Renowned graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier and Cal High English teacher Theresa Pacheco first met at Lowell High School in San Francisco, where they forged a friendship spanning three decades.
When the two met in freshman year in 1991, Pacheco said she knew right away that she wanted to be Telgemeier’s friend after seeing her homemade Bart Simpson Halloween costume.
From that point on, they were inseparable, and their friendship blossomed. Telgemeier and Pacheco would call for hours every day, ride the bus together, make scrapbooks, and always dress for spirit days.
They have kept in touch ever since, even as their careers pushed them in different directions and Telgemeier became a celebrated author.
“I’ve gone to her talks and I was starstruck by the thousands of people that went, but when I talk to her, she’s just my best friend, just Raina,” Pacheco said. “I am so proud.”
In Telgemeier’s 2010 bestseller autobiographical graphic novel “Smile”, she included Pacheco as a character “Theresa” and wrote about how Pacheco respected her and became her first friend in high school. “Smile” went on to sell over a million copies and won the Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens.
Pacheco explained that she and Telgemeier didn’t really fit in high school, so they had to stick together.
“As weirdos we kind of stuck out a little bit more,” Pacheco said.
Pacheco explained that Telgemeier’s passion for art was always obvious through her elaborate posters she made for school and wacky costumes she came up with. This creativity is one of the reasons they became such good friends.
“She was like the artist,” Pacheco said.
After high school, Telgemeier went to follow her dream of becoming an illustrator, not realizing she wanted to be a writer yet.
“I didn’t know I wanted to write but I knew I wanted to draw,” Telgemeier said.
But this dream distanced Telgemeier from Pacheco. Telgemeier had to go live in New York for college and found a job illustrating there, while Pacheco stayed in the Bay Area to achieve her dream of teaching.
During this time they barely talked, but they would reconnect every once in a while.
“We would be back in the same room and it would be like time never passed,” Pacheco said.
When Telgemeier finally moved back to San Francisco to be with her family and friends, both were proud of each other for achieving their dreams.
Pacheco invited Telgemeier to one of her English classes at Cal, where she watched the flow of a discussion she led for her class.
“You were a star, you were shining that day [teaching]. It was so cool watching you be in your element,” Telgemeier said to Pacheco. “You achieved your goal and passion really quickly.”
They both loved art in high school, so Pacheco and Telgemeier have quite a lot of advice for aspiring artists.
“It’s important for anyone to do what you love, not what someone tells them to do,” Telgemeier said.
They also said to hold on to old work from the beginning of their creative journeys.
“It can be something later, you never know where it is going to go,” Pacheco said.
Telgemeier also said that high school is a tough time with a lot of figuring out who we are and who our friends are, but there’ll always be people who accept us.
Telgemeier’s success didn’t just come from writing entertaining books, but writing books about her struggles that are impactful and relatable. Telgemeier said no one is perfect and we all have problems..
“ [‘Smile’] gives somebody who is starting out on their journey a chance to see, oh, maybe it won’t be bad for that long,” said Telgemeier.
Students also have found “Smile” to be relatable.
“[‘Smile’] validated the struggles I would face in school,” sophomore Julia Aguas said. Aguas is one of Pacheco’s students. “She deals with struggles as a teenager, and seeing that gave me strength.”
Sophomore Andrea Rebiskie, who also has Pacheco for English, said everything about the book was relatable and that was the reason that she read it over 15 times.
Pacheco and Telgemeier’s friendship came as no surprise to Pacheco’s students, though, as the subject of their friendship comes up in their class sometimes.
Pacheco and Telgemeier reflected on their relationship and how important they’ve been to each other throughout their journey.
“When I look back at my life, and [I] think who were my top five, I can’t leave Theresa [Pacheco] off my list,” Telgemeier said.
