I Am Not Jessica Chen

“How am I supposed to confess to my parents that everything they’ve done for me—leaving behind their old lives, moving across the world, spending what should’ve been vacation money on overpriced textbooks, waking up at dawn to drive me to tutoring centers, all so I could have a better education—was for nothing?”

Jenna discovers that she has not been accepted into Harvard and immediately feels a deep sense of shame and disappointment at having let down her parents’ expectations of her. Navigating Comparison and Expectation is a central theme in the book, and Jenna’s character arc embodies this theme. Along with her constant comparison of herself with others around her, cultural and family expectations of success also play a huge role in Jenna’s low sense of self-worth at the beginning of the book.

“When you’re so widely known and loved, so soaked in glory you’re swimming in it, all you have to worry about is maintenance, not metamorphosis.”

Jenna reflects on how people like Aaron who are successful and well-liked have it much easier, as they don’t have to strike hard to change; they only need to keep going. This fallacy is quickly exposed once Jenna starts living Jessica’s life and discovers how difficult it is to maintain that degree of perfection. In some ways, people like Jessica are punished more harshly than others when they slip up, making maintenance arguably harder than metamorphosis and invoking The Impact of Success on Personal Relationships.

“My stomach dips. I feel all of a sudden as if I’m standing on some high precipice, staring down at the sheer drop below. It’s like the moment before the fall, before gravity finds me, when everything is sheer potential, the air humming around me. In the end, I don’t even have to decide what my wish is before making it. I wish I was Jessica Chen.”

A shooting star passes by and Jenna makes a wish that she were her cousin. Her wish coming true is foreshadowed by this description of the