Stargirl wins a public speaking competition, the Arizona state oratorical contest. Stargirl really wanted to win the contest, which is unusual when you consider that she's not someone you'd normally think would be competitive. Indeed, Stargirl's lack of a competitive streak is one of the many things that sets her apart from the other students.

But when all's said and done, Stargirl's still a high school student, and like most high school students, she wants to be popular and to be accepted by her peers. She figures that winning the oratorical contest will be a surefire way of making her popular with her classmates, but it seems that poor Stargirl can't seem to catch a break—at least not with Dori, who resents Stargirl for what she sees as betraying her true self by turning into Susan, a regular high school student who just wants to be like everyone else.

Although Stargirl, in the persona of Susan, wins the contest as expected and ends up on the front page of the Arizona Republic, when she returns to school she's disappointed to see only two teachers and Dori are there to greet her. However, she's learned a valuable lesson from the whole experience: from now on, Stargirl will stop trying to be a regular student and start being herself once more.