Airhead by Meg Cabot

ISBN-13: 9780330453820
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Published: June 2009
Airhead Trilogy, #1
320 pgs


What does a superbrain and a supermodel has in common? Absolutely nothing! In Airhead, Meg Cabot will show you what it takes to have a superbrain and having a super body at the same time!

Emerson Watts is your ordinary high school student living in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. She has average looks, and she loves reading and playing online video games. She thinks most of her schoolmates are nothing but the 'Walking Dead', since they strive on looking good on the outside but neglect their inner beauty. Anyway, Em could not care less but she does care a lot about Christopher, who happens to be her only best friend in school and she likes him a lot. The only thing is, Christopher treats her like a boy and she does not know what to do to make him notice her differently.

However, all that is about to change when she attends the opening of a new Stark Megastore with her younger sister when a huge plasma screen accidentally fell onto her. She wakes up in the hospital one month later to find herself in someone's body, and she is none other than the sensational teen supermodel Nikki Howard. Unfortunately for Nikki, she happens to be at the spot when the accident happened so the doctors decided to have a brain transplant of Em into Nikki's body, since Nikki is not in a good condition either and there is no way Em could be revive!

Because Em's operation and hospital bills are paid by the Starks, and that Nikki owned them a contract, Em decided to keep her new identity a hush-hush (not that she could help it anyway) and to pretend she is Nikki Howard so that the Starks will not push her parents into paying them the million dollars bill. However, being Nikki proves to be a huge challenge for her because she does not know anything about makeup and fashion, and on top of that she has to take care of her so called love life as well as getting herself out of sight from the paparazzi. Suddenly, what looked like a rich and glamourous life became a nightmare for her. In addition to all these problems, she still could not forget about Christopher...

Airhead is a fun and delightful read, and I find myself flipping through the pages quickly because of the engaging characters and the witty dialogues. Though I find the plot to be a bit far-fetched, nonetheless I find it entertaining and it made me wonder what Em would do under those situations. It is definitely fun reading about Em adjusting into her new life between her boyfriends, her best friend and celebutante Lulu Collins as well as getting a glimpse into her high profile modelling life. And there of course, lies the mystery of the Stark Enterprises and why they are keeping tabs of Nikki which further adds intrigue to this story.

Em is a great character, and I think she makes a fine example for all young ladies that looks does not equal to everything and that one does not have to feel afraid of showing one's intelligence and for being true to yourself. I definitely look forward to reading the sequel, Airhead: Being Nikki, soon.