Daniel replies:

I know the secret none of us know when knowing it would do us the most good. All schools are schools for gifted and nerdy and awkward and mostly awesome students. I only found this out when I started writing books for children and young people. Some kid would send me a letter about how Alan Mendelsohn the Boy from Mars made him feel better about being such a weird outsider, and he'd include a photo of himself, his handsome, often blond-haired, confident-looking self, in his football jersey, of which team he was the captain. Kids who are not insecure, and are sure there is nothing wrong with them, are comparatively rare, which is a good thing because some of them become dangerous later in life.