Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser

BIO

Lauren Mechling grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Harvard College. She writes a weekly column for the New York Sun, where she has also been a crime reporter, and she has written for several other publications including the Wall Street Journal and Seventeen Magazine.

Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser became friends ten years ago when Laura shared her acne medication with Lauren in a communal bathroom. They now live a short walk away from each other in Brooklyn.

Back to top.   

INTERVIEW

June 15, 2005

Teenreads.com contributing writer Renee Kirchner interviewed Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser, co-authors of THE RISE AND FALL OF A 10th-GRADE SOCIAL CLIMBER. Lauren and Laura offer insight into some of the characters that populate their debut novel and who they are able to most identify with in the book. They also explain how they met each other, their decision to become novelists, and what their writing routine is like.

Teenreads.com: Did either of you attend a school like the Baldwin school? If not, how did you do your research for the book and know that schools like this exist?

Lauren Mechling: I did go to a school that bears some resemblance to Baldwin. Many of my classmates were the children of downtown artists or media personalities, and we were all encouraged from a very early age to "express ourselves," even if it came in the form of, say, cutting class or attending class in nightgowns. We had almost no required classes, and students signed up for whichever subjects struck their fancy. I miss those years of learning about puppetry, Chinese civilization, and African dance --- all in the course of one afternoon.

TRC: Mimi Schulman, the main character in THE RISE AND FALL OF A 10th-GRADE SOCIAL CLIMBER, goes through a huge life transformation during the course of the novel. What were the most pivotal turning points for Mimi in the book?

Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser: Well, first Mimi must confront that her family --- the stability of which she's never really questioned before --- has disintegrated almost overnight. Circumstances have never forced Mimi to think about her parents as real people before --- they were always just, well, parents. Her voluntary geographical uprooting (leaving her mother in Houston to join her father in New York) reflects the brokenness of Mimi's family --- and, in some senses, of Mimi herself.

TRC: How did you come up with the characters Pia, Jess, Lily, and Vivian? They all have such distinct personalities. Why did you decide to have the popular girls at the school differ from the "all-American blonde stereotype" we think of as popular? I think this made the book much more fun to read.

Lauren Mechling: It always strikes me as artificial when I read a book or see a movie where the popular crowd is a group of Barbie dolls. I wanted to make something that reflected the reality I know and love. In New York City, and I bet other parts of the country, too, edginess has always been a huge part of being cool. At my school, perfect prom-queen types were dismissed as too square, and the truly "popular" girls had a lot more going on than beauty. We drew the characters from real life, girls we've actually known.

Laura Moser: My school in Texas was definitely more traditional in the Dead White Males sense of things, but there again, eccentricity defined coolness --- much more than, say, athleticism or blondness. Sure, we had cheerleaders, but no one paid much more attention to them than to any other segment of the population --- the student-council members or ceramicists or thespians or whatever. Even at the time, I acknowledged my extreme good fortune to have grown up in that kind of anything-goes social environment. I'll never again have as diverse a group of friends as I had in high school.

TRC: Who do each of you most identify with in the novel? Were you like any of the characters when you were a teenager?

Lauren Mechling: I identify most with Mimi, the main character. She's funny and bold but she's also a keen observer, and she's always taking notes in her head. I like to watch, too.

Laura Moser: Ditto, definitely. We write in Mimi's voice, after all, so it's hard not to sneak inside her head on occasion. Like Mimi, I am very tall, obsessed with Mexican food, and partial to wacky vintage clothes. I was also obsessively involved in my high-school newspaper. Mimi's sensation of not quite fitting into her new life --- of not fully belonging to any one place --- is also one I've experienced in MANY different stages of my life.

TRC: Laura, your biography says that you grew up in Houston, Texas. Do you prefer living in New York or Texas? What do you miss most about Texas?

Laura Moser: Tough question. No, I can't exactly claim to prefer New York --- but, professionally, it makes more sense for me to be here than in Houston, at least for my twenties. I do miss Texas, always, but I return often, usually for extended visits (no guarantee that I won't move back one day, either).

What do I miss most? The people, definitely. The friendliness of Texans is no myth --- I cannot ride an elevator up three floors without hearing another stranger's life story. Everywhere you go, people just want to talk, and it's great --- amazing, inexhaustible material for a writer, Texas.

TRC: How did the two of you meet, and what made you decide to become writing partners?

Lauren Mechling: We met the first day of college, right before the freshman orientation program. Laura was in the bathroom washing her face with her prescription facewash. I happened to have the EXACT same prescription --- but I hadn't unpacked yet, so I needed to borrow something. Basically, it was fate.

Laura Moser: Again --- fate. Since the beginning of our friendship, Lauren and I have collaborated on projects, of varying degrees of ambitiousness. One night in college, we decided to start a magazine in college, but that brilliant lightning-bolt of an idea had fizzled by morning. After graduation, when I lived in London and Lauren in New York, we co-wrote a screenplay that MUST still be on my computer somewhere, but it was only with Mimi that we really hit our stride together.

TRC: What is your writing routine like? Do you take turns writing chapters, or do you each try to develop different characters?

Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser: For developing characters and plotting out the storyline, we meet, eat, and brainstorm. Almost everything else we do over email, rather than face-to-face, by passing the document back and forth every day. First we read and edit what the other person has written, then we write our own little bit, attach the document, and press "send." These overlapping exchanges ensure that the voice is solid and coherent. We also laugh a lot together --- and the more we laugh, the more we know the book's working.

TRC: What are you working on now, and when can readers expect to see it?

Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser: We are in the process of wrapping up a sequel, which will be coming out next May from Houghton Mifflin, and a third title will be released in May 2007. Long live Mimi Schulman!

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.