Amanda Quinnell*

[Spindarene]

Name: Amanda Quinnell
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: fashion, fashion club, drawing, listening to pop music, math, basketball, sewing

Appearance: Amanda is Caucasian, 5'7" tall, and weighs 104 pounds, making her noticeably underweight. She has wavy blonde hair that reaches the middle of her back, and light blue eyes. She has pale skin and rarely suffers from acne.

Amanda's face is narrow, with sharp features. Her cheekbones stick out slightly. She usually wears either jeans or short skirts. She normally wears close-fitting, long-sleeved shirts, either in plain colors or in patterns. She's very rich and likes to show it by wearing designer clothes, perfume, make-up and bags. She pays very close attention to her appearance. She has pierced ears in which she always wears earrings, but has no other piercings.

Biography: Amanda was born on April 5, 1994. She was born in Seattle, and has lived there her whole life. Her mother, Patricia, abandoned her and her father, Robert, when Amanda was seven. They never knew for sure why she left, but they strongly suspect that it was because of an affair. Soon afterward, her father sank into a bad depression. It got to the point where he was borderline suicidal. Amanda's paternal grandparents took her in during her father's depression. They took care of her basic needs, but they were always distant, and didn't want to interact with her much. Amanda felt very confused and unwanted during that time. While her grandparents were never abusive, they felt like she was a burden to them, and that they'd rather not have her there. After all, they'd raised one child already, so why should they have to raise their granddaughter as well, especially at their age?

Six months later, her father's depression lessened to the point where he could take care of her again. Upon her return, her father began showering her with expensive gifts. As a successful doctor, her father was a very wealthy man. Amanda was very confused by this sudden display of affection, however, because for the previous six months she had believed that no one wanted her. Being a child, however, she soon took advantage of her father's money and his lack of discipline. Whatever she asked for, he gave her.

Because of this, Amanda grew up to be spoiled, judgmental, and somewhat mean, while being incredibly insecure about herself. While she didn't consciously know it, the time when she was staying with her grandparents during her father's depression had mentally traumatized her more than she would believe. This was also coupled with the fact that her mother had just left and she didn't quite know why her father left her with her grandparents. All these situations put together made her feel like she was unwanted, and she couldn't understand why. Even after she came back to live with her father, and even after he tried to make her feel like the most precious thing in the world, deep down she still felt like she was never good enough for anyone and that no one really liked or wanted her.

Her father also has huge insecurities about himself and his relationships with others. He gives her whatever she asks for, seemingly without asking for anything in return, but becomes incredibly passive aggressive whenever she talks about leaving, or if he feels like she's not giving him enough attention or gratitude. Amanda continues to be confused about her relationship with her father. Half the time, she's happy because he caters to her, and the other half of the time she feels trapped by him.

As she grew up, Amanda began to notice the difference between the rich and the poor. While her father said that they were just poor people, and that people were deserving of kindness regardless of their financial situation, Amanda thought that they must have done something wrong to be that poor. This, again, stemmed from Amanda's meanness and judgment of those around her because of her insecurities. While her father was fairly politically liberal, Amanda grew up to be surprisingly conservative. While her father supports universal health care, Amanda is of the opinion that her tax dollars shouldn't be spent on those who are too lazy to take care of themselves. She is ambivalent towards gay rights and abortion.

Amanda is very strict and self-conscious about appearance--not just hers, but everyone else's too. She pays special attention to clothes. She looks at if various clothes are in fashion, as well as how they suit the wearer. She is often quick to praise and criticize. She analyzes not only what she sees in terms of what's in style, but also researches to find what the top designers say. After high school, Amanda wants to go to fashion school and become a designer herself. Because of this, she's in the school fashion club. She has good drawing skills, which she uses frequently to draw clothes. The clothes she draws aren't original, but they always have something slightly different from other clothes, whether it's a different pattern or a slightly different cut.

Amanda also likes to sew clothes, although she never wears them because she is self-conscious about her work. Also, most of the other kids at her school don't wear hand-sewn clothes, so she thinks they're incredibly uncool to wear. She doesn't tell anyone at school about her passion for sewing. She doesn't discuss it with her father either, though she makes no effort to hide it from him.

Another thing that Amanda both likes and is good at is math. This is another hobby that she keeps to herself, because she doesn't think it's cool to like math. None of the popular people at her school do, and she thinks the people who are into math are the weird people that no one can relate to. Amanda excels in math class, but often pretends that she's worse than she is to fit in better with her peers.

Amanda also enjoys playing basketball and listening to pop music. She also likes classical music, but doesn't discuss it with anyone. She can't stand most popular rock, rap, and hip-hop music, but she pretends to like them to fit in. Pop music is her favorite type of music because she genuinely likes it, and it's cool so she doesn't have to pretend. She has her own private basketball hoop at home, and she often spends time shooting hoops alone. She finds the movements both physically releasing and relaxing. She often shoots hoops when she's angry or stressed to let off steam. She doesn't often play basketball with others, because while she likes the game itself, she doesn't have much patience with other people.

Although she doesn't consciously think about it much, Amanda is incredibly self-conscious and insecure. She always feels that people don't like her, and so she tries to make up for it by being skinny through constant dieting (almost to the point of having an eating disorder). She doesn't like to eat much because whenever she does she feels unbearably fat. She also tries to make up for her insecurities by wearing designer clothes, and being overall very picky about her appearance. She also tries to blend in with the popular people at her school, often pretending to like things that she doesn't, and not like things that she does. She's often judgmental and sometimes mean to other people, because that helps to cover up her own insecurities. Therefore, she doesn't have any close friends, but she does have acquaintances and light friends, most of whom are in the popular crowd in school. Sometimes she feels lonely, but tries to bury it behind her hobbies or under scorn for other people.

Amanda tries to do relatively well in school. She's very smart, and very good at academics, particularly math, science, and history. She doesn't like reading or writing. She can read reasonably well, but doesn't do it very often. She's bad at writing, and hates most forms of writing. She reads fashion and pop magazines, and she reads what she has to for school (she doesn't believe in using Cliff Notes), but other than that, she doesn't read. She's taken a couple of art classes, and does reasonably well in them, but generally does meaningless doodles when she's not drawing clothes.

Advantages: Amanda is smart and very physically observant. She can usually tell if something is as it's supposed to be or not. This comes from her constant observance of herself and other people, trying to make sure that everyone is looking how they should and doing things they should be doing. She is also somewhat physically fit.
Disadvantages: Amanda is very superficial, especially in terms of appearance. She's also very picky, to the point where she sometimes is distracted from important things because she's too busy worrying about trivial details. She is also very judgmental of other people, so she doesn't really have any close friends and may have alienated other students in the past.