Meg Cabot may be better known for her humor on paper than in person, but after just one conversation, I realized that her success is due to her spunky attitude and her own crazy life experiences. The The Princess Diaries scribe has written nearly fifty books and sold millions of copies worldwide (she’s kind of a big deal in the literary world), and yet, Meg admitted to us that she was unpopular in high school. From talking about being a feminist to getting rejected to her hilarious video reenactment of Pretty in Pink, Meg Cabot proves that authors can be funny, too. True to herself and her genre, she's all about girl power and staying young at heart – two of ELLEgirl's essential qualities. 
Check out Part Two of our exclusive interview with Meg Cabot after the jump (you can read Part One here), and enter here for a chance to win a copy of her latest release, How To Be Popular.
EG: What book are you writing now?
MC: It's actually the sequel to my newest book, Airhead. I can't tell you the title, but it is due around this time next year.
EG: How is Airhead different from all your other novels? What kind of character were you trying to portray with Emerson Watt?
MC: Airhead is quite a bit darker than my other books. Emerson is a girl who is into games – she's a tomboy, she's brainy, she didn't want to be a model in the first place. She goes to school in New York… she gets caught up in the supermodel/glamorous lifestyle by accident. It's a mystery book, because she gets mixed up with a seedy corporation. It gets really complicated. Emerson is very snarky. Much more than any of the other characters from my books. She has way too many boys – she can't seem to get rid of the boys! She's much more like me because I wasn't interested in popularity, I was very jaded. Secretly, though, I wanted to be a supermodel and have all that money [laughter]. However, there are bad parts to being a supermodel… with gross guys always hitting on you, always holding a pose. The majority of the industry is also very sexist.
EG: So I want to know a little more about your background. What made you venture out to NYC from Bloomington, Indiana?
MC: Right after I graduated from college in 1989, it turned out I didn't have a writing credit so I had to take another writing course which kept me there for a little while. Then I moved to New York to be a freelance illustrator 'til 2004…but I wasn't successful. But I loved the energy of New York. I loved listening to the conversations on the street – they're very interesting and amazing, and always full of great ideas. I loved hanging out in coffee shops because it was so easy to eavesdrop!
EG: How was working at NYU as an assistant dorm manager? Which dorm did you work at?
MC: I worked at NYU for 10 years, at Hayden Hall. I miss working there! I actually wrote a mystery series based on that, the Heather Wells Mysteries (Size 14 is Not Fat), it's an adult series where Heather works in a dorm and she has to solve a murder. There were no actual murders when I worked in the dorm, though!
EG: Everyone at ELLEgirl loved your Pretty in Pink YouTube video!
MC: [Laughs] Oh, thanks! When I was making it, I was like, “This is so stupid!” It's funny though, people thought it was so dumb!
Q: Do you prefer one type of media to another? Is blogging a better way to reach readers than writing novels?
MC: They are totally different. I don't prefer one over another…but blogging takes a lot of time. It's definitely great to have both. Blogging is great if you just want to get away and I like it because you can have pictures, videos. HTML is hard though.
EG: What were some of your favorite books when you were a teen?
MC: I actually really liked Stephen King – even though I love romance novels. I was really into romance novels – especially Kathleen Woodiwiss's Ashes in the Wind. It takes place during the Civil war. I like stories where girls would fight with swords, spy on people. I thought strong girls were fantastic.
EG: Last but not least, what advice do you have for teen writers?
MC: Don't give up. That's the main thing. I was rejected so many times. Keep at it and don't give up even when they reject you. Everyone in New York basically rejected Princess Diaries – if I stopped it would have never been published. I wasn't an overnight sensation. If it's something you want to do, just keep trying and you'll get there eventually.
Check out Meg Cabot’s blog for more musings from the author, and enter to win a copy of her latest book, How To Be Popular, here—Yuri Chong
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