Hollywood is known for its foolish portrayal of everyday people. That’s kind of a weird thing to say, but can we find an ounce of truth in Hollywood’s stereotypes?

High school is a huge focus in media and entertainment, leading to plenty of stereotypes about the “high school experience.” These inaccurate stereotypes are embedded in many movies, such as Mean Girls and The Breakfast Club, as well as books and commercials.

The portrayal of “cliques” and individuals in movies is often mistaken for reality, leading to misunderstandings about how high school actually is. When Santa Fe High sophomore Ben Marino was asked what he expected his freshman year, he said, “Well, I thought there were gonna be big groups of jocks for sure.”

A scrawny nerd with glasses, braces, a constantly stuffy nose, and a backpack stuffed to its limit is a common portrayal. Chirag Gupta, from the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is a perfect example. This character is generally ignored and bullied by most of the high school population.

But can’t there be people who are both a nerd and an athlete? Yes. For example, Ryan Fitzpatrick, a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, is an economics major from Cambridge; he scored a 1580 on his SAT.

In Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon, a teen from Idaho, is a major “geek” at his high school. Because of this he is oppressed, not only by the bullies of the school, but by a vast majority of the students. He is not popular, and he makes a fool of himself constantly. Are all geeks this way?

In the comedy Scary Movie, actor Marlon Wayans portrays the stereotypical stoner with no interest in any activities that don’t include smoking weed. This specific high school stereotype is also not representative of students in real American high schools. For high school students to posses and continually smoke this illegal substance on campus without being caught by some school authority is unrealistic. Also, a stoner is not always an idiot with no positive interests. People who are both academically and physically gifted can smoke weed. For example, Andrew Sullivan, a successful person who ran the magazine The New Republic for years, has been known to smoke marijuana, crushing the stereotypical slacking-stoner idea.

At Santa Fe High, students can be both athletic and successful in school; a person does not need to be either a “mindless jock” or an “unattractive nerd.” People have multiple traits; being labeled as a specific kind of person is inaccurate. They can be both dorky and athletic, or be un-athletic but still be friends with the people who are amazing at sports.

Stereotypical cliques and characters are not realistic identifications of people. Can someone really be just one type of person?