In the 9/7/10 issue of Digest, GH’s Brianna Brown (Lisa) shared some of her high school memories. Here, the actress reveals more about her pre-soap past.
Alma Mater: Apple Valley High School, Apple Valley, MN
Soap Opera Digest: Were you ever named Homecoming Queen?
Brianna Brown: [laughs] No, I was never in the Homecoming court. People liked me but I wasn’t popular. I did my own thing. I had friends but I was so focused on school and my bajillion activities, I wasn’t going to the parties.
Digest: Any special activities?
Brown: I taught drug education to sixth graders my senior year in a program called DP, which was Developmental Psychology. That was my first time leading groups of people, so that was cool.
Digest: School plays?
Brown: And school plays. My other highlight was the time I went to the sister school of Apple Valley which was called The Zoo School. They nicknamed it Zoo School but it was the School Of Environmental Studies. It was focused around how our environment affects everything. It was very progressive. How you did for all four classes became one grade. It was a very different structure and setup.
Digest: Favorite school subjects?
Brown: I was pretty strong in my subjects, but I didn’t like math much. I just didn’t see the point, like, “When was I going to use all this [laughs]?”
Digest: What about the prom?
Brown: Which prom [laughs]? I didn’t go my freshman year but I went every year after that. And even after that. My best friend was dating a guy a year younger than her and she said, “Brianna will you go with one of my boyfriend’s friends?” and I was like, “All right, because I love you and you’re my best friend, I will go with you to his prom after I’ve graduated,” which was a total trip.
Digest: Favorite prom memory?
Brown: I was always big on the dresses. I got my dresses at this place called The Pageant Shop, which is where the pageant girls would go and get dresses — and they’d reserve it for you so nobody else could have the same dress as you that went to your school.
Digest: High school sweethearts?
Brown: I had a couple of boyfriends but nobody for a long period of time.
Digest: How would you describe yourself then?
Brown: I certainly wasn’t a mean girl. I guess I was more of a goody two-shoes [laughs]. I was good in gym class. I was athletic. I liked competing and running the mile and things like that.
Digest: No urge to be bad?
Brown: Not me. I didn’t drink at all in high school. I didn’t smoke. I didn’t do any of those things. I was really quite straight-laced. My only thing was sometimes I would leave class and walk around. If I got asked, “Where are you going?” I’d say choir lessons. That was my riskiest thing and because people knew I did well in school, they never questioned it. I knew what I could get away with [laughs].
Digest: Well, you were no Lisa.
Brown: That’s for sure [laughs]!
