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being Taiwanese, the popular girls being called CCP was unintentionally hilarious, because it also stands for Chinese Communist Party

Gotta reread these I didn’t realize Nikki was just as much a menace to society as Greg Heffley

Nikki might have been an ungrateful kid, but y’all can’t say that Mackenzie is any better. Girl wanted to close down an animal shelter and let dogs and cats roam the streets because Brandon didn’t like her

Holy crap. I remember cringing at myself for liking a series where the protagonist unironically wrote "SQUEEE" in her diary, but I didn't remember her being THIS bad...

explaining what the ccp was in dork diaries to my chinese mother when i was in third grade was wild 💀

Say problematic all you want, but damn these books are entertaining af

i used to get so mad at nikki because she would always say that she hated her family and was "disadvantaged" when she litterally got to spend holidys with her family and have her own bedroom and have a nice friend group and she litterally won everything NO WONDER MAKENZIE WAS JEALOUS OF HER

The way I gobbled up each new book and upset my African parents by "reading other people's diaries" ✋🏾😭

Growing up is realising the main character was extremely ungrateful, She has great friends, a boyfriend, shes literally famous?! Yet shes always upset because 1 girl doesnt like her

Nikki is really unlikeable tbh and it gets kind of annoying that by like the 12th book Brandon and Nikki have STILL not “officially” gotten together, like even after kissing many times and him literally TELLING her he likes her she’s like “Omg.. Idk if he likes me.. I think he might like me!🤯”

I know Nikki seems very problematic now but we need to remember that these books were released in a different time where the 'not like othe girls' or 'unpopular misunderstood artsy' girl was considered relatable. Yes it may have aged somewhat badly but for the time, these books were everything. Maybe I'm biased by my own nostalgia but this series remains iconic in my opinion.

I'm 99% sure Brandon was high for like the first half of the series. Man was on that zaza fr.

Me: wow why was past me so insensitive and close minded? The books I read as a tween literally targeted at my demographic:

Kinda want a diary on a character who starts like Nikki but WAS a popular girl and terrible person at her old school and she's trying desperatly to be popular again only to realize she's happier being herself and making true friends or whatever and realizing SHE WAS terrible and should work on herself That'd be cute

It was SO annoying how Nikki always said how bad her life was when she went on tour with a freaking band

These books gave me anxiety because nothing ever went right. Everything she did was always going wrong and it was STRESSFUL

I remember the books not making much sense to me as I got older in elementary school, like when Nikki goes on tour and all of the band members of that one boy band fall for her along with Brandon and that one other guy. I was really confused because she had this dream life while she was supposed to be this quirky relatable girl that always has the worst luck. Plus she’s 14.

Dork diaries hold a special place in my heart. They helped me get through bullying in elementary and even now that i am older i still love those books. Its been three years since the last one but my love for them hasnt died even when i am almost an actual adult in a few years.

as a kid i always imagined her as like a sophomore/junior in high school, what middle schooler goes through this like… bruh she went on a world tour 💀

abt the whole ppl dont like nikki thing, i actually grew up with my favorite book being number 9, the one where Nikki is almost never narrating, and instead, Mackenzie finds Nikkis diary and disguises it in leopard print fabric, hence the cover of the book being leopard print. The art style changes for the better and its 10 times more entertaining because Nikki isn’t groaning about *her* life all the time, and instead, Mackenzie is doing the same thing Nikki usually does, but it gives a different perspective on things and it even goes through the events of the book series up to that point and how Mackenzie saw it through her own eyes. 10/10 book would recommend.

mackenzie has always been my favourite character. i wanted to be her even though she was terrible sometimes. plus her hair is soooooo cute Edit: i didnt want to be a bully i wanted to be pretty and popular and not to defend any of her actions but Nikki hated her always demonized her

Thanks to Brianna, it made me realize how annoying I was to my older sister and stopped. It was such an eye-opener, a personality awareness, because I really hated Brianna and was devastated to know I acted just like her. Nowadays my sister and I are very close. Thanks Dork Diaries, I learned to stop being a little shit :)

Nikki was the original delusional girl bc they whole series she would periodically write out scenarios with her and Brandon and then act them out alone in her room 😭😭

This entire book series’ dynamic is just: “Cutesy, quirky girl who has a crush on a dreamy hot guy and also is enemies with a mean, dramatic mean girl”

the entire time i am watching this video i am slowly doing the math and my brain just went "oh so it's diary of a wimpy kid but for girls"

These books were essentially my life back in fourth grade. I didn't have many friends, so I checked out the second book in the library because the original cover was really funny. And I never looked back! Until a couple years ago, when I wanted to take a walk down memory lane to reread the books. And you hit it right on the mark: Nikki does not deserve Chloe, Zoey, and Brandon, or her family! And I never realized just how weird certain sentences sounded.

MacKenzie and Nikki are both awful yet somehow MacKenzie comes off as a more normal person

Seeing Nikki's insecurity as toxic is really eye-opening. I used to idolize characters like Nikki as someone who also had social insecurities, and books about "mean girls vs outsider" only drive in the trope that "You can't trust anyone who's popular, more attractive, etc." even though the solution could literally be go. Get. To know them! Instead of making assumptions about a popularity hierarchical structure that you made up in your head. I'm trying to grow out of this mentality too, so thank you for telling it how it is Amanda TvT (And yeah, making these assumptions based on what I read harmed my critical thinking skills, so that's why you don't believe everything you read kids!)

Realizing they couldn’t do the talent show and then them naming the band “actually I’m not really sure yet” was the most stressful 20 pages in my eight year old life

I need to see a book series from Chloe or Zoe's perspective. Also, realistically, Nikki would've been like... HELLA popular? Like if you're in 8th grade and are literally famous in some school with rich private school kids roaming everywhere? Also stan Brianna.

Interesting fact: the woman who wrote it was Black and modeled Nikki after her own daughter also named Nikki, but made her white to be more marketable.

Alright I’m gonna say this: as someone who’s been bullied by a MacKenzie type and a Nikki type, the latter hurt way more. I knew Mac was a bitch, the whole school knew she was. But Nikki was sneaky and always hid behind her “not like other girls” persona to weasel out of trouble and painted me as a shallow girly girl

growing up is realising mackenzie was an iconic queen

OMG, I loved theses books. But they lost me after book 9 where MacKenzie stole the diary. Because that was the first time I noticed that nikki was just a bad as her sometimes and because it turned her into my faveourite Character. Edit: Also MacKenzie is a way better Artist then Nikki

Man. I forgot just how ungrateful Nikki was. Her parents were quirky and embarrassing, but at least they love her. (Her sister… yeah, she’s still annoying.)

I literally have no memory of anything that happened in Dork Diaries but I collected almost every book that existed of it. 💀

I learned a few years ago that the Japanese word for diary is "nikki." I have no idea if that was intentional on the author's part, but my mind was BLOWN when I made the connection

My favorite book in the series was not about Nikki at all, but Mackenzie. I always loved the 9th book where Mackenzie steals her diary and starts writing in it. I always found it so fascinating.

I was the older brother who used to stealthily "borrow" these from my sister cause I thought they were really entertaining lol Edit: Almost a year later, am no longer brother, am now sister. The prophecy is true lmao

The thing is... She's actually NOT A DORK. She's just an unpopular, yet really shallow and superficial teenager.

Omg I didn't know she was as bad as Greg heffley book mc’s we're unhinged in the early 2000’s 😭

I remember how much it annoyed me in the later books when her life was going like perfectly fine, she wore amazing outfits, had friends, cool stuff happening to her all the time, she was famous too but she still was like ahh Im suck a dork 🤪 I'm such a freak lol 😝 like girl shut up you really aren't

I actually want to see the ENTIRE series in Mackenzie’s pov because I really loved that one book

I feel like you’re analyzing Nikki’s character from a very adult perspective and making it seem like certain things she’d just be able to know. Middle school was rough okay 😭

These books were my literal childhood, they were pure chaos and I loved every second of it.

i looked up the books and apparently the series is still ongoing?! i don't remember what book i stopped reading at years ago but one of the descriptions of the books describes mackenzie as nikki's "frenemy". and all i'm hearing is frenemies to lovers

I remember having a huge crush on Brandon after reading the book where Mackenzie steals Nikki’s diary because I thought he looked so adorable in her art style lmao

i always thought it was funny how the series was called dork diaries when nikki never really acts dorky, at most she's just kind of awkward sometimes, but she doesn't really have any "dorky" interests, she's not particularly smart or nerdy (one of her friends liked books a lot,i think it was zoey but am unsure, but she had no interest in reading iirc) she acts pretty much exactly how a typical teen girl in these kinds of stories would act, and if anything i think she'd be a popular girl like mackenzie irl also when i was younger and into this series i remember thinking it was basically if diary of a wimpy kid was written for a female audience, and that if greg and nikki existed in the same universe they'd probably get along, and tbh i still stand by that, although it would be chaotic and awful for everyone involved

Fun fact: In the “Super squee edition” of the first book, she stays home because of a pimple not an ear rash.

Literally the other day I was saying dork diaries and miraculous is the same story lines in different fonts

i refuse to believe that a teen girl in the early 2010s would have gushed over kanye west... this was peak "imma let you finish" and there is no way a 14 year old girl in a private school in 2009 wouldn't have been a huge taylor swift fan

It’s so embarrassing whenever people ask me “what inspired you to get into art?” Bc I know damn well it was all these books fault

HOLY SHIT DORK DAIRES i think my favourite on was the one were like shes transports to like an alternate universe where everyone is like fairy tale characters???? I have no idea what its called or if I still have it lol

I blame Dork Diaries for making me a cringe not like other girls pick me when I was a kid. But hey, Nikki was someone I could relate to, and reading Dork Diaries as a kid, (despite my whole pick me personality forming because of it) I felt like hey, even though this character is fictional, this is someone I can relate to.

Growing up, I thought these books represented how teenagers actually act. Hell, I was like 7 years old when the first book got published in my country, and I begged my mom to buy me the whole series. She told me that when I grow up, I'll find Dork Diaries cringe. Guess she weren't wrong 😂😂

Know what Nikki is off the hook about the invitation. MacKenzie didn't ask her to pass it back to Jessica she just fucking handed the girl an envelope. What was she supposed to do, read her damn mind? Not to mention MacKenzie could hand it to Jessica after class instead of disturbing Nikki. If your gonna play notepasser don't include other uninvolved parties

Idk, Chloe and Zoey I think are as bad as Nikki at the start for starters while yes they ARE good friends, they did get a little carried away and starters prioritizing popularity over Nikki, during the tattoo part, we don’t see her family enough but it does seem half decent, I do got to agree Nikki’s hatred towards Mackenzie is pretty unwarranted in book 1, we have seen Nikki go through hoops just to make her friends and crush happy, such as multi-tasking 3 different costumes because she didn’t want to let everyone down, again bc at this time their friendship was newly repaired and not as strong as later books, so it’s a bit understandable that Nikki would think that Chloe and zoey would leave more easily, then in book 6 she did infact plan to get Chloe and Zoey tickets but were sold out, didn’t know how to tell the truth, plus we have seen Nikki genuinely care a lot about her BFFS such as in book 13 while she did want the party for popularity she was also doing it for her friends too, I don’t think Nikki Chloe or Zoey are bad friends just people with flaws

An absolute classic from my childhood I haven't reread it but I don't think it holds up watching this

When I was 8, I was staying at my grandparents house and there was a library. I begged my grandpa to drive me and get at least half of the Dork Diaries series. I remember only getting through the first two books and going to my grandpa and saying, “Can we return these? I don’t like them” my grandpa drove me back and I haven’t touched a Dork Diaries book every since.

I remember reading this series, being in a phase of my life where I hated anything “girly,” but being so invested because of the absolute chaos. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who remembers how unhinged m this was 😭

i have the entire series on my shelves. I kinda used them as my colouring book

I remember dork diaries. I think at first, it was a cute story. There was a book where she becomes a figure skater or enters a figure skating competition. The details of it are fuzzy, but I remember she did things that made me think "Wow, she's not much better than Mackenzie".

These books comforted me so much. The main message I got from them was that even bad people with nothing going for them have good things happen to them for no reason. Like despite how TERRIBLE most of Nikki's plans were everything turned out fine and she got the guy she liked. Bruh I hated myself so much to identify so closely with this girl lmao

"Actually I'm not really sure yet" has the same energy as "I don't know how but they found me"

Bro the amount of time I read these books on REPEAT is ridiculous. And when I tell you I physically cringed when you recreated that conversation- Man these books 😂

don't get me started on books +6 where nikki out of nowhere becomes famous 💀💀 like what the heck

No matter how the books really were, it inspired me to write my own diary and that changed the trajectory of my life

I read a few of these when I was younger because my sisters owned them. Even when I was younger I noticed how Nikki's drawings go from stick figures with mildly detailed heads and water balloon hands to overall mildly detailed.

THE WAY I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW YOU DECIDED TO COVER DORK DIARIES AH MY CHILDHOOD!! u make me feel so seen amanda

just realized that these books might have been a formative part of my internal misogyny growing up

As a kid I always thought of these books as "girl diary of a wimpy kid", and looking back, that was probably mostly because Nikki comes off like a sociopath almost as much as Greg Heffley.

Little story: So, I clicked on this video because I knew that this was the favorite series of my best friend from middle school. And the parallels between her and Nicky are honestly MAJOR, they sum up her personality perfectly. She had always been obsessed with popularity and never really appreciated me, she also had a major crush on this guy at school, who was basically the sweetest, shyest, and weirdest guy in our neighborhood. She always made excuses to hang out with this guy (instead of me). But whenever she ditched me, and found someone else to hang out with, she would act JEALOUS and make mean comments at my other friends. Anyways, I eventually stopped talking to her and now have much better friends. But I still have trust issues because of her. (Fun fact: Her crush she kept annoying? He is now my childhood best friend.)

I would LOVE to see a Dear Dumb Diary recap! Both of these books had a chokehold on me

Dork Diaires will forever go down in history as iconic. Sorry not sorry. An absolute flagship book series from a whole generation's childhood.

This series was literally my childhood. I remember fighting with this girl named Maddie in the library about who could get the last Dork Diaries book, and then like a year later getting back into it and getting the one where Nikki and Mackenzie become friends and reading it over and over again. Good times (Even if Nikki is literally a terrible person 😀)

Also who got triggered when Brandon DID KISS Nikki but Nikki still wonders if he likes her or not. GURL YOU BLINDER THAN DORA

I loved this book series as a preteen, thank you for this recap I didn't realise that I needed until now, Amanda! ❤️😍

Dude I remember the dork diaries website had an advice section where you could write about a problem you had and if you were lucky your problem would be featured in a post where "Nikki" would give you advice, and I waited so patiently for my entry to be featured and it never happened

I’m a librarian in a kids library and was always wondering about these books, so thank you for the recap.

Me: ugh I hate Nikki. She's so selfish at times Also me: *remembers I was the shy art kid who always wanted to be popular but was always treated like crap* no wonder I struggle with self esteem issues

This was my favorite series when I was younger omfg. Going back I realize that Niki was focused on the wrong things lmao

WHEN I FOUND OUT NIKKI WAS BLACK MY WHOLE WORLD CHANGED like no wonder i was so attached to her 😩

As problematic as Nikki is, Dork diaries will always have a place in my part as my first book series I was obsessed with😂

I was obsessed with dork diaries and dear dumb diary and my 9-10 year old diary entries are so embarrassing and meanspirited and definitely read similarly 😅

Why do I not remember the books being like this 😭 damn

As a tween girl I was obsessed with these books and thought I wanted to be the main character but I’m literally a man now so I guess it didn’t work out

Omg I forgot when Dork Diaries tried to be "edgy" by using the r-slur. It always took me out of the story cause yeah teenagers talk that way but Nikki and her friends also say OMG and LOL out loud like they're actual sentences so it seems pretty innocent at times but then they'd pull that out and I'd be like oop.

My younger teen self has surprised me when it came to Dork diaries. I had a strong dislike since the beginning and I couldn't get through more than two books. I told myself maybe I'm just going through my "not like other girls" phase but that probably wasn't it. Nikki lacked everything I wanted to see in myself, starting from confidence and fulfillment in life. I wanted a role model ig. I didn't like how she panics every five minutes and all she cares about is fitting in a certain standard. I just didn't see the lesson/objective. I'm so glad you reviewed this one!

As a person who never heard from either Barnes & Noble or the Dork-Series, I can confirm that this video vividly represented my Childhood

Does anyone remember the Thea Sisters?? They were the OG baddies

I honestly remembered Niki being a nice and insecure girl that you could sympathize with. I think that's how I viewed her when I read the books in middle school but if that's true, I was very wrong.

I hope you can reveiw the fairytale one, i loved that one so much!

lmaooo this book made me believe that #@@#@$@# was supposed to be a bad word and i had such a hard time wrapping my head around how you'd say that iykyk 🙈

I remember going to a book signing and I was drawn by the authors daughter! From what I remember they are very sweet people

I swear the obsession with popularity is a relic from last century that ppl from our generation only cared about because this was the type of media we had to consume

the way you inexplicably fulfill all of my deepest and most forgotten niches feeds my empty heart so much joy

This was the first step toward my book obsession

even as a kid i thought Nikki was dumb as hell and just caused all her problems but that didn’t stop me from reading the books bc elementary school me lived vicariously through her

watching this video years since reading dork diaries in 5th grade realizing how much this series impacted my frontal lobe development 💀🥺