A filmmaking contest website, Tongal, has some information on Maryellen.

Her intrests: Television (watching and acting out shows), science (the invention of the polio vaccine, building a flying machine for the science contest), drawing and sketching.

Her personality: Inventive, one of a kind, carefree.

Her positioning (whatever that is): A girl who learns to stand out and be her own person and a girl who lets her ambitions soar, and doesn’t let setbacks stop her.

Bio: Nine year old Maryellen Larkin longs to stand out, but her great ideas don’t always work out the way she hoped. When she draws a cartoon of her teacher on the first day of fourth grade, she also draws unwanted attention —and realizes that sometimes standing out is worse than not being noticed at all! Her drawing talents help her make a new friend, but now she has to find a way to make her old friends overcome their prejudice. Later on, when some boys dismiss her ideas for the science contest just because she is a girl, Maryellen learns how important it is to be true to yourself . Maryellen’s stories are driven by her desire to make a difference. She must learn when to push the boundaries and when to stick with the tried and true— and it’s important to look beneath the surface to know what really matters.

Marketing slogans:

• I follow my heart instead of the crowd.

• It’s my time to stand out from the crowd.

• Cartoonist, rocket scientist, TV-news feature, roller-skater, and mold breaker. And that’s only part of her story.

• My friends call me the One and Only. There’s no one quite like me in the whole wide world.

So, what do you think about her? Go to the polls page to vote.

Beth