An Insight on Ashley Anderson: The Development from Complete Airhead to an Airhead Equipped with Social Acceptance Victoria Vargas College

In the novel We Are All Made of Molecules written by Susin Nielsen, the readers follow the journey of the main characters, Ashley and Stewart, through their perspectives on life and the bridge between “tween” and young adult. Ashley starts the novel off as an academically inept pretentious fourteen year old kid, but by the end of the story is seen as being a more socially accepting, more understanding young adult. According to Joy Court, a book reviewer for the School Librarian, “Ashley is an airhead desperate to maintain her position at the top of the social tree” (Court 120). At the age of fourteen, a character like Ashley wouldn’t be interested in anything more than keeping up appearances and making sure nothing stands in her way of maintaining her queen bee status. Ashley isn’t necessarily a character that most readers gravitate towards but one can’t help but give kudos to a girl that transitions from airhead tween to semi mature young adult in the matter of 200 plus pages. Ashley’s childlike characteristics such as naivety, being self absorbed, and being unaccepting/judgmental of others leads to a series of unfortunate events and ultimately to her social downfall, while in contrast, her new found acceptance and changing of...