Sweet Valley, Sweet Valley High.

Somewhere after "The Boxcar Children" and "The Babysitters Club" and decades before "Twilight" hit my shelves, my sister and I discovered the "Sweet Valley High" series. It was originally published before we were even born (in 1983)and was re-released in an adapted version a few years ago with the addition of cell phones and the Internet. A series about identical California girl twins, something about this series was intriguing to Rae and me. Elizabeth - smart, morally stable and much nicer than her sister - versus Jessica - more fashionable, better with boys and honest to a fault. On any given day, we wanted to be either one or both of them.

[photo credit]

Imagine how excited we were when the TV series came out. All of a sudden, afternoons got much, much cooler. Unfortunately, not many other people in North America agreed. The sad thing? I can still remember which twin in the above photo is Jess and which one's Liz (we're obvi on a nickname basis).

Just when we thought the empire couldn't get any better, I found out that Diablo Cody (of "Juno" fame) signed on to write a movie script.. and it's apparently "written", according to her Twitter. I have no idea when it's coming out -- but it's a pretty good guess Rae and I will be there on opening night.

I think what appeals the most about the series is that all of us are a combination of both twins - sometimes flirty, sometimes wise, sometimes responsible, sometimes...not. SVH just packages it neatly into two separate people. One hour, I relate to Liz - the next to Jess. But hopefully, I'm the best blend of the two I can be.