[ruecole Posts: 459 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

I hope this isn't an exceedingly dumb question and I'm not even sure if that's the right term I'm looking for, but how do 13-year-old girls act when they like a boy? When I was thirteen I wasn't yet interested in boys so I'm feeling a bit clueless here.

Thanks!

Rue

[beth-ogrady Posts: 28 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I remember I would blush and clam up, actually try to avoid being around the boys I liked at that age. But, I was painfully shy too.

[Christine B. Posts: 450 Status: Offline WWW]

At that age I remember telling friends who I liked, hoping the message would get to his friends, and then onto him.

[Arona Posts: 505 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

Perhaps not 100%, but I'd find ways to be "around" though would ignore them/act disinterested. A lot of girls were and still are flat-out, hold-nothing-back, in-your-face boy crazy, leaving no room for misinterpretation: calling boys, passing them notes (sometimes via a friend or slipping them in their lockers), writing a boy's name all over her notebooks, following the boy(s) in the halls....

I remember some girls giggling a lot around a boy they liked. Nervousness, I suppose, at least with some girls.

No matter how a girl reacted, it was undeniably awkward. Smmmmoooooooth isn't part of any 13 yo love life.

[ruecole Posts: 459 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

Thanks, guys! 

So either painfully shy or boy crazy. No in-between? 

Rue

[Arona Posts: 505 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

There's in-between. In my example, I wasn't shy around them...it was that my approach was to act like the boy of interest didn't exist (which heightened their interest). I suspect it was b/c I wasn't sure how to proceed, not from any cool sophistication.  :dragonchase

Probably not, but maybe a girl having an older sister(s) to coach her would help direct how she behaves??? (I didn't have any.)

Girlfriends also help coach, to calm, to encourage, to talk them out of something stupid, or try to convince not to do/to do something. (This can shape behavior, and can have disaster written all over it.)

Wouldn't your MC dictate how she behaves around them? Or is this for a minor character?

[read lisa scott Posts: 132 Status: Offline middle grade, chapter books, picture books]

Sometimes they try to annoy the guy as a way to get attention. Some girl keeps drawing on my son's arm during some boring class and I contend she likes him.  I think the more a girl protests she doesn't like a guy, the more she secretly does. She'll notice lots of things about him other girls might not pick up on.

Maybe acting totally out of character around him?  A lot of hair flipping, or touching her hair, curling it around her finger. Playfully shoving him. Giggling. So much giggling. 

[Arona Posts: 505 Status: Offline The house didn't fall on me. It fell on my sister.]

Ooooh, yes...flipping or twirling their hair.

How about taking off their glasses when he's near.

And brushing a boy's arm or quickly touching his hand. It's all an innocent accident, of course.

[AnnH Posts: 1,509 Status: Offline I love to read and write! WWW]

I was one of the shy ones, but I remember watching the pros.

They smiled at the guys a lot, did a lot of that touch-his-hand-arm-shoulder thing when talking to them. They were outgoing, which I think attracts a lot of guys, because it either saves them the work if they are bold enough to talk to girls, or gives them encouragement if they are a bit too shy to make the first move.

There were the ones who'd walk back and forth in front of a guys house and that sort of thing too.

[HDWestlund Posts: 1,051 Status: Offline writer and bookseller]

There are always the brazen ones. I remember a girl dedicating her talent show song to the boy she liked in front of a big audience. He was mortified. I was more of a small gestures kind of girl: bringing the guy a cookie or making him a silly craft. But I also did that for friends, and tended to just daydream that my crush would try to hold my hand or something. Meanwhile, I was totally oblivious to the boys flirting with ME. I thought they were making fun of me...

[ruecole Posts: 459 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

Thanks, guys!

So, lots of smiling, flipping hair, accidental-on-purpose touching, giggling. Maybe sharing food or giving a gift. Got it.

I'm too much like my MC: clueless about girls. 

Rue

[amy-thernstrom Posts: 12 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

There's a book called Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers, that's good on that kind of thing.

[ruecole Posts: 459 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

Thanks, I'll check it out. 

Rue

[dewsanddamps Posts: 2,011 Status: Offline]

When our son was fourteen, a couple of girls showed up at his music recital (not school-related). Neither was performing, and afterward they asked him if they could have their pictures taken with him. So one stood by him as he stood awkwardly, holding his mandolin, and the other took their picture, and then the girls switched.

I cyberstalked them on Facebook, and both girls posted the photos on their pages--with a hearts border.

When I mentioned it to our son, he was completely clueless. That two cute girls showed up to his recital, asked for a photo, then posted it on Facebook--with hearts--no, none of it registered with him. 

[ruecole Posts: 459 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

Hilarious! 

Rue

[Barbara Etlin Posts: 2,327 Status: Offline WWW]

When I was 13, this guy used to tease me with a nickname. I thought he didn't like me. When I told my mother about this, she told me--much to my surprise--that he probably liked me and was flirting with me.

[ruecole Posts: 459 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

I had one of those, too, around the same age. 

Rue

[Mercedes Ortiz Posts: 173 Status: Offline Abracadabra! WWW]

I'd write his name along with mine at the back of my notebook, inside a heart -my notebooks were full of hearts and other romantic doodles (like flowers). There was also lots of staring. I tried not to tell anyone about my feelings, but sometimes I'd share it with a friend or two.

[bruna-deluca Posts: 35 Status: Offline The Ink Pantser]

I am 100% with Arona on this one. Not brazen or shy just studiously disinterested. I didn't have any sisters either though so it might depend on what siblings your character has, if any 😉.

Oh! On the inside it was an entirely different matter. Even though I really was determined not to look or react to them, I was in a state of heightened reality. I was so sensorially aware!

Now I haven't felt like that in a long long time! Thanks for reminding me ☺