Fountain of Knowledge

Oh, the character has plenty of family issues, no worries about that. But the other girls, friends she's been with for a long time, are almost blind to her problems because they idealize her popularity. That's really the main thing I came up with, to explain her disenchantment with being on the high school A list--it eclipsed who she really was. In the eyes of other people, at least. At the end of the day, she still came home to a family situation where she felt alone. And even at school, no one appreciated her talents as much as her blonde hair and pretty face.