The trendsetters like me, Hunter Braque. We participate on product focus groups, or “cool tastings” as my boss Mandy calls them. We tell clients whether their products and commercials are cool or uncool.

Most people think they can spot cool but they really can’t. Most people are just consumers. What consumers think is cool is generally “so yesterday.” That is why I like being a trendsetter. Consumers depend on trendsetters to guide them to what is cool. Most people don’t see us. We don’t wear signs around our necks. Rather we work our magic from the shadows through the messages we help craft.

Trendsetters are number two on the cool pyramid. On top are the innovators. Every new product has a beginning and an innovator. What every trendsetter wants to find is an innovator with the next big idea. But innovators can be hard to spot. There is often just one thing that sets them apart, one little thing that is revolutionary.

I knew Jen was an innovator when I saw the shoelaces on her black runners.

Are you an innovator, a trendsetter, or a consumer?

Maybe you are not on the cool pyramid at all. Maybe you are one of the others. People who want to destroy this system. Most people think such groups don’t exist. But I know they do. They are called the Jammers, and they are all around you too. Their agenda is to make trendsetting obsolete. They want the cool system to become so yesterday.

Jen and I have met them. This is that story.

Booktalk by Tom Reynolds, Sno-Isle Library System  Washington Evergreen Young Adult Book Award nominee, 2006-2007