Peyton - This character is an interesting one for me because she's so much of my anxieties from my Millennial childhood. She's been revised to be focused mostly on mine, and many other young people's, struggles with body image and the desire to be appealing to a wide audience. Her evolution represents a  monstrous version that people can become once they leave the outcast space and enter into something more conventionally appealing.

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Grace - She's the mom that is that manifestation of easy perfection on the outside, complete with a sweet, but lightly indulgent personality towards her child. I wanted her to act as the concerned parent that means well, but can't reign things in once they get out of control. 

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Justin - We've seen all those 80s, 90s, and early 00s teen heartthrob types in romcoms forever. And I think most of us can agree that a lot of those guys are absolutely terrible. He's the unrepentant version of all of them. And while that may make his character a little less nuanced, I wanted him to give the audience a character to shamelessly hate on without having to make excuses for some gray area that influences his actions. 

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Marcus - This guy is one of the more challenging characters for me to land on. He can best be summarized as the monkey's paw in a horrible fairytale. He knows Peyton's body image struggle, but he comes from a different position. While he doesn't mean to do evils upon her, his enabling comes with warnings that are ignored. At one point, I wanted him to be the dark horse romantic interest, but that was cut in favor of driving home the point of being careful about letting one's demons win. 

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Chloe - On the surface, she comes off as being the top tier, red Heather type mean girl. And she is, in a way, but in a more honest rendition. She says what's on her mind with no filter, including her intentions to get with Peyton's crush. The audience should wonder why Peyton keeps any of these girls around, but that's the point with each of the frienemies. This one is the easiest to read and the one that's simple to outplay.

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Ellie - I see Ellie as green Heather if she were more honest. If Chloe is the open mean girl, Ellie is the president of the Chloe hater club as well as being she who moves in the shadows. I wanted her to come across as someone who thinks she's above everything, and is Diaria esque in her nonchalance. But she's certainly not the smartest or the most duplicitous. 

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Stella - Stella got reworked a couple of times, but I like where she landed in her personality. She's the one that I designed for the audience to hate the most. She's the fake nice friend. Everyone has likely had one of those in their lives. This is the one that says the right things to someone's face while outplaying them to get ahead. She's the most cunning. On the surface she's inspired by yellow Heather, but deep down she's Regina George.