Getting her act together: "Survivor's Guide" comes to aid of Arlington high schooler

Boston Herald- October 25, 2004

Written By Tenley Woodman

Meet the self-proclaimed teen queen of chaos, Sarah Manoli.

As a junior at Arlington High School, the aspiring art major lugged around a 30 pound book bag, had ants in her bedroom and survived on uncooked Ramen noodles with peanut butter.

That was then, this is now.

Manoli, 17, now a senior, was saved from her disorganization by the new local reality TV program "Surivor's Guide to High School," airing Wednesday at 9 p.m. on WGBH (Ch. 2).
"The thing that I liked about this show is that a lot of reality shows are superficial. This really helped me in ways that were actually meaningful," Manoli said during a phone interview.

"I am very busy. I act, so I'm in the musical every year at school. I do welding, I was in the art all-state last year. I'm in the select singer group at my school."

Manoli is so busy, she even forgot to take the SATs.

Like Bravo's popular "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" a team of experts tackled five problem areas in Manoli's life: Thabiti Brown, academic coach; John Kuntz, presentation coach; Tracy O'Connell, life coach; Clarissa Rodriguez, un-clutter coach; and Samantha von Sperling, image coach.

Think of it as The Fab Five for teens.

In Wednesday night's pilot episode, viewers will see Manoli getting whisked away from school in a yellow Cooper Mini to meet her team.

The task for the episode: prepare for Manoli's sister's college homecoming (with whom she shares a bedroom) and make time for Manoli's friends.

"I thought it was so much fun. It was probably the most tiring thing I've ever done," Manoli said.

In four days the team helped prepare Manoli for college interviews, create a better homework environment, organize her bookbag and bedroom, and throw a party for friends.

"I'm still a little messy but now I'm better about thinking about whether I need to keep things. I'm a pack rat," she said.

( "Survivor's Guide to High School" premiered 10/27/2005 at 9 p.m. on WGBH )

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