be honest I’m absolutely delighted DD isn’t popular- by that definition. To me as long as she has friends, does well in school and is happy that’s really all I care about. But it got me thinking, whatever became of the popular kids from your school days, were you a popular kid? How did their life turn out?

OP posts:
Thesystemonlydreamsintotaldarkness · 24/02/2023 23:27

It’s been 84 years since I was at school (actually 25 years almost), and I’m now actually very hazy about who I was actually at school with , and who was the popular crowd. I’m not sure who was to be honest. Thinking of a couple of girls and then not actually sure if they were popular or if they just were tall: slim: had a kookai bag for PE.

seeing as I remember so little about the popular kids at school I can only tell you that an awful lot of people became teachers; and too many died way before their time. For the majority of us; we are now in our early 40s… have jobs to pay the bills and are bringing up families. So mostly boring normal people. (Except one music star)

Geeds · 24/02/2023 23:31

In my experience the popular crowd have done well, not uni types but own businesses/good sales careers earning big money. Popular usually equals confidence and confidence tends to lead to money if you use it right, so not surprising really.

Milany · 24/02/2023 23:34

From what I can tell... they have pretty average lives.

I've not really thought about it before but I'm surprised at how many of them still live in the same area / married people they went to school with etc and don't seem to have moved on, if that makes sense.

Of the less popular kids (myself included) there seems to be more variation on where their lives have taken them. Not better or worse, just not the same.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

14 year olds
Name999999 · 24/02/2023 23:36

I’m trying to think who was popular - no one really stood out as such. There were lots of friendship groups. A mixed bag from my school from teenage pregnancy to multi millionaire.

PinkSyCo · 24/02/2023 23:43

They are getting on with their individual lives and not sat on Mumsnet starting bitter threads about their less popular classmates that’s for sure.

CarPoor · 24/02/2023 23:55

There were two types of popular at my school

The rich, swishy hair, Regina george types. The have done I would say average. A range of jobs, no one has started any businesses as seems the classic Mn answer but all have done okay. Just a standard range of jobs/outcomes as per the rest of the population

Then I guess there was the more 'Chavvy' popular types. These probably haven't taken up quite the range of jobs as the swishy hairs, but actually have probably done better in terms of life. There's one girl Im always really pleased to see is doing well,

The popular boys have done shit though, and this pleases me because some of them were absolute cunts

Catastrophejane · 24/02/2023 23:55

There is a real desire among some posters to see the popular kids do badly.

I went to a pretty rough school. The popular kids were also pretty rough, but to be fair, they were nice people and actually seem to live pretty happy ( if unremarkable) lives.

I imagine that in private schools ( or schools in posher areas) the popular kids went onto have really good careers/lives.

Blinky21 · 25/02/2023 00:12

They had kids young and got fat

amorose · 25/02/2023 00:24

There was two groups of popular kids in my school and the first group are just working in normal jobs. This group had parties, shagged at 13/14 and fell pregnant at 15/16 doing drugs, prison sentences and a few suicides which is sad. Some have had several kids from different partners and recently got married but they've all mellowed down though. I did go to state school though in a small town where a majority of people lacked aspiration and stayed there as painters, plumbers and pub chefs and trying their best to support their partners and kids . The second popular group was more clique and mc and are still in contact with each other as I see pictures of them attending each others weddings. They all went to uni and work in accounting, finance, law and teaching and none of them live in that town. They are scattered around London now and live and work.

Elliania · 25/02/2023 00:24

Most of them seem to have just gone on to have "regular" lives according to what little I see on Facebook. One did go on to marry a Premier League footballer though.....

Catcharolo · 25/02/2023 00:26

IME (all girls school) they all pretended to be bimbos, were very pretty and appeared to do lots of precocious things - boyfriends, parties, amazing clothes. But didn’t seem clever, never spoke in class, never won anything…but they all went on to do so well - lawyers, doctors, city bankers. It was clearly a carefully curated act to avoid being labelled a geek!

AnyaMarx · 25/02/2023 00:27

I was in the top 3 at secondary school . One became a gp. One is a professor at uni in Japan .

I'm a police officer. Shit childhood so had to wait for career . Not as good as gp or professor but ok .

VictorStrand · 25/02/2023 00:32

From the popular girls' clique- two found religion - one turned it into a holistic lifestyle business and the other works as a carer. One of the others constantly tries to organise school reunions whilst trying to exclude the kids who ended up successful.
From the boys, the most popular ones tended to stay in the local area and get 'ordinary' jobs. No high flying careers. They still meet up in the same local pub every week.
I'd say the middle level kids - not popular but not pariahs - and the geekier kids have ended up the most successful from a career pov. They're also the ones who ended up with the more 'conventional' lives eg stable marriages, DCs.

oceanskye · 25/02/2023 00:35

At my school the popular kids were generally the ones who were outgoing, good at sports and school, slightly but not too rebellious. (ie would smoke pot at a party but not at school). If this thread is anything to go by they should all be fat and in jail by now, but the ones I know of seem to have done well in life.

Enko · 25/02/2023 00:41

I will say the popular children where i grew up was nothing like what op suggests.

1 died young in a traffic accident
1 is a consultant of some sort has done well for himself. *he was always a pretty decent guy
1 is a chef owns his own restaurant

1 is in childcare has adopted 4 siblings and never married
1 is married to a farmer. And works for the local council
1 got married straight out of school had a child and everyone did the 'it will never last" well 33 years and 4 children later they are still.together. she seems happy with her life (I have her on Facebook but not spoken in 10 years)

None have outright sunk at life.

The 3 geek guys

1 is a professor at a university

1 died of cancer last year after a long battle he never married and when we reconnected on Facebook 15 years ago he was very frank he would like to settle down.
1 is a pretty successful photographer. Sadly both his parents died when he and his sister were late teens early.20s within 1 year of each other. So I'd say he has likely had the hardest life. Pretty OK dude though.

Mumuser124 · 25/02/2023 00:42

There were two groups of popular people in my school. There were the ‘naughty’ ones who smoked, wore lots of make up, skipped lessons and drank alcohol. Then there were the rich kids.

Honestly, both sort of did the same. There were a few teenage pregnancies from the ‘naughty’ popular people but there are also drug addicts from the rich popular people. ID say more of the rich kids went to university though.

DiddyHeck · 25/02/2023 00:46

I'm still in touch with a few of the popular kids from school.

We're all in our 50s now and they're still lovely people, with varying degrees of success and mostly seem very happy.

Maddison12 · 25/02/2023 01:07

Off the top of my head most of the girls got pregnant very young (no judgement, I did.) One didn't and she's a well respected accountant now.

Out of the boys there was a semi professional footballer, a semi pro boxer, a crack cocaine addict. A scrap metal dealer who went to prison for tax evasion and a drug dealer who's still in prison now. My school wasnt really rough but wasn't great.

Runningoncoffeealone · 25/02/2023 01:22

I wasn't popular. One of the popular girls at my school sadly passed from cancer at 19. One of the other girls from her friendship group is now a nurse, and another has a Facebook page which hasn't been updated for about 10 years so not a clue!
Recently discovered that one of my local taxi drivers is the quiet boy who always sat at the back of the class and rarely engaged with anyone, and once gave me a pencil 😁

slamfightbrightlight · 25/02/2023 02:00

The one who comes to mind (bright, beautiful) never seemed to quite find her niche after school, started but didn’t seem to finish different courses, finally seemed to find something that suited her and then sadly died of cancer in her early 30s. We weren’t really friends (academic rivals really) but I think of her and her friends and family quite often.

Ohdofuckofdear · 25/02/2023 02:14

None of them have done very well.

Nearly all of them have gone onto have problems with drugs,quite a few have bad mental health problems because of drugs a few others have got very serious health problems because of alcohol and drug use.

None of them seem to have had a regular unchaotic life sadly.

Stressedafff · 25/02/2023 02:44

most just went on to be normal. apart from one, he’s currently the subject of a police manhunt after being wanted for murder, fled the country apparently!

StClare101 · 25/02/2023 03:09

None of them have done spectacularly well.

The meanest got deeper into drugs, dropped out of uni, has never worked, has a few kids and is very overweight.

Another was arrested for dealing and hasn’t done much since.

One has become a much nicer person and often seeks my mum out to ask about me and my siblings. She suffered an awful tragedy in her family in her early twenties that you wouldn’t wish on anyone.

One is exactly the same. She turned up to the 20 year reunion and in the 5 minutes she and I spoke did not stop boasting. I was trying not to laugh.

ShippingNews · 25/02/2023 03:13

My DD was one of the "popular girls" at a fairly rough secondary school. She is now the deputy head teacher at a very upper class school. She is still friends with many of the girls and boys that she knew 20 years ago. You can't always assume that popular teenagers end up on the rubbish heap.

PennyRa · 25/02/2023 03:30

Same as the rest of the population. A firefighter, a police officer, a teacher, a lawyer, some have husbands, some have wives, some just happy living their lives