We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us whatever happened to the "popular kids" from their high school. Some of the responses were inspiring, and others were heartbreaking. Here's what folks had to say:
Warning: This post contains mentions of eating disorders, bullying, and sexual assault.
1. "She works in housing for a borough council and maintains a social media account focusing on fashion, which is earning her a fairly decent income. She won't quit her council job to become a full-time influencer, though, because: A) she doesn't believe her social media income is stable enough to provide long-term financial security, and B) she likes finding affordable, sheltered, or supported housing for those newly released from prison or long-term mental health care, people with disabilities, vulnerable migrants, etc. I have to say, her choices so far are surprising. I mean, she isn't doing what we thought she'd do after school/university. We all expected her to have a career in fashion or fashion journalism. I mean, at school she was so obsessed with fashion that we never once imagined her working outside fashion."
2. "I went to a small, parochial school in the rural midwest for a few years. The most popular girl at that school's parents were super involved in the church and school, supervised field trips, organized events, etc. I remember her as kind of stuck-up and self-absorbed, but she wasn’t really a mean person. I remember I went to her birthday party sleepover once, but we never kept in touch. A couple of years ago, I met up with some friends and found out that her parents got divorced and her dad was dating someone new. Apparently, her mom didn’t like that because she hired an assassin to kill her ex’s new girlfriend AT HER JOB! The guy she hired did a 180 and told the police everything. The mom was arrested and sentenced to several years in jail. There have been a lot of scandals from that town, but this has got to be the biggest one yet. Ironically, I think her daughter is studying for a Master’s degree in criminal psychology or something."
—Anonymous
3. "We had a good handful of 'most popular' kids I graduated with. Most went on to get married, have kids, and get semi-decent jobs. None are millionaires or anything, but they seem to be comfortable and happy. The others still act and dress like they are in high school because that is when they peaked and they can't let go of the past. They're in rough shape and spend all their weekends drinking, posting nasty pics, and talking crap about people on Facebook."
4. "The popular girls in my grade (who also happened to be the biggest bullies) all still live in town, have multiple kids, multiple divorces, and have all sent me the 'Hey girl! Let's catch up!' MLM message as recently as this year. You made my life a living hell in high school. Why would I ever want to join your shitty little sales team?"
5. "A lot of them went on to be teachers. I guess it's kind of a way for them to relive their best years."
6. "She won an Emmy with Tina Fey."
7. "I'm in his book club! He runs a Tae Kwon Do dojo and recently became a father. I'd say he's doing pretty well! I am happy for him. :)"
8. "He was student body president, then went to college and graduated. He inherited his dad’s egg processing plant and is relatively successful with it, but he can’t help but smell like literal chicken shit."
9. "She was everything in high school you could think of associated with being popular: head cheerleader, homecoming and prom queen, etc. During high school, she was sweet to people she didn't know, so not the typical mean, hot popular kid. Anyways, she was a friend of some friends and I found out that all through high school, she had a really bad eating disorder that followed her to college and after. She got married and divorced twice, couldn't have children, and almost died two times from her weight plummeting. Finally, she reached full recovery, is now out, and she and her wife are on baby number three."
"She's positively glowing and friends say she's still that super nice sweet girl. I'm so happy for her. I message her on IG from time to time, and the first time, she remembered me and said, 'Weren't you that weird punk chick with the cool homemade jewelry and purses?' I was floored. She has a site that helps teen girls and young women with their EDs and she tries to volunteer where she can when they are freshly out of recovery."
10. "It was like the movie Heathers. Everyone hung onto her every word. She was gorgeous. We are in our 50s now and she's still gorgeous, but she is Jerry Springer material all day. She had three kids right out of high school, followed by a divorce, followed by another divorce, followed by numerous affairs with nearly everyone we grew up with. She engages in and encourages grown men to argue on Facebook over her. It's absurd how men revert to acting like children around her. No professional career, but she has been steadily employed her entire life. There are parts of her life that fascinate me, but most of it makes me feel better knowing I'm not still living through high school in my head like she is."
—Anonymous
11. "The football quarterback. He got arrested a number of times, and now sings in bars. There were also these three girls. They became nurses, and their kids go to the same school we graduated from. None of them moved far from the area."
12. "She became a YouTuber and she had over 10 million subscribers."
—Anonymous
13. "I sure got a lot of MLM shoutouts and messages from the popular girls in my class after they got married and started having kids."
—Anonymous
14. "Absolutely nothing? They all stayed in our hometown, married each other, divorced, and then married each other’s exes."
15. "Everybody loved her. For what reason? Maybe her last name. Everyone knows small towns love certain last names. This girl got everything handed to her on a silver platter. Her first vehicle was a Tacoma, and she got a brand-new dirt bike despite never touching a dirt bike in her life. Her parents owned half the town and were on every board imaginable. She did every sport and was annoyingly good at all of them. She even dated the cutest guy in school. The rumor was that when he tried to break up with her, she told him that wasn’t gonna happen and they continued dating. She was basically the Regina George of a small town. She was one we all thought would peak in high school, but nope. She went on to go to college, got a Bachelor's in education, and couldn’t stop living the college life so she went back to get her Master's degree."
"Then she got married. It took two years to plan this wedding. I searched the cost of her wedding planner and I gotta say, her parents must’ve gone broke with that wedding. She had stuff flown in for her wedding, and then her parents sent them on a one-week, all-inclusive vacation to Mexico."
—Anonymous
16. "She got married to the guy who went viral for tasting his own poop. They had a kid and got married, soon divorced, and he kept their kid."
17. "I am her. Although I looked like the popular kid and many people thought about me as that (homecoming court, large group of friends, etc.), I was actually bullied, sexually assaulted, and slut-shamed for rumors that were not true. I got out of my hometown, went to law school, had my daughter, and then moved my family up north, as far away from that place as possible."
—Anonymous
18. "She was constantly dating — like one of those people who just couldn't ever be single. She ended up getting married young, divorced before she was 25, drifted from jobs, dropped out of multiple college courses, got pregnant in a relationship that didn't work out, and is now using her baby to try and become one of those 'mommy influencers.'"
—Anonymous
19. "The most popular girl at my high school ended up marrying one of the PE teachers right after high school. I was disgusted that she was clearly being groomed by the PE teacher, since she was a minor. But other people were supportive of it because they were a same sex couple and thought it was 'so progressive' of them. I saw on social media that a bunch of my classmates attended the wedding. Luckily they ended up getting divorced and the popular girl is now happily married and has kids with someone else."
—Anonymous
20. "I was sort of friends with the popular group, and while I was not popular, I had a car so I could drive them places. A few years ago, I ran into the nastiest of the popular girls while I was out with a friend. They made some snide comments that I shrugged off because their words didn't mean nothing to me anymore. We were adults at that point. But, my friend told them off. Their lives have turned out exactly how a movie would portray it. I would never say my life is better than theirs because they could be very happy, but looking back, I am glad I wasn’t popular. I felt like I went into the world knowing I would continue to grow and evolve as a person, and they just stayed their high school selves. And, of course, most of them had a kid before they were 21 with some other person who was also popular."
—Anonymous
21. Finally: "I honestly don't know, which probably tells you all you need to know. They faded into obscurity. Popularity at school doesn't necessarily equal success in the real world."
Sooo, whatever happened to the popular kid from your school?
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.