To be honest, I had never really read much of Meg Cabot’s work. I dabbled in the Princess Diaries series (FYI: so superior to the movies) and I know she is a fabulously well-known chick-lit author, but nothing I saw ever enticed me to pick it up and give it a go. But after receiving “Runaway,” the latest in her “Airhead” series (“Airhead” and “Being Nikki” are the first two novels) from her publisher, I decided to give it a whirl. (Hey, it was a free book!)

And boy, am I ever happy I did! This was hands-down one of the most entertaining reads I’ve had in a loooooooong time.

The series focuses on two girls: Emerson Watts and Nikki Howard. Emerson is your average video-game playing nerd, while Nikki is a world famous supermodel and the face of Stark Industries, an amalgamation of business industry giants: Wal-mart, Victoria’s Secret, Apple, among others. They set up mega-stores that cause small businesses to shut down, they hold an annual lingerie fashion show featuring their Angels and they sell cutting-edge computer and electronics.

In the original novel, Nikki tried to blackmail Robert Stark, head of the company, and he tries to have her killed in a “freak accident” at one of the stores. Emerson Watts also happens to be in the store and have a similar accident happen: a TV falls on her head. Because Nikki is the face of the company, Robert still wants to use her body, so he has scientists engineer a body transplant, putting Emerson’s brain into Nikki’s body. Read More »

Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

Let’s travel to the Midwest, where the people are friendly, the food is hearty, and the state school rivalries are relentlessly combative. In the great state of Indiana, two state school systems (Indiana University and Purdue University) are so entrenched in a battle for loyalty that many homes boast signs in their windows reading “A House Divided”–or in other words, the domain has both Purdue and IU alumni.  Can one school win the rights to true Hoosier pride?

1. Mascot Match-up

Indiana – The Hoosiers are not only the university mascot but the state nickname–a term for someone who transports bales of cotton.  Though a derogatory word in other parts of the country, a Hoosier is a label of pride in Indiana!
Purdue – The Boilermakers get their moniker from the longstanding tradition of excellence in engineering at Purdue, which in the 1890s (at the time of the mascot’s inception) meant toiling in the forge room to boil and meld metal.

Three credits to: Indiana, since it takes some balls to claim a questionable slang term for a school (and state) nickname! Read More »

[Every week our style guru takes a celebrity look and breaks it down for you, our poor college fashionista. What does that mean? It means that while the celebrities are spending $5,000 on an ensemble, you don’t have to.

All you have to do is click on the goods and - boom - you can buy the entire ensemble. Yes, we know; there is a spot for her in heaven.]

I love Anne Hathaway. Not just because I loved the Princess Diaries. Not just because her movie Bride Wars seems like the perfect guilty pleasure. Not because her skin is so perfect you want to hate her for it/steal it. And not just because she seems so normal and goofy that you just want to be the LC to her Whitney…

My love for Anne is all about her style; the girl always looks so put together. Even when she’s traveling. Even when she’s wearing nothing extravagant. She doesn’t need it.

Our gal pal Anne always wears classic looks with a hint of trend, as opposed to letting the trends hang on her as if she were a store mannequin (cough cough: every other Hollywood starlet).

So that is why I chose this look for this week’s Celebrity Chic on the Cheap. It’s cute, it’s classic (with a fun scarf and sunglasses to punch it up) and it’s something we would actually wear.

Celebrity Chic on the Cheap: Anne Hathaway – The Ultimate in Casual Chic-titude Read More »