Thanks to Miss America 2010 for (sarcastically) suggesting the idea for this book. (To watch a video about that awkward encounter, Google my name and “Miss America Made Fun of Me.”)
Thanks to my agent, Lucy Carson, for (not sarcastically) suggesting that the time was right to put this story on paper. Gratitude to the rest of the Friedrich Agency for their support of my writing, including Nichole LeFebvre and Molly Friedrich.
Most of the good parts of this project, including the graphs, the subtitle, and the organizational format, were suggestions by a wonderful human being without whom the book itself would not exist. I’m speaking of my brilliant editor, Elizabeth Bewley.
Many wonderful suggestions also came from Elizabeth’s team, Pam Garfinkel and Pam Gruber. Thanks, Pams.
I am grateful to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for getting behind this project, especially my publicist, Hallie Patterson; my marketer, Jennifer LaBracio; and director of publicity Melanie Chang. Appreciation to my sales team, Shawn Foster and Dave Epstein.
For the last several years, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a smart and talented assistant, Lisa McLaughlin, who works tirelessly behind the scenes to hold the Sundquist Company LLC together. Thanks, Lisa.
Thanks to the girls I’ve described in this book for their kind and generous conversations, which helped me come to a better understanding of myself and my life. I want to acknowledge that the girl I’ve called Francesca ended up writing me a long and thoughtful message about our relationship, but unfortunately I received it after the text of this book was already finalized.
Shout-out to my YouTube subscribers for being the first audience to hear many of these stories as they were happening in my life. I’m particularly grateful to those who helped me get started on YouTube, especially iJustine and the Vlog-Brothers (a.k.a. Hank and John Green).
Thanks most of all to my family and friends for making life worthwhile, and for tolerating me writing about them in (yet another) book.