It’s a dreary Thursday afternoon in early December at a Taco Bell in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. A table of two girls, in high school from the looks of it, lean over surreptitiously. “Oh my God, is that her?” one whispers to me, holding out her iPhone that’s lit up with an Instagram account.
I nod yes, and smile at my dining partner, 18-year-old actress Avantika Vandanapu (who goes professionally by just her first name). The girls have overheard our conversation and are a bit shocked to find themselves eating burritos next to the person set to appear as Karen in the much buzzed about new Mean Girls.
