All About Us (series)

***All About Us*** is an teen/young-adult novel series by author Maryam Wells. The series focuses on the development of four teenage girls who live and attend high school in the fictional town of Silver Hills, California. In the series, the girls' divergent talents, perspectives, and family experiences become the platform for illustrating alternative approaches to understanding and solving problems. Silver Hills teenage residents have silmilarites as other foursomes.

## Sypnosis

The teenage "dramady" follows the longtime friendship of four high school girls in Silver Hills, California with varied personalities and from different backgrounds. Alicia Alcott is a mixed-raced veteran Californian girl whose passion is music and dance and who wants to sing more than anything else. Nikki Merricak is from a well-to-do family and enjoys the lifestyle of the rich--and boys--very much. Sierra Jennings is an idealist cheerleader committed to the causes she believes in and has a talent for organizing. Finally, Kristy Castelli, usually called by her last name Castelli when she was in middle school, is the athlete of the group and comes from an Italian-American family which runs its own restaurant, with a mother who is the principal at their school, Silver Hills High.

### *All About Graduation*

The final book episode found the girls on the verge on embarking on new crossroads in life. As high school ends, Nikki is planning on New York to study fashion at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), while Sierra and Kristy plan to stay in Silver Hills and attend Silver Hills Community College, due to their parents unable to afford to send them to a four-year college, while Alicia reveals that she is going on tour with *Girlfriends on Ice*. All of the girls are excited and looking forward to starting the new stages with their lives, but, they realize that this is the last time they hang out as a foursome. The book episode ends with the girls having one last lunch at Castelli's Pizza Shack, talking about the fun times and the next adventures, and their tearful goodbyes to both Alicia and Nikki as they take off, leaving Sierra and Kristy alone and in tears as they wave goodbye. Kristy asks a question to Sierra that left AAU Fans wondering: "How are we gonna get through college without our two best friends?" Sierra kisses Kristy on the cheek and lays her head on her shoulder, wondering the same thing.

## Book Character Order

* All About Us - Nikki, Alicia, Sierra, and Kristy
* Weekend at Alicia's House - Alicia & Nikki
* Flawed Logic - Alicia
* Sweet Little Lies - Alicia and Kristy
* Under 21 - All 4
* Sierra Meets Her Match - Sierra
* No Means No! - Nikki
* First Rain - Alicia
* Holey, Mole-y - Nikki
* Behind the Dancer - Alicia
* The Making of... - Alicia and Sierra
* New Girl in Town - Alicia
* School's Out! - All 4
* Back to School Again - All 4
* The Divorce - Nikki
* Homecoming - Nikki
* Alicia Loves Ryan - Alicia and Ryan
* The Grass is Always Pinker - Nikki
* Not-So Great Romance - Nikki and Sierra
* Exam Trouble - Alicia and Nikki
* Get a Job! - Nikki
* Sierra Takes on Pollution - Sierra
* Give Your Uncle a Kiss - Nikki
* The Big Father-Daughter Dance - All 4
* Sad Goodbye - Alicia
* Halloween - Alicia and Ryan
* Baby, Maybe - All 4 with a baby
* Model Misbehavior - Nikki and Kristy
* Write or Wrong - Sierra
* Junioritis - All 4

## Main Characters

* **Alicia Alcott** - A aspiring singer and dancer with a mixed raced family. She has a close relationship with her father, but an complicated one with her mother. She begins a relationship with new bandmate Ryan Frankel, whom her mother disapproves of because he is white. She has dyscalculia, a learning disability involving Math, but she excels in English and Music. Her songs were performed in books.

* **Nikki Merrick** - A spolied rich girl with a passion for fashion and obssesion for boys. She is the most popular girl at Silver Hills High. She is the school's fashion expert and shop-a-holic. Nikki is known to be shallow and superficial, but she has a heart-of-gold. She is known to have a fear of spiders. On FOX Family Channel, Nikki was named FOX Family's memorable "It" girls.

* **Sierra Jennings** - A aspiring writer and journalist. She is the "brain" or over-achiever in the group. She is one of the smartest students in school and she doesn't let anyone forget it either, including her friends. She is involved in every school organization. Although she has two sisters, she has considered Alicia, Nikki, and Kristy her own personal sisters. In sophomore and junior year, she was in a relationship with good-boy Logan Haines, but she breaks up with him before their senior year after she develops feelings with popular basketball jock, Matt Wright.

* **Kristy Castelli** - A beautiful, tough, proud, fun-loving tomboy from a working-class family. She is also a feminist who would protest anything that is degrading to women. She has had relationships with boys who play basketball. Her mother is principal of Silver Hills High.

## Other Characters

* Ryan Frankel - An aspiring rocker and Alicia's love interest.
* Amy Hunter and Allison Holmes, two cousins from Silver Hills High School.
* Edward and Alice Alcott, Alicia's parents; Edward is black and Alice is white.
* Trent Alcott, Alicia's older brother, a college student at Silver Hills University.
* Brittany Alcott, Alicia's little sister, a fourth grader at Silver Hills Elementary School
* Eric Merrick, Nikki's father, a doctor.
* Elizabeth Merrick, Nikki's mother, an socialite and interior designer.
* Samuel Jennings, Sierra's father; a newspaper reporter.
* Susan Jennings, Sierra's mother; a lawyer.
* Will Jennings, Sierra's older sister, Trent's love interest.
* Leslie Jennings, Sierra's little sister, a fifth grader at Silver Hills Elementary (then seventh grader at Silver Hills Middle School).
* Gino Castelli, Kristy's father, owner of Castelli's Pizza Shack.
* Pamela Castelli, Kristy's mother, principal at Silver Hills High School.

## Silver Hills

*Main article: Silver Hills, California*

Silver Hills is a fictional suburban town in the state of California. It is the hometown of many of the characters in both *All About Us* series and the *All About Middle School* series as well.

Silver Hills's public schools include Silver Hills Elementary, Silver Hills Middle School, Kenton Middle School, and Silver Hills High. Private schools include Silver Hills Academy.

### Diaries

The *Diaries* novels covered the events the AAU girls went through from their point of view.

### Spin-offs

The *All About Middle School* novels were a series of novels for younger readers. It centered on Alicia, Nikki, Sierra, and Kristy as younger students at Silver Hills Middle School in the early 2000's. 48 and Several *All About Middle School* novels and six *All About Middle School* Super Special novels were published. The series dealt with drinking, divorce, child abuse.

*Sierra & Kristy* was the spin-off of the popular series which sees two of the AAU girls attend junior college for two years.

*Nikki in the City* another spin-off where Nikki Merrick moves to New York City and interns at Poise magazine as a stylist. She becomes a role model towards her teenage cousins. *Alicia Revealed*, where Alicia moves to L.A. after being signed by a popular recording label.
*All About Us: 30 & Hot*, the first series to have the AAU girls as grown women with their own families.

* Note: Following *AAU: 30 & Hot*, there has been a number of spin-off featuring the girls living their lives as working mothers.
	+ *Alicia's World*, features recording artist Alicia Alcott with her family; Husband Ryan Frankel and daughters Tia and Maya.
	+ *Nikki Merrick 24/7*, features Nikki Merrick as a style icon living in New York with her family. This is followed by *The Meade Twins*, starring Nikki's twin children, Dylan and Hannah.
	+ *The Haines Family Values*, features Sierra Jennings-Haines and her family, her husband Logan and her three children, sons Michael and Aaron and daughter Caitlyn.
* *Just the Seven of Us*, features seven teenagers (Four girls and three guys) attending Silver Hills High School, twelve years after the AAU girls graduated.
	+ Author Maryam Wells wanted to create a new series about the new generation of girls attending Silver Hills High, but she instead written it about seven teenagers. This began a new sister franchise entitled *Teens of Silver Hills*.
* *Beatrix*, features three teenage girls who were an aspiring music group. In the third arc of the series, one member is written out and is replaced by a new singer.
* *The Stepsisters of Silver Hills*, features two popular girls who don't like each other are forced to get along when their single parents met and get married.
* *The Grapevine*, features student who write for the school newspaper and deal with issues.

## Merchandise

### Fashion Dolls

In December 2006 it was announced that the characters of Alicia, Nikki, Sierra, and Kristy were to be made into 16 inches (41 cm) tall fashion dolls, produced by Madame Alexander. In 2007 they were released in a limited edition of 300 pieces each. A perfume was also released, named *All About Perfume*.

### Fragrances

Author Maryam Wells teamed up with Tru Fragrances to launched a fragrance line with All About Us.

* List of Fragrances
	+ *Fabulous Four*
	+ *Alicia*
	+ *Nikki*
	+ *Sierra*
	+ *Kristy*
	+ Alicia (Summer)
	+ Nikki (Summer)
	+ Sierra (Summer)
	+ Kristy (Summer)

### Clothing Line

Pop Girl has launched a new product line at Kmart stores for its popular show “All About Us,” based on tthe popular book series, which was originally based on the short-lived series on NBC back in 2001. The line includes over 250 items of clothing, accessories, toys, and school supplies from July to September.

Initially started as a clothing line, the company expanded its business into furniture, fragrances, and jewelry, targeted at the teen and preteen demographic. In 2007, the Internet website Stardoll.com previewed Duff's clothing line to customers by allowing them to dress up a paper doll on the website with the clothes

People magazine reported that the line had grossed $5 million in its first year.

The line was then re-launched in 2006 for AAU debut fragrance "Savvy Sisters". Duff said about her own fashion line that it "reflects my personal style and taste. As a designer, I travel around the world - from London to Japan, New York to Los Angeles - to make sure my design ideas are in tune".

## All About Us

You might be looking for a page but there are three pages that are named alike, click one for the one you want.

* All About Us (TV series) - for the TV series.
* All About Us (Book series) - for the book series.
* All About Us (Book) - for the first novel in the book series.
* All About Us Canada - for the Canadian version of the TV series.

## Issues Addressed

While largely a comedy, *All About Us* T.V. series, along with its' prequel *All About Middle School*, commonly addressed certain issues that affect people using the "very special episode" format.

* In the Season 3 episode "Spare the Rod", from AAMS, Kristy discovers that his basketball teammate, Toby, a girl is being beaten by her father. The end of the episode reveals that the father is also a child abuse victim.
* In the Season 1 episode "No Means No!", Nikki goes on a date with a gorgeous senior named Devon McGreggor. But when Devon tries to have sex with her, she says "NO" but doesn't listen. After a violet struggle, Nikki flees from his place.
* In the Season 1 episode "Behind the Dancer", Alicia ends up starving herself.

## Notes/Trivia

* This franchise has eight spin-offs of the series.
* All About Us secondary character, Frankie Lewis was the only character to have an homosexual abusive relationship storyline in *Sierra & Kristy*
* Alicia Alcott's storyline about her hellish sophomore year in high school was based on author Maryam Wells' own ordeal from high school.
* Both *All About Us* and *Just the Seven of Us* have memorable storylines readers cannot stop talking about.
* Maryam Wells, who created the series wanted to do a teen dramedy, that dealt with coming-of-age, while also dealing with social issues.
* The Silver Hills High School set is the same set used in *Sweet Valley High* (1994).
* Despite the characters being the same age, each actress who posed on the AAU book covers are born in different ages.
* The series was actually based on the TV Series on NBC from 2001. Wells created a novel series version of the series featuring her own experience in high school.
	+ The TV series from 2001, was set at Belmont High School in Chicago, Illinois. Maryam Wells' novel version took place at Silver Hills High School in Silver Hills, California.
* Not only Maryam Wells wrote the novel version of the series, but she also created videos and its' website for its readers. She even helped with styling the cover models.
* Wells originally wanted Jessica Parker Kennedy and Britt Robertson for the roles of Sierra and Nikki, but chose Camryn Grimes and Paige Diaz for the roles.
* For the novel series, Wells made only changes to Alicia, Nikki, and Sierra.
	+ She changed Alicia from Full-Caucasian to half-African and three/quarters Caucasian, with an older brother, an younger sister, and a deceased older brother. Her fashion style is urban-rocker chic and wears her own jewelry she has made. Her name "Alecia" was changed into "Alicia", which was Wells' middle name. Then she wrote a storyline about Alicia's interracial relationship with a white guy named Ryan Frankel.
	+ Wells changed Nikki from an brown-eyed brunette to a blue-eyed blonde, coming from a middle-class family with upper-class money, a serial dater, and a fashion and beauty expert. Her name, Niki was changed to Nikki. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a interior decorator and socialite.
	+ Wells also changed Sierra from African-American to Caucasian, with divorced parents, and two sisters, one in college and the other in elementary school.
		- Sierra is the only girl with less changes.
* The series ran from - to -.
* The daily drama of *All About Us* was set in the fictional town of Silver Hills, California.
* Wells created a story line centered around a earthquake hitting Silver Hills. The storyline shared many similar traits with the Northridge Earthquake in 1994.

## See Also

* Teens of Silver Hills Franchise - A franchise about the high-school and home lives of different teenage residents in Silver Hills, California.