Vox Tablet

In Good Company

When memoirist Janice Erlbaum was 13, she was elated to attend the bar mitzvah of her secret heartthrob. But when she found herself hanging with the mean girls, things turned less celebratory.

July 25, 2011
(Vanessa Davis)
(Vanessa Davis)

When performer and memoirist Janice Erlbaum was a young teenager, she had a crush on a boy from school. He invited her to his bar mitzvah, an event that was also to be attended by the gaggle of girls who had recently turned on Janice, publicly declaring her a misfit. Janice was thrilled to be there, but as the afternoon unfolded, her allegiance to the boy was to be pitted against her desire to gain re-entry to the in crowd. She tells the story of what happened on that fateful day.

Janice Erlbaum is the author of Girlbomb and Have You Found Her. You can find more of her stories here. [Running time:10:20.]

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