Stephanie "Steph" McKinney

[Badb*]

Name: Stephanie "Steph" Georgia McKinney
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: Senior
School: Aurora High
Hobbies and Interests: Drama Club, Music, Reading, Math.

Appearance: For most of her school life, Stephanie was both one of the youngest and one of the shortest girls in her year. Thanks to a growth spurt during puberty, she now stands comfortably at 5'5 and weighs a healthy 139 lbs, with most of her weight in her hips and abdomen, much to her continued annoyance. Steph is Caucasian, with one-quarter central-european heritage coming from her maternal grandfather. She avoids fake tanning, choosing to stay fairly pale for three-quarters of the year. In summer, however, she generally maintains a natural, if uneven, tan.  

Stephanie has a thin face with a soft jawline. Her most prominent, and most disliked, feature is her large, sharp nose, which separates large hazel eyes that are almost never seen without a ring of black or purple mascara surrounding them. Her naturally chestnut-brown hair has been almost every color under the rainbow at least once, though she has currently has settled on a dark red pixie cut. Despite a fairly unhealthy diet, Stephanie's face has been kept mercifully free of blemishes, with the exception of a small, hard to notice scar on the right side of her chin. She has occasionally debated getting a piercing through her eyebrow, or her lips, but the only piercings she currently wears are two small rings through the lobe of her right ear, which is usually covered by her hair.

Though never lacking in confidence, Steph mainly for comfort in school, but doesn't actively avoid trying to follow fashion or looking presentable in general. She tends to favour acid-washed jeans or brightly coloured skirts with varying colored tights around school, matching them with gray or aqua tees in colder months, and shades of red and orange in the warmer months. She uses winter as an excuse to wear one of her seemingly endless supply of patterned scarves. Regardless of the weather, she usually wears her trusty black Vans skate shoes, and an ever-growing number of colored wristbands.

Biography: Stephanie McKinney- or Steph as she prefers- was born the only child of Graham and Alyssa McKinney, an architect and a housewife respectively, in Seattle, Washington. The couple had both lived in Seattle for as long as they could remember, and had been dating since high school, but they had waited until they were financially stable enough before having children. As such, they were in their mid-thirties when Alyssa fell pregnant with their first child.

Growing up, Steph was a very loud, active child, who had relatively little trouble interacting with other children, though her loudness was seen by many as off-putting. As such, whilst she has a large group of acquaintances, there are very few people that can stand to be around her at length. She does, however, maintain a small circle of close friends. Due to this, she rarely found herself involved in any events; she never had much of an interest in clubs, and no one ever sent her invitations to things, so she spent most of her mornings and arternoons watching cartoons and immersing herself in the culture of the early 2000s. She developed a keen interest in music, even if her taste was questionable: pop groups such as Destiny's Child and S Club 7, and occasional novelty acts such as the Crazy Frog, and O-Zone. Steph is aware of her tendency to rub people the wrong way, and has made attempts at fixing her behaviour numerous times, but generally falls back into her old ways before long.

Stephanie also spent a great portion of her childhood reading, and though she doesn't read as much as she used to, she continues to read to this day. Throughout her childhood and adolescence, her taste in novels changed as much as her hair color did through high school. Stephanie remains consistant in liking a few major series- the Harry Potter books in particular- but her tastes shifted between what was currently popular for her age range and what she found rummaging around in bookstores. She primarily enjoys fantasy novels, though she has a soft spot for romance novels. When she entered high school, Stephanie signed up for the Book Club as soon as she could, and has stayed a member until the present day.

In school, you'd be hard pressed to find a teacher with bad things to say about Stephanie. She tries to be a good student, even if she doesn't particularly enjoy the subject, and though she struggles in more writing-based subjects such as English, she excels at Math, as well as Drama. Finding that she had a talent for acting, Stephanie joined the Drama Club at the insistence of one of her teachers, and for a couple of years toyed with the idea of becoming an actress.

This focus on her schoolwork is due in part to her father's influence. Very much an academic himself, he wanted his daughter to be much the same. As soon as Steph started high school, he made sure his daughter studied after school, got her homework done several days before it was due, and made sure she signed up for as many extra curricular clubs as she could be a part of. The effect of this was that Steph quickly became overworked, easily stressed, and incredibly irritable. The more lasting effect was straining Steph's relationship with both of her parents. They frequently argued, and Steph began doing things that she knew her parents disapproved of, dyeing her hair radical colors and hanging out with stoners- despite her own lack of interest in the drug.

This culminated in a long and emotional argument with her parents mid-way through her junior year, after Stephanie's grades began to slip from a A/B average to a C/D average. After the argument, her parents began to realise that their daughter was being overworked, and slowly begun took off the pressure they were putting on her to succeed. Stephanie entered her senior year far more relaxed than she had ever been and quickly worked her grade back up to a B/C average, and looks to graduate with a GPA of 3.0.

Advantages: Stephanie isn't the easiest person to get along with, but she hasn't made very many enemies over the course of her school life. At the same time, she is a keen actor and could use this to her advantage in the game.
Disadvantages: Steph is used to eating a lot and isn't the most athletic person to begin with, so when exhaustion and malnutrition begins to set in, she'll suffer hard. Steph is still very easily agitated and in a high-stress environment such as SotF, she could very easily suffer a breakdown. Steph isn't very good at making friends, which could translate into a lack of allies on the island.