Past Times at Ridgemont High

“Ellie Blake wasn’t 13 years old, as her social worker had said. She wasn’t a trafficked foster child. She wasn’t even Ellie Blake. Her real name was Shelby Hewitt, and the teens mocking her about looking 30 weren’t too far off. She was a 32-year-old woman with a master’s degree, a full-time job as a social worker with DCF, and a stunning array of secrets.” Boston Globe Magazine (Gift Article): The secret lives of Shelby Hewitt, 32-year-old high school imposter. “It’s one thing to become an imposter for status or financial gain — actions not defensible, but at least comprehensible. But what would motivate a woman with friends, a career, and money of her own, to infiltrate a struggling city high school? Why work so hard if only to send herself down the socioeconomic ladder?”