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"For a while now, my classmates have seemed to have a favorite topic to discuss in English class. No, it isn&amp;#039;t Shakespeare, any author, or any book for that matter. Nope, they just love to talk about one particular classmate; let&amp;#039;s just refer to her as &amp;quot;Rachel.&amp;quot;  While Rachel may have some quirky mannerisms like constantly apologizing or, on one rather memorable occasion, falling out of her chair in class, she&amp;#039;s generally a nice person. At the very least, she hasn&amp;#039;t done anything to antagonize anyone in the class. The other day when most of the class (not including Rachel) had to wait outside before entering the classroom, the conversation once again centered around Rachel. People were imitating her, tearing apart her website, which they have just recently discovered, and just flat out dissing her. The second Rachel arrived, everyone quickly stopped talking and tried to act normal. When anyone did speak to Rachel, all would appear normal on the surface. To be honest, I don&amp;#039;t think Rachel even has a clue that the others have been talking about her behind her back!  While I haven&amp;#039;t really added to any of these conversations on Rachel and I just end up listening, I haven&amp;#039;t exactly done anything to help Rachel. All of this has got me thinking: what is it that makes gossiping so appealing? Why can&amp;#039;t we seem to stop even though we know that it hurts other people&amp;#039;s feelings? Cheers, Lauren CG! Editorial Intern "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/a10725/real-life-gossip-girls/>