Betty Dixon

[Sunnybunny]

Name: Betty Dixon
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Ballet, Photography, Fighting Games, Hip-hop dancing, Fashion by proxy

Appearance: Betty is 5’2” and 148 pounds, and carries most of her weight in her hips and thighs. Her frame is pear-shaped with a slight bust, and she has a bit of a belly, though her fleshiness belies the muscle she’s built up in her legs from a lifetime of dance. While Betty is African-American, her skin tone is beige with yellow undertones, leading people to assume her racial background is different at first glance. Her natural hair color being dark red does little to dissuade people of the notion, she keeps it permed straight and styled in a side-swept undercut. Her face is square, with large, wide hazel eyes and a snub nose. She has a heavy top lip, and frequently wears shimmering coral lip gloss, and pink decorative glasses that she does not need. She has dimples in both cheeks, which are especially prominent when she smiles. Her voice is high-pitched, and borders on shrill if she’s especially angry.

Betty’s style is a mix of casual streetwear and baggier clothes, and is frequently seen in overalls of all shades and materials. She wears a pink scrunchie on her right wrist, and much of her wardrobe is in various shades of pink. Her footwear tends to be more for comfort than style, and she wears Crocs and boat shoes frequently. While she isn’t especially into fashion for her own sake, she has clothes in many other styles due to her close friends affection for dressing up.

Biography: Betty Dixon was born April 11th, 2003 to Odelle and Marcus Dixon in Salem, Massachusetts. Marcus owned a plumbing company which was relatively successful, leaving Odelle to be a stay-at-home mother to Betty. Four years later, the couple had a son named Benjamin and decided their family was complete. While Odelle had some difficultly adjusting to the care of multiple children, the strain was eased by the two siblings having a incredibly close relationship. While Marcus was a loving father, his work tended to leave him drained, leaving most of the actual raising of the children to Odelle's judgement.

As soon as Betty was old enough, her mother decided to put her in a youth program in the hopes it would focus her energy. While she tried softball and soccer briefly, she found her chosen niche in dance. At the age of six, she began pre-ballet classes at Boston Ballet. She took to it well, and frequently told her parents that she was going to grow up and be a ballerina. Neither parent took her declaration seriously, but were happy she had found something that she cared so much about at such a young age.

School-wise, Betty was an average student, giving a solid effort while in class but not pushing herself much outside of it. Her conduct, however, left much to be desired. She was a defiant girl at times, both to her teacher and to other students. Fortunately, the threat of being taken out of her class stemmed the worst of her behavior. Her relationship with her classmates wasn't the best for years due to her past behavior, which she took in stride. Despite her troubles making friends, she had her brother back home. Her lack of close friendships outside the family continued until her third grade year, where she was placed in a class with four other girls who happened to share her first name. While that was only the catalyst for a connection, it persisted and proved true.

Betty took ballet very seriously, passing up chances to spend time with her newfound friends in favor of classes, and even spending less time playing with her brother at home. While her instructor was a calm person, Betty's intensity about reaching her goal made her more stressed than she would be otherwise. Moreover, she felt that many of her classmates were better than her. Some started earlier, and others were simply very talented. To compensate for her perceived failings, she worked as hard as she could, which wasn't a burden in her eyes as she truly enjoyed getting better. As time went on, both parents grew concerned about how fixated she was on her hobby.

In the fifth grade, while running in a relay race during gym, Betty fell and sprained her ankle severely. This forced her to slow down, and during this time she spent much more time with her loved ones. Her brother had gotten into video games, as he hadn't been put in anything extracurricular, and the two spent lots of time playing them together. While Benjamin beat her frequently due to her lack of experience, she was just happy to hang out with him. When he decided he wanted to get good at fighting games, Betty focused on improving as well so he could have someone to compete properly against. Her relationship with her friends grew more tight-knit as well, as she had more free time to spend with them, and the lawn games they began to get into required nothing from her but the willingness to play. While she eagerly awaited when she'd be cleared for physical activity, Betty wished that they could keep spending this much time together. She was both sad and grateful that none of them shared her interest in dance, as she didn't want to feel she had to compete with them.

Recovery from her injury wasn't easy, due to the constant temptation of wanting to keep up with her ballet. She reasoned that putting too much stress on her ankle before it could handle it would only lead to her damaging it in a more permanent way, and chose to focus on range-of-motion and strengthening exercises instead. She put as much effort into getting better as she did in dance, and kept up with practicing the five arm positions as she could do those safely. Her grades grew better as well, though she still didn't have much interest in what she was learning. Still, things seemed to be falling into place for her, and Betty was happy.

Four months after her injury, she was cleared to dance again, only to discover another issue. The early onset of puberty had changed her body rapidly in ways she didn't appreciate. Her body type was no longer just like her peers, and wasn't the ideal for a career dancer. To her frustration, neither of her parents seemed to understand the seriousness of her dilemma. Attempting to lose weight was an option, but she feared that would ultimately weaken her. While she worked as hard as she always had, she simply couldn't make herself look perfectly coordinated with the other ballerinas due to her shape, something that would give her body issues that lingered. Once she graduated middle school, she made the decision to leave ballet behind, going to a dance school in Salem and changing to hip-hop dancing.

During the transition period, Betty forced herself to try to mellow out and take things a little less seriously. She adopted a few more of her brother's hobbies, and often joined her friends on their shopping trips. They all were more interested and comfortable with exploring fashion, but despite her private misgivings about her body she played along. This trend of not being entirely honest with her close friends to avoid burdening them extended to her feelings about her lost dream, which she played off as something she'd gotten bored with. Betty found herself snapping pictures for the girls enough times that she eventually got her own camera. While she's not as focused on it as other interests, she can reliably take a good photo in any scenario and works for the school newspaper.

Due to her friend's various associations, she found herself on the fast track to popularity, something that she personally didn't care about a whole lot. Still, it felt good to share this with them, and it boosted her confidence when people saw the five of them as a unit. Betty wasn't prone to conflicts on her own, but the group had a few power struggles and she always supported them. The only time she didn't act in their best interests was when she felt they were pulling away from her due to a romantic relationship. Betty occasionally planted the seeds for conflict, always in a subtle way, and waited for it to inevitably end in a dissolved relationship. If no one took the bait, she would leave it alone, and otherwise she was perfectly kind with anyone that might come around. She didn't pursue romance herself, but did have a brief streak of sleeping around with some classmates. She does still have a few people she still hooks up with, but she's discreet and keeps that from the group unless they ask.

Betty has a solid B average with the occasional A and C, and is more engaged with her classes than she was in her younger years. Her favorite subject is earth science, especially oceanography, as she feels it has depth. Her performance in grades isn't her primary focus, but she's aware that she does need to make an effort to attempt to be able to get scholarships as she'd prefer for her parents to be able to pay for her brother's schooling if need be. She started working on college applications as soon as she possibly could, and is waiting to hear back from a number of schools. She communicates with the guidance counselor frequently, and did so even through the pandemic.

During the pandemic, both her and her brother had to stay with friends for a time as their father caught COVID-19. Luckily, the worst of his symptoms was brainfog and severe fatigue, but Betty was terrified and stressed out with the thought she might lose her father. While she was honest enough to actually let her friends in emotionally about this, she also got a great feel of comfort by being a part of the fighting game community online. Letting herself be competitive at something that ultimately didn't matter felt good, and while she isn't toxic she does talk trash. The isolation from her dance classes gave her both the time and inclination to choreograph her own routines. While she doesn't post them online, she's recorded them, and a teacher at her dance school has taught her students one of Betty's routines.

Deep down, Betty is still heartbroken about not being able to pursue ballet seriously anymore. She tends to get angry about body positivity social movements online, feeling that simply accepting yourself without facing the realities of your health and how society sees you sets people up for failure. Her brother is aware of this, and has convinced her to apply to dance programs for college. Having auditions happen during the pandemic has helped her keep this a secret from her parents, as she was able to simply record them from the dance studio.

While Betty is quietly stressed about being able to spend as much time as she can with the people she cares about for her last year of school, that worry is eased a little bit by Benjamin entering JEM as a freshman. She uses her influence to make sure people don't mistreat him, but is otherwise still not very concerned with her social status. When not around her friends, she has a reputation as rather dorky, thanks to her babbling manner of speech and nervous energy. She does have decent relationships with people other than her core group of friends, though she doesn't feel she has the time to deepen them even if she would like to. She's much closer with her parents because of the events of the quarantine, though she's not home with them very much.

Advantages: Betty is very realistic about her own abilities, and is not likely to put herself in a situation she can't handle. She is capable of duplicity even with people she cares for deeply. Thanks to a lifetime of dance, she has endurance and athletic capability that many people wouldn't suspect from her.
Disadvantages: Betty has made a few enemies by association due to her friendships. While she does have a pretty certain group of allies, she tends not to burden them, and this might not change even in a scenario as dire as the island. She is not the most effective verbal communicator, which doesn't bode well for her ability to connect with potential allies or dissuade attackers.

[backslash]

Hi Sunny! Betty #5 is also looking quite good but temporarily DENIED pending some editing and expansion.

Having her indulge in fashion because her friends are into it is fine, but I wouldn't list it as a hobby or interest if it's not something that actually interests her. Unless there is something about it that she actually enjoys and would lead her to explore that interest on her own, I'd say remove from the hobbies & interests list.

How long is Betty's hair? We have a style, color, and texture, but not length.

I'd like more elaboration on Betty's photography hobby and participation in the school newspaper, as this is only given a single sentence mention. I'd also like to know how she still interacts with ballet as an interest; she switched from ballet to hip-hop at the beginning of high school and doesn't appear to have done anything further with ballet personally, so what qualifies this as an ongoing interest? Is she interested in pursuing something related to ballet without being a dancer?

Why has Betty tried to keep it a secret from her parents that she auditioned for college dance programs? They seem supportive of her participation in dance, even if they don't take it as seriously as she does.

Spelling/grammar:

While she isn’t especially into fashion for her own sake, she has clothes in many other styles due to her close friends' affection for dressing up.

Due to her friends' various associations, she found herself on the fast track to popularity, something that she personally didn't care about a whole lot.

While she was honest enough to actually let her friends in emotionally about this, she also got a great feel of comfort by being a part of the fighting game community online.

I think that "a great feel" should either be "a great deal" or "a great feeling" here.

That should be it, so post in here when you've made those edits, and I'll take a look at Betty again!

[backslash]

This character biography has had no alterations for more than two weeks and has been put in the abandoned characters forum. This profile is eligible for resubmission by the handler upon alterations requested by the staff.