Lady Business

"High School Debut" is by the same writer as "My Love Story," and deals with some of the same themes (e.g., finding romance even if you don't conform to the local high school ideal of what an attractive person of your gender is supposed to be like), except with a girl protagonist. The heroine is a tomboyish girl who was the star of her junior high school softball team, but tends not to get noticed by guys because she's clueless about fashion and doesn't act "cute." She manages to persuade the coolest guy in school to help her in her quest to find a boyfriend and achieve the kind of dating/romance experience more often seen in her beloved shoujo manga than in real life, with often hilarious results. The entire twelve- or thirteen-volume series was published by Viz several years ago, and is now being reprinted in two-volumes-combined-into-one omnibuses.

Other possibilities include "Ouran High School Host Club," "Otomen," and "Tramps Like Us." The latter is a josei (young adult women's) series about a high-achieving female journalist frustrated by sexism at work who lets a down-on-his-luck younger guy who reminds her of her childhood pet dog move in with her, then winds up discovering that it's a lot easier to have a relationship with someone who's already seen you with your hair down (both literally and figuratively) than it is with the supposed dream guy you have to constantly strive to impress.

All the volumes of all these have already been released in English. Unfortunately, "Tramps Like Us" was published by TokyoPop, which went out of business five or six years ago. So unless you can find it at a library that still has manga series that finished appearing before 2010 in its collection, it could be pretty difficult to track down. "Ouran High School Host Club" and "Otomen," on the other hand, were both published by Viz more recently. So all the volumes should still be in print and, hopefully, available through the public library.

Marfisa (who only has a Livejournal account)