Go from whiner to winner. (Life).

"School stinks!" "I hate my hair!" "My buds bore me!" Uh, get a life. Now when you've got a real complaint, here's how to get action!

Complain, complain, complain! We all know those people: They could have J. Lo's looks, Alexis Bledel's brains and Britney Spears' riches and still say, "Why me?!" And it's just downright annoying. But the truth is that complaining isn't always necessarily a bad thing--especially when you've got a legitimate gripe about a situation.

What counts as a legit gripe? Say someone promises you something and doesn't follow through. Or takes advantage of you. Or simply disses you. Then complaining is definitely the right thing to do. Complaining when you should shows your strong sense of self-respect, confidence and serious girl power. Here s how to complain in a way that will make people sit up and listen to what you're saying--and right the wrong.

PICK AND CHOOSE. The first key to successful complaining? Doing it only when it's appropriate. Take Natalie, 13: "My friends and I were at a diner and the waitress brought me a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie instead of the cherry I'd ordered. She looked so busy, I thought it would be really rude of me to send it back."

Sure, there are times when cutting someone a break is the right thing to do. Like, when your BFF hikes it all the way to 7-Eleven and accidentally brings you back a cola Slurpee instead of a cherry cola Slurpee. That's no time to tell her she'd better make a return trip! She was doing you a favor.

But when Natalie is paying good money for the pie she ordered, she should have nicely drawn the waitress' attention to the prob and politely asked her to fix it: "Oops! You mistakenly brought me the strawberry-rhubarb instead of the cherry. Could you please exchange it? Thanks!"

Why do girls like Natalie fail to speak up in the first place? Lots of girls don't want to make waves, because they want to be thought of as "nice," and "nice girls don't complain." Or they think they must be the ones who screwed up ("I must have said 'strawberry rhubarb"').

Hooey! What many girls see as un-nice" is actually a lack of self-esteem and confidence. But the fact is, just because you're young and a girl, it doesn't mean you have any less right to getting what you want. You can be perfectly nice, but that doesn't have to come at the expense of eating strawberry-rhubarb pie!

"WHY, YOU @$!#$!" The second step to airing your complaints is to do it tactfully. Emily, 13, recently got the OK from her 'rents to go to the party of the year. But two days before the big night, they totally changed their minds and told Emily she had to go to Aunt Flossie's picnic instead.

Says Emily, "I was crazy-angry, but I knew getting mad at them wouldn't get me anywhere--except in big trouble! So I calmly reminded them of their promise. My parents always make me live up to my word so I asked them to live up to theirs. And it worked!"

When something unfair happens, many of us are tempted to go off ("I did not order this disgusting the worst parents ever!"). Ahhh, that feels sooo good--temporarily. But if you want to actually fix the problem, hold off on the fireworks. Attacking, blaming or being downright mean doesn't inspire anyone to make things right.

GETTING YOUR WAY. How to wrap things up successfully? Simply, ask for a resolution. That means it's time to get specific. When speaking up to someone who wronged you, you should articulate exactly how you expect her to fix it.

Say the clerk at your favorite store forgets to give you the back-to-school discount for that fab sweater you bought. Instead of sucking it up (urn, 20 bucks equals about four hours of babysitting torture) or freaking out ("You ripped me off.), point out the mistake and ask for your cashola: "Oh, I got this off the back-to-school table, it should be 50 percent less. Don't worry--I have time to wait while you re-ring it."

The bottom line? Champion complainers know how to get what they deserve. So next time someone cuts you off in line or weasels out of a deal, put your new skills into action.. . and complain with killer confidence!