DD1 is in year 8, absolutely flying academically and really struggling socially. "No-one" wants to talk about things she's interested in. The list of things she's not interested in includes boys, fashion, music etc. The list of things she is interested in is harder to define, but would possibly include rock climbing, whatever book she's reading at the moment and whatever interesting scientific fact she's just come across.
She says she struggles in a noisy group when the conversation is bouncing around between different subjects.
When she came home today she was buzzing because she got a GCSE A* equivalent mark in her science test (and had told everyone at school, which might not exactly have helped her social standing 
). But later on she came home grumpy from her youth group, which was a Christmas party where she got a rubbish secret santa present. This is a typical range of emotions for a day in her life!
She reminds me a lot of DH, who hates parties, doesn't do small talk, is a typical engineer, with mildly autistic traits that have never been given any kind of diagnosis. I feel there are probably parents on this board with similar children and would love any tips about coping strategies for geeky teenagers, because it's hard to see her sad when she's doing so well at so many things!