History Main / SchoolIdol

* Series/Riverdale: Josie [=McCoy=].

* Series/BeverlyHills90210: Dylan McKay.

* Series/Riverdale: Josie McCoy.

* ''Series/NobutaWoProduce'' is about a school idol who works really hard to keep up this image until he starts hanging out with [[ThoseTwoGuys those two weird kids]], one of whom he is trying to turn into a school idol as well. At some point he ends up falling from his idol position spectacularly, but in compensation he learns ThePowerOfFriendship or something.

Storywise, if the school idol is a secondary character, he or she is likely to be a LoveInterest, most likely in a SingleGirlSeeksMostPopularGuy setting; if (s)he's the main character, the story usually revolves around his or her struggles to keep up [[StepfordSmiler the perfect facade]].

This trope is frequent in Japanese media, where the character is often an {{Ojou}}, functioning as something of a School Princess. While the notion of "most popular student(s)" exists in the standard Western HighSchool setting as well, {{Alpha Bitch}}es and {{Jerk Jock}}s are generally portrayed [[PopularIsDumb in a much less positive light]], and as such rarely have a similar cult of personality to the school idol. A possibly helpful distinction: is the student an ''idol'' (as in, is he or she ''idolized''?), or "merely" wildly popular?

* Benibara is the most popular girl at the Lobelia Girls' Academy, TheRival to ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. [[SchoolgirlLesbians The girls]] at the school have T-shirts and everything, as though she were an actual celebrity.

* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret'' has [[TheOjou Haruka Nogizaka]], who is an idol at her school. She's an otaku but hides it out of fear of a repeat of the humiliation she suffered at middle school, where she was an idol until then. Her little sister, Mika Nogizaka, who attends an all-girls middle school, is an idol there.

Not to be confused with the characters in the ''Anime/LoveLive'' franchise, which features competing high school IdolSinger clubs, who are also referred to in universe as "School Idols". See also TeenIdol, and compare BigManOnCampus for more gender specific versions.

Not to be confused with the characters in the ''Anime/LoveLive'' franchise, which features competing high school IdolSinger clubs, who are also referred to in universe as "School Idols". See also TeenIdol.

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* ''LightNovel/Gamers2015''—which shares an author with and is set in the same universe as the above-mentioned ''Student Council’s Discretion''—has two characters with this status. The first is ParodySue Karen Tendō, who starts out as this but becomes a BrokenAce and loses her perfect reputation once her infatuation with the main protagonist consumes her thoughts to the point that it disrupts her ordered daily life. The second is Konoha Hoshinomori, Karen’s UnknownRival who is the StudentCouncilPresident of the aforementioned Hekiyō’s 37th student council. While it’s one of Konoha’s proudest achievements, it’s also soured by the widely-held perception that Karen would have taken that place instead had she not chosen to attend Otobuki to join its Game Club.

Not to be confused with the characters in the ''Anime/LoveLive'' franchise, which features competing high school IdolSinger clubs. See also TeenIdol.

* The whole student council in ''LightNovel/StudentCouncilsDiscretion'' is more or less this as the members are chosen via popularity poll, except for the MC.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' deconstructs this in an interesting way; most of its female party members have character archetypes that would traditionally slot them in for this trope, but are instead social outcasts for those reasons. Ann Takamaki is a quarter-white part-time model whose exotic beauty just makes her the target of multiple undesirable rumors, Makoto Niijima is the intelligent and studious StudentCouncilPresident who's seen by her schoolmates as nothing more than a TeachersPet and AcademicAlphaBitch, and Haru Okumura is the wealthy heiress who has trouble connecting with others precisely because she realizes most people are only interested in her for her family's wealth. ''VideoGame/Persona5Royal'' adds in Kasumi Yoshizawa, the hard working, sporty NewTransferStudent who is shunned by the school for her scholarship. [[spoiler:Due to a nasty cocktail of anxiety, inferiority complex, and DeadPersonImpersonation of her sister, the real Kasumi, the school is also rightly convinced she's not in her right mind.]]

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': Louis the deer is the single most popular senior student in Cherryton. Leader and star actor of the drama club, always acting confident, and followed around by fangirls, he serves as a {{foil}} to the awkward, introverted wolf protagonist Legosi.

* Miki Nakayama from ''Hakaiou Noritaka''. Strong yet beautiful. She is the desire of every male in her high school including the protagonist. Though she is more noticed for her busty chest as both the star of the boxing team and even the male judo team just want to get close to her bosoms.Even the black boxer Ken Jackson considers making out with her after his fight with the protagonist.

* ''LightNovel/NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu'' has [[TheOjou Nogizaka Haruka]], who is an idol at her school. She's an otaku but hides it out of fear of a repeat of the humiliation she suffered at middle school, where she was an idol until then. Her little sister, Nogizaka Mika, who attends an all-girls middle school, is an idol there.

* The whole student council in ''LightNovel/SeitokaiNoIchizon'' is more or less this as the members are chosen via popularity poll, except for the MC.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'':

* Ayaka from ''Manga/AnoKiss'' has quite a few similarities to Rin Tohsaka, being always pretty, talented, kind and helpful at school but lacking any sort of tact outside of it. It comes partly from her mother expecting her to be a perfect student and putting an unreasonable pressure on her, but she's proud of being the school idol nonetheless (hence her distress when [[BrilliantButLazy Yurine]] beats her in the score ranking). Chapter 22 lampshades that even if she's number 2 in grades, everyone still loves her, while Yurine is gifted but too socially inept to qualify.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' deconstructs this in an interesting way; most of its female party members have character archetypes that would traditionally slot them in for this trope, but are instead social outcasts for those reasons. Ann Takamaki is a quarter-white part-time model whose exotic beauty just makes her the target of multiple undesirable rumors, Makoto Niijima is the intelligent and studious StudentCouncilPresident who's seen by her schoolmates as nothing more than a TeachersPet and AcademicAlphaBitch, and Haru Okumura is the wealthy heiress who has trouble connecting with others precisely because she realizes most people are only interested in her for her family's wealth.

* ''Manga/DearBrother'' actually has ''three'' school idols, who are known around Seiran Academy as "the Three Magnificent Ones". The first is StudentCouncilPresident Fukiko "Miya-sama" Ichinomiya, an elegant and beautiful [[spoiler: and very unstable]] {{Ojou}}; the second is [[spoiler: Fukiko's half-sister]] Rei "Hana no Saint-Juste" Asaka, a kind yet troubled {{Bifauxnen}} who's also a musician and ex-sportswoman; and the third is Kaoru "Kaoru no Kimi" Orihara, a sports idol {{Ladette}} and the ClassRepresentative for Nanako's class.

* Taro Hanaukyo in ''Anime/HanaukyoMaidTai'', as the recent inheritor of the fabulous Hanaukyo fortune, has a lot of servants (most of whom appear to genuinely be fond of him as opposed to just sucking up to the boss) who do everything they can to make him instantly popular at his new school by making him appear to be a star athlete, genius student, etc.

* ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'':
** The original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' has Eriko Kirishima, one of the more popular girls at St. Hermelin thanks to her beauty and amiable personality.

* ''Manga/OniisamaE'' actually has ''three'' school idols, who are known around Seiran Academy as "the Three Magnificent Ones". The first is StudentCouncilPresident Fukiko "Miya-sama" Ichinomiya, an elegant and beautiful [[spoiler: and very unstable]] {{Ojou}}; the second is [[spoiler: Fukiko's half-sister]] Rei "Hana no Saint-Juste" Asaka, a kind yet troubled {{Bifauxnen}} who's also a musician and ex-sportswoman; and the third is Kaoru "Kaoru no Kimi" Orihara, a sports idol {{Ladette}} and the ClassRepresentative for Nanako's class.

* The guys from ''Manga/YamatoNadeshikoShichiHenge''. Kyohei is a total jerk, but the other three aren't as prickly as he is and every bit as popular.

* The [[OneGenderedSchool Fujimori High]] of ''Manga/PrincessPrincess'' has a "Princess" system, in which the prettiest students are made to dress up like girls and fill in school functions (such as sport events and festivals) to entertain the other guys. Princesses are, for all intent and purposes, treated as celebrities, and are given numerous student benefits, such as a private bathroom, free meals and royalties for their troubles.

%%* ''Manga/PrincessPrincess'' features three boys who are idolized at their all-boys school as "Princesses".

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': [[AlphaBitch Chloé]] ''thinks'' she's this, frequently insisting that "everybody loves me" and apparently being deluded enough to actually believe it, but in actuality almost the entire school hates her for being a petty bully. [[SpoiledSweet Adrien]] is a much straighter example, but as he's the {{deuteragonist}} of the show, a lot of focus is placed on his BrokenAce status and fixation on pleasing [[AbusiveParents his father]].