Chicklish has been lucky enough to interview many great authors via email. But last week, I travelled for hours (and it was sooo worth it) to interview Meg Cabot in person in London, together with our Keris, who was interviewing on behalf of Trashionista.
I've written up the interview in three parts: Part One focuses on Airhead, Part Two on Mia and the Princess Diaries, and Part Three is everything else.
So here, heralding the start of Meg Cabot Week on Chicklish, is the first part of the interview.
Hi Meg! I'd like to start with an Airhead question. Would you rather be Nikki the glamorous supermodel, or Emerson the schoolgirl?
Do you mean Emerson as Nikki, or just Nikki? Because, in general, I'd probably much rather be Nikki.
Hmm. But would you rather have Nikki's brain or Emerson's brain?
The thing is, we don't know what Nikki's brain was like. She could be a totally lovely person who just, you know, likes to cat around a little. In any case, I might still want to be Nikki. The whole idea for Airhead started when I woke up one morning - I was actually on a book tour, like now - and I wished I could be someone else. You know, like maybe I had a huge pimple and my hair looked really stupid...
And I thought, I want to be Heidi Klum. She's married to Seal, she's always on the runway, and you often see her on the beach, frolicking. It seemed like someone like Heidi Klum never has any problems.
But then I thought, how could I do it so it's not magic - so it actually scientifically happens. As I was googling, I learnt that brain transplants are real - they've actually done them with monkeys. And they're really working on it right now, for people who are paralysed from the neck down, and in a few years maybe they'll really be able to do this stuff. Then I thought, what if something like this happened, but it meant the person had to live someone else's life, not just live in their body. I started writing it down immediately, and I wrote about a person who really wouldn't want that to happen. Em has integrity. She's a nice person. If she were asked whether she wanted Nikki's body or her own, she'd definitely choose her own.
But I still say I'd want to be Nikki! *laughs*
I loved the way, in Airhead, Em starts to realise that Nikki's life is hard work.
Yes, it's true, it isn't easy being a model. It's funny, I've been doing school visits and in one there was a photographer who asked me and the girls to pose for a long time, and sometimes we weren't very comfortable. It's surprising how quickly the girls got tired of it and didn't want to do it anymore.
Do you think you'd have wanted to be Nikki when you were Em's age, too?
Yes and no. Yes, I'd have loved to have the body of a supermodel, but really I think I'd be like Em. I'd miss my friends. Em misses her friends - especially her best friend - and she can't tell him what's happened. Think about the people you'd miss if you had to leave your body behind and live someone else's life. And I think it's true - even if you had that glamorous new life, and all that money, it's the people that matter. All the fashion in the world can't equal the people.
Anyway, we'll find out what happens - I'd love to tell you what's in Being Nikki, the sequel to Airhead, but you'll see when you read it!
Would you like to be 15 again for a day?
Sometimes I feel like I am 15 again - I spend so much time with 15-year-olds on tour and in schools! And I love it.
Watch out for the next two parts of The Interview on Chicklish, later in the week!
Also watch out our reviews of Airhead and Allie Finkle, coming very soon.
(<-- Meg and me, cropped!)
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