But most popular kids don't get that kind of free ride. They have to work at being popular. ^ The sentence immediately after the one you quoted. Being good loo

But most popular kids don't get that kind of free ride. They have to work at being popular. ^ The sentence immediately after the one you quoted. Being good looking, a natural athlete, or a sibling of a popular kid is a way to be popular WITHOUT doing anything, that is, without doing all the dumb stuff that all the other people have to do to be popular. Hence he's not implying that good-looking or athletic people are automatically doing dumb stuff, but rather, they get out of doing it based on their looks or athletic ability. The ugly, nonathletic people are presumably the ones who would have to do a lot of dumb things to work their way to being popular.