"The Carrie Diaries": Candace Bushnell Penning SATC Prequels

NEW YORK — Meet Carrie Bradshaw, in her teenage years.

"Sex and the City" author Candace Bushnell is writing a pair of teen novels, "The Carrie Diaries," that "takes readers back to Carrie Bradshaw's formative years in high school, giving an inside look at Carrie's friendships, romances and how she realized her dream of becoming a writer," HarperCollins announced Wednesday.

The first book will come out in 2010. Bushnell, in a statement issued by her publisher, said, "Carrie in high school did not follow the crowd _ she led it. It was there that she began observing and commenting on the social scene."

Bushnell's adventures of Carrie and her Manhattan pals were adapted into the hit HBO series starring Sarah Jessica Parker and a feature film that came out this year. Her fifth novel, "One Fifth Avenue," is coming out this month.