Ultimate Sweet Valley High Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the Wakefield Twins

I bid farewell to Francine Pascal and ask the eternal question: do we ever graduate from Sweet Valley High?

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There is something about teen culture that is so seductive to non-teens. I remember getting up on Saturday mornings and eagerly watching Saved by the Bell, Hoop Dreams, California Dreams, and Sweet Valley High. The teens on these shows seemed so worldly. They had brick cell phones. They could stop time. They sang their own theme songs, were blonde and lived in the perpetual summer called “California.” What was this strange paradise?  

There is nothing more seductive to kids than visions of what their future lives might look like. Sweet Valley High is the number-one reason I believed high school would be amazing. Was it? No. It was more My So-Called Life and Daria than the eugenic dream of Sweet Valley High. Still, I found the show and the books addictive even as I knew it would never be me. How? 

Francine Pascal, author and creator of “Sweet Valley High,” died recently at 92. I have been thinking about the impact of the show and those books on my young self.

Now, perhaps you loved high school, were voted a superlative of some kind, and maybe even went to prom. I, by comparison, was once pulled to the side of a hallway by a sort-of-friend on the yearbook committee who let me know some “insider intel” that I had almost been voted ‘best personality.” Is there a more devastating state of affairs than being told you almost have the “best personality?” 

I was not bullied in high school or had the trauma of other kids making my life misery. My life was more like Health Ledger’s character in 10 Things I Hate About You where he is absent a lot and allows people to fill in those gaps with whatever folktale reasons feel plausible (to be clear, people also thought Heath was hot in a mysterious way and people mostly just noted I missed a lot of school). In reality, he was at home eating cereal and watching tv with his grandpa, and I too was at home watching Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Lifetime movies with my mom as I tried to navigate a slew of health issues. The Wakefield twins were, by comparison, likely never competing for best personality (though they did try to take each other out to be prom queen). 

Why, then, were these books so addictive for girls like me who came of age in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s? 

Diablo Cody, a fellow fan, wrote about her own attachment to the books and their capacity to transport readers to a different (unproblematic) world:

Elizabeth and Jessica weren't just identical. They had "sun-kissed" blond hair, which I longed for. They had blue-green eyes, and they didn't have to wear thick glasses like I did. When they smiled, they didn't have rubber bands crisscrossing their bites. Their Southern California days were filled with beaches and bike trips and gossip at the Dairi Burger. Best of all, they loved each other. I never forgot about Elizabeth and Jessica as I grew up. Their world, though frankly and outlandishly unreal, was so beautiful to me.

These twins were extremely normie, itself appealing to pre-teens navigating putting elastics on braces, acne, and any number of other things that make kids feel “weird.” But there are a lot of places kids can look for aspirational heroes to get them through the front lines of adolescence. MTV offered any number of musical icons, and Jane Austen has already been dead for 200 years. So why these two? 

The answer lies in part in Francine Pascal’s background. In the 80s, when she learned publishers were looking for YA romances that would appeal to teens, she pitched a show “like Dynasty” and sold a concept based on 12 story ideas revolving around identical twins, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. The twins were perfect, attractive, popular, and members of an affluent family and an affluent community in California. Francine, herself a former soap writer, had already written three YA books, but Sweet Valley High was her big break (to paraphrase another subsequent 80s phenomenon, Baby-Sitters Club). I don’t know if Francine believed in ghosts (RIP), but she did believe in ghost writers. After writing the first 12 stories, she used a Sweet Valley High bible to direct a gaggle of ghostwriters to deliver 181 books according to her core concepts. The books followed the girls through truly insane plot lines that revolved around the competition they felt with each other (mostly felt by Jessica tbh), and the hijinks of being in high school in a world defined by who you are dating and the social capital of your friendships. 

Her soap background helped her realize the key to success was out-of-pocket storylines (hello, cult plotline!) and ending each book with a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger was the secret sauce of the Sweet Valley High books that kept readers interested in the next book in the series. This combination - living out loud plot lines and cliffhangers - were catnip to viewers of soaps and teens who tried to convince parents to keep feeding their habit for what some called “trash.” 

It was interesting to see a series take on sibling rivalry in a longform way and to watch both sisters compete for boyfriends so overtly (also, sad). However, the fact that this was messy but not my mess made all the difference. I loved it. I was also not yet a teen, so the accuracy of these books to the teen experience was something on which I was in no way qualified to comment. For all I knew, every teen sold MLM products, dabbled in joining a cult, and competed with their twin for prom queen. That that would never happen to me was not the point. It offered me the mental space to imagine my life when I was a teen. It also offered the thrill of reading something that felt naughty. There was one plotline where a boy named Bruce (who owned a Porsche at 16?) untied Jessica’s bikini top at a pool party, and I’ve never felt so scandalized. 

I had moved on to other fare by the time I was actually a teen. Cut to me aggressively trying to investigate a zine I read online that claimed Courtney Love murdered Kurt Cobain while listening to Celebrity Skin and reading Jane Austen fan fic. 

Nostalgia is a funny thing, though, and now I look back with fondness at the camp and uncanny nature of the series and the absolute joy it brought me. Sometimes things can be uncomplicated fun and that’s how I choose to remember Sweet Valley High. 

To revisit some of its plot lines and complete left-field choices, I made this quiz for fans and anyone curious about learning more about life in Sweet Valley. Enjoy! 

The Totally Awesome Sweet Valley High Quiz

Question 1

In which book do the Wakefield twins, Jessica and Elizabeth, switch places, leading to a series of misunderstandings and hijinks?

a) Double Love
b) Dear Sister
c) The New Jessica
d) Heartbreaker

Question 2

Which of the following are plot lines in Sweet Valley High books? 

a) Elizabeth hosts a family friend who accompanies her to school. When her family friend makes a pass at Elizabeth’s teacher and gets shut down, she accuses him of assault. It’s up to Elizabeth to clear his name. 

b) Elizabeth’s boyfriend Todd gets a motorcycle and her parents forbid her to ride on it. She does anyway, and ends up in a coma. When she awakens, her sister convinces her that she is Jessica for her own ends. 

c) Jessica fears she’s getting lost in Elizabeth’s shadow. She dyes her hair black to get the interest of a local modeling agency. The agency hires Elizabeth instead, teaching Jessica the valuable lesson to always be blonde (and/or yourself). 

d) Jessica tries to be an entrepreneur by selling Tofu-glo cosmetics. 

e) all of the above. 

Question 3

Jessica and Elizabeth’s parents are named Ned and Alice Wakefield. What are their professions? 

1. He manages the local PBS station and she’s an architect

2. He’s a lawyer and she’s an interior decorator 

3. He’s a doctor and she’s a lawyer

Question 4

When Elizabeth and Jessica’s parents separate in Trouble at Home, how do the twins get them back together? 

1. Encourage them to date other people: “there’s a lot of fish in the sea!” 

2. Remind their lawyer father that the child support for 2 teens under 18 with their lifestyle will be “sizeable.” 

3. Insert themselves in their father’s mayoral campaign, and identify a corrupt campaign worker. This realization somehow convinces Dad to drop out of the race and return home to Mom. 

Question 5

What is the most concerning detail of Elizabeth’s crush, Luke? 

a) He’s mysterious
b) He’s British
c) He thinks UK Love Island is better than the US version
d) He’s a werewolf

Question 6

What bizarre event occurs in "The Evil Twin" storyline?

a) Jessica turns evil and tries to ruin Elizabeth's life
b) A new set of twins hope to murder Elizabeth and Jessica and assume their identities
c) An evil twin impersonates Jessica
d) Elizabeth is possessed by an evil spirit

Question 7

Which sister accidentally joins a cult? 

a) Elizabeth

b) Jessica

Question 8

In "The Perfect Girl," which character becomes obsessed with losing weight and develops an eating disorder?

a) Jessica Wakefield
b) Elizabeth Wakefield
c) Robin Wilson
d) Lila Fowler

Question 9

What prompts Jessica to feel remorse in “A Night to Remember?” 

a) Jessica spiked her sister’s punch at prom to sabotage her prom queen campaign, only to see Elizabeth leave with her bf. Driving drunk, they get into a bad accident prompting Jessica’s guilt.
b) Jessica writes that Elizabeth has a crush on Ronald Reagan on the school’s bathroom wall.
c) Jessica sends her mom flowers at home signed by a “secret admirer” when she thinks her mom may be having an affair. Her mom, flustered when confronted by their dad, denies it. Realizing this sounds like Jessica-related chaos, they ask if she did this and she puts the blame on Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a panic attack and passes out just before she’s set to take the SATs. Jessica feels guilty for the first time.

Question 10

What is the name of Jessica and Elizabeth’s brother? 

a) Todd 

b) Bruce
c) Stephen
d) Blake

Question 11 

Which book was the likely inspiration for “Mean Girls”? 

a) Beware the Baby-sitter
b) Elizabeth Betrayed

c) Slam Book Fever

d) The Stolen Diary 

Question 12: Which twin is the most aspirational, Elizabeth or Jessica? 

1. Elizabeth

2. Jessica

3. Neither 

Question 13: Where is Elizabeth today? 

1. Elizabeth is a corporate attorney who feels good about helping the rich by balancing her work with philanthropy. She is the lone continuing participant in the ice bucket challenge. 

2. Elizabeth married an attorney and became an interior decorator. When her twins are teenagers, she realizes she’s repeated her family patterns and joins a dance cult she finds on TikTok late at night. 

3. Elizabeth is a professor of statistics. She writes Nancy Drew fan fiction at night and is the head of her kids’ PTA. She is responsible, honest, and still pining for Bruce who left her for a Porsche. 

Question 14: Where is Jessica today? 

1. Currently in a legal battle with Piper Kerman as she believes she is the origin of “Orange is the New Black.”

2. Though she was once saved from a cult as a teen, she has grown to understand the value of a caring, peer-pressure-based community. She may or may not have been a member of Andrew Keegan’s “Full Circle” spiritual community. 

3. She is currently the subject of internet rumors (along with a certain actress) as a possible mistress of a certain former president. 

4. After instigating many racist incidents in her community, she was finally going to be publicly charged only to have her sister get her off the hook (again). The internet started to label her behavior as a type “a Jessica,” and she hired a PR firm to rebrand her behavior as “a Karen,” displacing blame for her behavior (once again) and taking revenge on a woman named Karen who once cut her in the bathroom line at a Romney fundraiser. 

Answers (with tea): 

Question 1: b) Dear Sister

Explanation: In "Dear Sister," Elizabeth suffers a motorcycle accident, leading to a personality change. Jessica takes advantage of this by swapping identities, causing chaos at school and in their personal lives. For everyone who wanted a twin (me), this book invites the follow-up question: “but what if your twin is evil and will use your medical crisis for personal gain?” 

Question 2: e) All of the above. 

Explanation: This is not a series that lets reality get into the way of a good story. Truly inspired by her soap-opera past, Francine knew the most important thing was a juicy story and a cliffhanger to keep readers coming back for the next book. 

Question 3: a) He’s a lawyer and she’s an interior decorator 

Explanation: The Keatons of Family Ties worked as a PBS manager and architect, the Huxtables were a doctor and lawyer combo. The Wakefields are also white-color job holders in an era that was navigating the social change of the 60s era and distrust of the 70s with a return to romanticizing the nuclear family. The innovation of the era? That both parents could work without shame as long as it was in white-collar professions of renown. 

Question 4: c) Insert themselves in their father’s mayoral campaign, and identify a corrupt campaign worker. This realization somehow convinces dad to drop out of the race and return home to mom. 

Explanation: It’s wild to read a series that genuinely allows kids to believe they had any role in their parents’ divorce and/or are responsible for reuniting the family. There is something very Reagan-era about the series’ obsession with showing the Wakefields to be a model family (both parents have bougie careers, the kids are all beautiful, they have no major sources of worry). The divorce plot line just further supports this in addition to the many books that introduce minor characters who have “broken homes” and come to the Wakefields for comfort. 

Question 5: d) He’s a werewolf

Explanation: In "A Date with a Werewolf," Elizabeth falls for Luke, a British werewolf (?). In the next book, she is disturbed to learn he’s, in fact, a werewolf and sad when he dies (seriously, what was this book???).

Question 6: b) A new set of twins hope to murder Elizabeth and Jessica and assume their identities.

Explanation: In "The Evil Twin" storyline, the Wakefield twins discover they have an evil triplet named Margo, who plans to kill them and take over their lives. Margo and Nora plan to kill Elizabeth and Jessica and assume their identities. Nora, Margo’s twin, doesn’t realize that Margo has kidnapped Jessica, tied her up, left her for dead, and then gone to sleep in Jessica’s bed. Nora breaks into the Wakefields’ bedroom and stabs Jessica, not realizing she’s just killed her own twin. Again, how is this real???? 

Question 7: b) Jessica

Explanation: In "The Cult," Jessica inadvertently joins a cult and must be rescued by her friends and family before she is completely brainwashed. I love that this franchise was not afraid to take on cults. 

Question 8: c) Robin Wilson

Explanation: In "The Perfect Girl," Robin Wilson becomes obsessed with losing weight to fit in and ends up developing an eating disorder. Sometimes SVH tries to be a “problem book” or afterschool special, and it almost always makes me wish they’d just stick to soapy content. They can’t handle disordered eating. 80s and 90s culture is not where I’d go for any kind of wisdom on body talk, and I definitely wouldn’t include this. 

Question 9: a) Jessica spiked her sister’s punch at prom to sabotage her prom queen campaign, only to see Elizabeth leave with her bf. Driving drunk, they get into a bad accident prompting Jessica’s guilt.

Explanation: In "A Night to Remember," Elizabeth and Jessica both vie for prom queen. Sidebar, why does every book have a dance? What is the budget of this school? Jessica spikes Elizabeth’s drink at prom to torpedo her chances. Again, she is the worst! Elizabeth does indeed leave with Jessica’s boyfriend and get into an accident. 

Question 10: c) Stephen

Explanation: Stephen always seemed to like Elizabeth better, perhaps the lone piece of evidence in Jessica’s ongoing “people like Elizabeth better than me” monologue. 

Question 11: c) Slam Book Fever

Explanation: In "Slam Book Fever," a slam book causes chaos as students write mean and anonymous comments about each other, leading to fights and hurt feelings. This is one of my favorite SVH books in part because it reads like the “Mean Girls” origin story. Of course, the anonymous book of rumors reads like a precursor to a message board or FB group wall, and is all about dating rumors. 

Question 12: Neither! 

Explanation: These two don’t make great choices (especially Jessica, a true sociopath). But isn’t it fun to pretend you could fit into some utopian soap opera before it takes a turn to Stepford wives?

Question 13: A

Explanation: Not to be ice cold, but of course this lady thinks the ice bucket challenge is a good idea! So what if she helped Elon dodge paying taxes! She is currently considering doing some pro bono work for her firm. She read about a not-so-young man who may need saving. She believes she can help save his world tour. 

Question 14: D

Explanation:  Jessica is the female Justin Timberlake, I won’t be taking questions on this. (But I will take your comments, hot takes, and more below!) 

What are your memories of SVH?  I need all your hot takes! 

Call Me! (or not!)

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Thanks for reading!

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