My name is Mimi Pond. If you’re of a certain age and gender, you might remember me as the woman who wrote The Valley Girls’ Guide to Life a humor book I wrote and illustrated in 1982. It happened like this: I left a waitressing career in Oakland, Calif. and moved to New York City in January of 1982 to become a full-time cartoonist.

After entertaining a book editor with my imitations of surfer dudes I’d gone to high school with (later immortalized by Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High ) this editor asked me if I could do a humor book about Valley Girls. I had to ask him what a Valley Girl was. He told me that musician Frank Zappa and his 14-year-old daughter Moon Unit Zappa had recorded a novelty hit song called “Valley Girl,” where Moon Unit imitated a bunch of girls she

See Full Page