MISS METEOR

Can a small town embrace the wholeness of four teens: a self-proclaimed tomboy, a transgender athlete, a brilliant artist, and a girl born from stardust?

In Meteor, New Mexico, the annual Meteor Regional Pageant and Talent Competition Showcase is a major attraction for Miss Meteor contestants and the local businesses that depend on tourism to survive. The Quintanilla family runs a diner with their four daughters. Chicky, the youngest, could not care less about the pageant while her ex–best friend, Lita, has always dreamed of such an honor—even though thin, blond, White girls always seem to win. The estranged friends team up and, with help from their friends Junior and Cole and the Quintanilla sisters, hatch a plan to upset the town’s social hierarchy by helping Lita compete in the pageant. Drama ensues that characterizes the best telenovelas: unrequited love, bullies and popular mean girls, town gossips, and, of course, a curandera. Underneath there lies a heartfelt response to White supremacy, especially as it relates to brown bodies. Extended metaphors of stardust and space magic could grow tired in less capable hands, but they work powerfully in Mejia and McLemore’s descriptions of teenage emotional urgency when courage can be as a fleeting as a shooting star. Most main characters are Latinx; Cole is White.

A love letter to misfits who have been scared to let their stardust shine.