Okay now that Kathleen clued me in on Jonna leigh stack as the model for Jessica and Liz – the pictures seem a bit redundant unless of course – well – maybe it’s Jonna leigh Stack posing for them! Nah, probably not – she’s got a very distinctive nose and brown eyes. Any hoo, the Quincy episode – #17 – The Winning Edge of Season Five is still rather startling- Jessica’s nose always seemed more aquiline than Liz’s. The episode was about a coach supplying her gymnastic students with speed. A girl dies and another is torn by guilt and decides to expose their involvement much to the horror of the others gymnasts who decide to pin it all on her. They stuff speed pills in her locker and spike her orange juice before practice. The character is Brenda, a kind blonde, who wears the sides of her hair pulled back by plastic combs ( like you-know who) – and is played by actresses Jennifer Holmes – I looked her up on imdb.com and discovered she was in all kinds of things in the 80’s Fame, Misfits of Science, Newhart. It also says she was a model. It was was bizarre to see such a dead ringer for Liz looking all pasty white and strung out, stumbling all over a balance beam. However, as much as she is a startling ringer for Liz, I also came across the cover of Angel from Wildfire and On your Toes which features the same model (at least I’m assuming as much) – one where she is not smiling, the other wreathed with a grin exposing the same cheek creases as Jessica. Check it out! But closely… this time I think I could be right! (alas this update tells you nope – Jonna Leigh Stack is the one but it was a nice-try comparison!) And though I’ve always felt that Annie from the cover of Wrong Kind of Girl looked exactly like Annie Potts , the model on the cover of Wildfire’s Call Me with the exception of the hair, is eerily similar. Dee Dee Gordon I ‘found’ on the cover of Wildfire’s What About Me. And though not entirely accurate there are some similarities between Caroline and the model on Wishing Star’s Don’t Look Back – the dimple in Caroline’s cheek , the round eyebrows, the intense eyes ( though Caroline’s are a little closer together and tilt up more.) Susan Stewart looks like the model on the Searching Heart only her hair is now brilliantly red. There’s a little bit of Robin on the cover of Wishing Star’s The Loving Year , Jeffery looks similar to a male model on the cover of Wildfire’s One Day You’ll Go – same strong jaw, swooped over blonde hair, sunken eyes. The same male model I found for Todd appeared on two Wildfire covers – one where he is smiling so hard he’s squinting a bit, but the nose, the dimple in his cheek, and later the eyes are very similar. The covers are Senior Class & A Kiss for Tomorrow. Amy is similar to a girl on the cover of Wildfire’s Love to the Rescue. Cara has the same feathered hair and eyes as the girl on Wildfire’s the Ten Cupcake Romance and Trisha is similar to the girl on Windswept’s A Forgotten Girl – same full lips , same eyes. I’m not too sure how the pictures that I took of Jennifer Holmes off the Quincy episode will turn out – I tried to fix them up a bit even turned one into a sketch but you be the judge. Examine the photo’s closely sometimes it’s the little details. The cover photos from Wildfire and Wishing Star, probably used the same models around the
same time 1981 – 1985 as they are all credited to Owen Brown and it’s interesting to think that perhaps the models might have been used for the Sweet Valley covers as well. If you want to see the original Wildfire and Wishing Star covers in all there glory
perhaps even make your own finds check out my ultimate pages – WILDFIREand WISHING STAR
CLIQUEY PIZZA 2: more 80's teen book series & pop culture 
I think you’re probably right about 79% of these. 🙂
Bill chase also looked like James Spader in his youth (around the time of pretty in pink)
I agree , but his lizard-like villainry is pure Bruce Patman!
Jonna Leigh Stack, the actress that played Summer Blake (girlfriend of Warren Lockridge) on the ’80s soap “Santa Barbara” was, as I recall, the actual model for Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield. Her pics can be found here:
Wakefield Model
Hmmm…let’s try that again:
http://www.santabarbara-online.com/index2.htm
Wow , where did you get this awesome idea?! Did I miss some article? I try not to check out other Sweet Valley High sites so that I don’t copy stuff even accidently – She really does look like Jess! Summer Blake pics
Well, I have to confess that I forget where I read this, but I watched “Santa Barbara” back when it started, and it was around the same time the SVH books were out. It might have been in an old “Soap Opera Digest” or something that I read about it.
Ever since you told me I’ve been trying to find a good, young picture of Jonna Leigh Stack – very hard! She’d only been on one year of Santa Barbara and had been in a low budget movie Paradise Motel. I knew of a flea market that used to sell old soap digests but sadly it’s now shut down. I’ve still go a few more resources though and it would be good to find something. Thanks!
I’ve just got your email and I love your pics! You did a great job – sometimes people take sloppy photos – I’m guilty myself – before I got Adobe photo shop my early posts expose that! But you can only do so much with a camera and 60 watt lighting. It’s great that you also took photos of the back covers for the descriptions – I was thinking of getting into that myself – I’ve taken pictures of almost every 80’s teen book I have and have spent weeks trying to fix up all the pictures I have to take breaks or I’ll go batty! – I’ve gone from Abracadabra to Merivale Mall – though I’ve also done Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley Twins – they were done first just cause they were so huge – plus the ultimate pages I’ve already completed ( Wildfire , Wishing Star ). It’s nice to see Twilight. – Do you know if the books are connected by some general theme or more like the Sweet Dreams of horror – thematic? I wished I’d snatched up the series when I had the chance. This huge used bookstore was selling off their stock – 20 dollars for a box of books! and I wiped their young adult section out but I’d focused so much on Sweet Dreams and others I’d forgotten their row of 80’s horror – Private School , Twilight and a few great 80’s non series – like Hey Didi Darling and the Boy on the Cover.
I can’t believe you found that clip of “Santa Barbara” on You Tube! I really used to love that show as a teenager. The hair on this clip is awesomely ’80s!! I recently recycled a bunch of old Soap Opera Digests; otherwise, I might have still had the issue. Bummer. You sound a lot like me: we need some facts to back up what we say!
I didn’t make it very far in my photo session, I’m afraid, but will keep at it so when you’ve a mind to, you can check back for others. While I was working on it, I got lured into re-reading one of the Twilight series books. They are so short, you can read them on a lazy Saturday in no time. So now I’ve started in on a second one. Each of the Twilight books has a different cast of characters so the “unity” of the series lies in the topic: supernatural evil. I re-read “The Twisted Room” and was pleased by the interplay of the time shifting elements plus evil spirits/ghosts. I actually thought if beefed up and wish some slightly better characterization, I could see a teen suspense/horror film in my head. Have you ever read Antonia Barber’s The Ghosts? It had some of those same elements where the “modern” person and the dead person can sometimes occupy the same world as time shifts around them. It had the whole coming of age and dealing with parents themes as well as the “I’m stuck out here in the middle of freaking nowhere with a bizarre relative” element, too!
I’m just happy you clued me in on Jonna Leigh Stack the clip is amazing! It’s like watching the Wakefields come to life, now I’m going to have to adapt my two articles. I should’ve read Antonia Barber’s the Ghost since I’ve collected a huge lot of 80’s horror – you know those thick paperbacks with the really goofy embossed covers like dolls clutching knives or skeletons taking a bow ( Wild Violets ) , or a girl with her pigtail turning into a snake ( Viper , I think ) my favorite was The Breeze Horror by Candace Caponegro about a literal toxic rain. The government was attempting to rocket the junk to the moon or something and – our heroine a spunky actress wannabee , to avoid the rain holes up on a Fire Island type island where everyone caught in the rain has turned into mutant living dead – not zombies – they still have all their faculties, in fact they begin to display telekinetic powers, allowing them to quickly turn the tables on the army men who had been treating them , well like mutant zombies! It’s good to know that Twilight doesn’t have some secret theme linking the books I thought they’d been thematic but didn’t want to put them up until I had some verification , Thanks!
Great detective work!!
I’m just so glad Kathleen clued me in to Jonna Leigh Stack! I’m working on adapting both articles to fit this new mind blower. It makes me wonder if other soap stars might’ve been models – though I still think I’m right on with the Bruce Patman model.
I’ve always wondered that, too. The other characters didn’t appear on the covers often enough to get that idea of them “in the round” so to speak and it’s hard to just see a flat image and recognize the variabilities of a person’s face in that. Since Elizabeth/Jessica were on so many covers, it makes the identification easier. Of course, Jonna Leigh Stack was only in soaps for a year; it could just as easily have been a modeling agency that was representing her. I saw that a more recent iteration of the SVH covers appears to have another soap actress on the cover: Leven Rambin from AMC. These newest editions say they have been updated and revised; it would be interesting to see what had been changed. I know that they used to do this to the Nancy Drew series on occasion as well.
If you go to Amazon the reviewers will tell you some of the changes made in the books ( mainly they’re outraged over the fact that the girls have gone from a size 6 to a size 4 – who can blame them size six isn’t exactly elephantine ya know )plus you’ll find some sample pages to lift your eyebrow- personally I think the changes are absurd – I mean it’s not as if we talked sooo different from kids nowadays, in fact – cracks like Jessica saying I think I’ve been wacked by an ugly stick are more dated than what was orignally wrote! It definitely doesn’t sound like it was done for fans unless the goal was to tick them off – but just to captalize on a new generation who I guess wouldn’t tolerate a world without cell phones and text messaging. Click Here if you want to check it out.
James Marsden as Bruce Patman, you mean? I didn’t see any references to the model’s name, but as soon as I saw the pic, I knew who it was (even though it took me forever to think of his name!) Came across your site by accident, absolutely love it – I was a teen romance junkie myself! 🙂
James Marsden – whoa do you think? I didn’t think he was that old. Oh and thanks!
Wow! Jonna Leigh Stack is perfect! It was like watching Liz in pity mode across the table.
Although I think Annie Whitman was actually modelled on Courtney Cox in “Wrong Kind of Girl”
I thought it was fun to see Liz come to life too! It makes me want to dig up old episodes of Santa Barbara just because of it -Did you know her character gets murdered! Yikes! it would be like watching Liz get killed. Could be that Annie was modeled after Courtney Cox though I always thought she had an Annie Potts thing going on! The book covers vs Svh art was mainly for fun and the fact that the model for Wildfire is a dead ringer for Bruce.
I always thought the twins that posed for Sweet Valley Twins were wayyy hotter/prettier than the ones that posed for Sweet Valley High! Who are the girls that posed for the covers of Sweet Valley Twins. Check out the cover for Keeping Secrets. Jessica looks so pretty sitting at that table with the red checkerboard table cloth! I used to love Sweet Valley Twins more than High. I don’t know why but I did 🙂 and LOL at the Santa Barbara actresses. They do look just like the Sweet Valley girls in highschool!
Hi , I kinda felt the same way – I started reading SVH before SVT had gotten started – and remember Amy being a witch before being a nerd ,I was probably 10 or 11 and in fifth grade which seems acurrate. I thought both models were gorgeous but that the younger twins were more consistantly so, Jess could look somewhat awkward with her aquiline nose in SVH. And though I loved the cover – The New Jessica – with her black hair and heavy eye makeup Jess for me , always looked a little like a cross dresser and not as the book implied, exotic. I wish I could find out who posed for the younger twins – being that is was 1986 – I was thinking the model looked similar to Nicole Eggert who would’ve been on Who’s the Boss at the time. One of my favorite young Jess covers was #5 Sneaking Out – In fact me and my friends raved about how gorgeous Jess was on this one – we all stopped wearing socks – because Jess wasn’t wearing them – and everyone of us wanted her hair ( short hair was in – the Jennifer Grey / Dirty Dancing perm had stuck so this was impossible ) and her denim outfit – we settled for stonewashed jeans with the zippers at the bottom. Those were awesome jeans! – It was also easier to related to the outfits on SVT’s than SVH – no one I knew wore walking shorts! But ever one wore tucked in tees and jeans. To show you how much this series influenced me and my friends -we started our own Unicorn club – it didn’t last long though – we couldn’t find that much purple to wear!
Maybe I should check out the soaps in 1985/1986 to see if I can find a long haired blonde – seeing as how they nabbed their first model from a soap.
oh i’m glad you posted this. I saw that Paradise Hotel movie on tv ages ago and was like “isn’t that elizabeth wakefield?!” It drove me crazy because I didn’t know the name of the movie and until now I couldn’t find out who she was online. Now thanks to you i know i didn’t imagine this lol
Agh! Did you really see the movie – I’ve been searching for it , in the hopes of getting another look at the living breathing Liz/Jessica Wakefield -Santa Barbara is sooo eerie… And fun!
Thanks , and keep up the good work on your site! I try not to browse too much on others similar sites – but I can’t help myself!
My word! They are all so good looking.