History Characters / TheBabySittersClub

* {{Womanchild}}: She needs her daughter to take care of her and she is very disorganized to the point of leaving her shoes in the fridge.

** Sharon is known for being a messy and absent-minded Cloudcuckoolander while Dawn is way more mature.

* {{Womanchild}}: She needs her daughter to take care of her and she very disorganized to the point of leaving her shoes in the fridge.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In New York, after being diagnosed with diabetes (and therefore missing a lot of school and losing all her friends due to the issues she had, including [[PottyFailure an accident at a sleepover]]. It's the main reason why she and her family moved to Stoneybrook in the first place. Stacey does manage to repair her friendship with Laine Cummings, but even after she moves back to New York she's never really accepted back into that social circle. One of the major reasons she decides to move back to Stoneybrook after her parents get divorced is that Laine is her only friend in New York, while in Stoneybrook she has the club. (And later she falls out with Laine.)

* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: Claudia's books for a long time were titled ''Claudia and [Noun Phrase]''. The first one to avert this was #56, ''Keep Out, Claudia!'', her ninth narrated title. Out of the books she narrates in the main series, fourteen out of twenty-one books--two-thirds--have this title styling, which can be very noticeable if a reader focuses on Claudia-focused books. There's two more that have the pattern in the ''Forever Friends'' series.

* BrattyHalfPint: She's quite bossy, talkative, and loves to scare people.

* SpoiledBrat: She somewhat fits this trope

* PutOnABus: She moves back to California for good in ''Farewell, Dawn''; unlike Stacey, she does not return to stay though she visits and narrates a few books before becoming one of the major narrators of the ''Literature/CalifornaiDiaries'' series.

In ''Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout'', she's breifly sent back to the seventh grade, and returned to the eighth grade with her friends in ''Claudia Makes Up Her Mind''.

Introduced in ''Mary Anne Saves the Day'', Dawn is the alternate officer of the club. Originally from California, Dawn moves to her mother's hometown of Stoneybrook when her parents divorce. She becomes fast friends with Mary Anne, which makes Kristy extremely jealous. She is identified throughout the series as being a very casual, individual health-food nut, though this was retooled in later books to place the emphasis more on environmental activism and strict vegetarianism, rather than simply being into health food. Her mother and Mary Anne's father marry in ''Mary Anne and the Great Romance''. Later in the series, she grows increasingly homesick, and moves back to California to live with her dad and younger brother for six months in ''Dawn's Big Move,'', returns in the special ''Here comes' the Bridesmaids!'' and moves back permanently in ''Farewell, Dawn''.

Introduced in ''Mary Anne Saves the Day'', Dawn is the alternate officer of the club. Originally from California, Dawn moves to her mother's hometown of Stoneybrook when her parents divorce. She becomes fast friends with Mary Anne, which makes Kristy extremely jealous. She is identified throughout the series as being a very casual, individual health-food nut, though this was retooled in later books to place the emphasis more on environmental activism and strict vegetarianism, rather than simply being into health food. Her mother and Mary Anne's father marry in ''Mary Anne and the Great Romance''. Later in the series, she grows increasingly homesick, and moves back to California to live with her dad and younger brother in ''Dawn's Big Move''.

** In ''Dawn and the We Love Kids Club''. She was so upset by her father deciding to remarry that she ''steals his credit card and flies back to Connecticut alone''. Considering her dad ''does'' break up with his fiancee shortly afterward (though they do eventually get married, see below) and that Dawn practically threw her mother at ''her'' second spouse, yeah.
** In ''Here Come the Bridesmaids!'' when her father is getting remarried, she all but pitches a fit because her stepmother-to-be doesn't want to have Mary Anne as a bridesmaid as well as Dawn. Remember, Mary Anne is Dawn's stepsister on her ''mother's'' side and is not remotely related to Dawn's father, let alone his new bride. However, Dawn never asked if Mary Anne could be a bridesmaid. She just assumed that Mary Anne would be sharing the moment with her and bought her a dress. To Dawn's credit, she never brings up her (frankly, stupid) assumption to her father or stepmother. But Mary Anne still ends up wearing the bridesmaid dress, because she assumed it'd be a church wedding, not a beach wedding, and didn't pack appropriately. One has to wonder just what Dawn's father and stepmother thought about that.

** In early books, Dawn is into healthy food and "prefers" to not eat red meat, but still eats chicken and fish. By later books, she is a strict vegetarian who doesn't eat any meat at all.

* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: For her mother Sharon, who constantly forgets things
* CoolBigSis: Most of the time she gets along with her younger brother and he looks up to her.
* CountryMouse: In ''Stacey's Mistake'' when the girls go to visit Stacey in New York.

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Played With. She has the stereotypical "California Girl" looks (a blonde GranolaGirl with long hair) but starts out being described as "not pretty" but pleasant-looking. This stands in contrast to other books where she is described as drop dead gorgeous and can be mixed up with Stacey on the book illustrations.

* NewTransferStudent: She comes to Stoneybrook Middle School in the middle of the seventh grade and befriends Mary Anne.
* OnlySixFaces: She and Stacey as the blondes of the club; the book covers often depict two pretty girls with long blonde hair, without the perm that Stacey is said to have.
* PutOnABus: Eventually she moves back to California.
* RaceLift: For the 2020 series, Dawn is played by Latina-American actress Xochitl Gomez.

* TheAce: All the BSC girls are this to some extent, but Jessi really stands out. She's a CunningLinguist and a ridiculously talented ballet dancer who always gets the lead roles in productions at her ballet school (despite being the youngest in the class). After taking only a few synchronized swimming lessons, she obviously wins a gold medal at the end, despite her lack of experience. However, later books tried to avert this and make dancing Jessi's only talent. One book states that Jessi can't sing well. [[spoiler: Another aversion happens in a Super Special when Jessi doesn't get the lead role in a play because she's not as good at acting and singing.]]

* CoolBigSis: She's very close to her little sister and frequently takes care of her 14-month-old brother.
* CunningLinguist: As we learn in Jessi's first book, she is "good at languages": fluent in Spanish after just a one-week holiday in Mexico, and immediately able to learn sign language in order to communicate with Matt, a deaf boy.

* NaiveNewcomer: She is shocked by the blatant racism she and her family receive when they move to Stoneybrook and the meaness of their neighbors. Averted in the Graphic Novels, where the more divers Stoneybooke doesn't remark about a black family moving in.

* TheAce: They are always exceptionally good at nearly everything they do. All their activities are always successful. They also tend to be the absolute Ace at their respective hobbies (Kristy with sports, Jessi with ballet, Claudia with art), with all the others gushing over how talented they are. Even [[ButtMonkey Mallory]] wins the first prize for a short story contest in ''Mallory on Strike''. In ''Claudia and the New Girl'', Claudia enters a {{sculpture|s}} contest, and even if [[ItMakesSenseInContext her sculpture wasn't finished]], she's ''so'' talented that she gets an honorable mention anyway. The books where they ''don't'' come out on top (like ''Mallory and the Dream Horse'' or ''Kristy and the Baby Parade'') are very rare.

* PottyFailure: Before she was diagnosed, Stacey wet herself at a sleepover, embassing herself in front of her friends.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In ''Stacey vs. the BSC''. Due to her focus on her new boyfriend Robert and his friends--and feeling the BSC (except Claudia) are more immature--she starts skipping out on sitting jobs and responsibilites to hang with him and his friends. She's caught out and this culminates when she both does not invite the BSC to a party and forgets to support her favorite sitting charge Charlotte. She then fights with the others and quits the club completely (while Kristy is simutaneously kicking her out as well).

* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: Stacey quits the BSC at the same time Kristy is kicking her out from it in ''Stacey vs. the BSC'' .
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Stacey's dad is a workaholic.

** Her first book had her convince her just-as-health-food conscious mother that they need to serve things like hot dogs at their barbeque because those kidns of foods are what most residents of Stoneybrook eat. Later, she makes a big deal out of even cold cuts being served.

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Played With. She has the stereotypical "Calfornia Girl" looks (a blonde GranolaGirl with long hair) but starts out being described as "not pretty" but pleasant-looking. This stands in contrast to other books where she is described as drop dead gorgeous and can be mixed up with Stacey on the book illustrations.

* SoapboxSadie: often; she lectures about junk food and enviromentalism, to the point it comes off as over the tope. Infamously played straight in ''Dawn Saves The Planet'', where by the end it blows up in her face.

* ButtMonkey: A list of the tragedies that befall her can be found [[http://community.livejournal.com/bsc_snark/39867.html here]].

* NaiveEverygirl: The typical insecure tween girl. She sees herself as ugly and feels like her parents treat her like a baby.
* OffToBoardingSchool: In ''The All-New Mallory Pike''. In this case, however, going was her decision.

* TheAce: All the BSC girls are this to some extent, but Jessi really stands out. She's a CunningLinguist, and a ridiculously talented ballet dancer who always gets the lead roles in productions at her ballet school (despite being the youngest in the class). After taking only a few synchronized swimming lessons, she obviously wins a gold medal at the end, despite her lack of experience. However, later books tried to avert this and make dancing Jessi's only talent. One book states that Jessi can't sing well. [[spoiler: Another aversion happens in a Super Special when Jessi doesn't get the lead role in a play because she's not as good at acting and singing.]]
* AdaptationalHairstyleChange: In the Graphic novels, Jessi's hair is now drawn naturally curly rather than straightened; she is also shown wearing a protective bonnet to sleep.

* ButtMonkey: Especially when the triplets are around.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: Stacey is the most boy-crazy of the sitters and has a bevy of boyfriends and crushes, including on a older teenaged lifeguard and a student teacher. The eightht book is even called "Boy-Crazy Stacey".

* EightiesHair: Stacey is described as having curly permed blonde hair through the whole of the series, even through the 90s. Averted in the updated graphic novels, where she first has long hair and then a short bob with naturally wavy hair.

Treasurer of the BSC.

Originally from New York City, Stacey moved to Stoneybrook when her father was transferred there (in part because they wanted to move). Frequent attention is paid to the fact that she is diabetic, and she is hospitalized multiple times throughout the series. She's often described as chic, sophisticated and "boy-crazy"; Stacey, like Claudia, had many boyfriends but few long-lasting relationships. She is the treasurer of the club because she has a gift for mathematics. She moved back to New York in ''Goodbye, Stacey, Goodbye'' when her father was transferred back, but returned to Stoneybrook in ''Welcome Back, Stacey'' when her parents divorced and her mother decided that she preferrs living in the small-town environment. She quits the club to spend more time with other friends in ''Stacey vs. the BSC'', but she rejoins in ''Stacey and the Bad Girls'' on probation, which is cleared up by ''Farewell, Dawn''

Originally from New York City, she moved to Stoneybrook when her father was transferred. Frequently described as chic, sophisticated and "boy-crazy", Stacey, like Claudia, had many boyfriends but few long-lasting relationships. She was the treasurer of the club, as she had a gift for mathematics. She moved back to New York in ''Goodbye, Stacey, Goodbye'' when her father was transferred back, but returned to Stoneybrook in ''Welcome Back, Stacey'' when her parents divorced, and her mother decided that she preferred living in the small-town environment. Frequent attention is paid to the fact that she is diabetic, and she is hospitalized multiple times throughout the series. She quits the club to spend more time with other friends in ''Stacey vs. the BSC'', but she rejoins in ''Stacey and the Bad Girls''.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In New York, after being diagnosed with diabetes (and therefore missing a lot of school and losing all her friends). It's the main reason why she and her family moved to Stoneybrook in the first place. Stacey does manage to repair her friendship with Laine Cummings, but even after she moves back to New York, she's never really accepted back into that social circle. One of the major reasons she decides to move back to Stoneybrook after her parents get divorced is that Laine is her only friend in New York, while in Stoneybrook she has the club.
* BigApplesauce: Stacey is constantly reminding the readers how awesome New York is. The other book narrators make a big deal out of Stacey being from the city as well.
* BigBreastPride: Stacey mentally snarks at how much smaller Mary Anne's chest is in her bikini top than her BuxomBeautyStandard figure.

* CoolBigSis: Again, to Charlotte. In later books they sometimes even call each other "Big Sis" and "Little Sis."

* FriendlessBackground: In New York, the run up to Stacey's diagnosis with diabetes was full of instances of her getting sick, including fainting at school and wetting the bed at a sleepover. Stacey was constantly being dragged out of school for more doctor's visits and tests. Because none of her friends knew what was going on -- just that she was somehow sick, possibly contagious, and missing enough school that she almost had to repeat sixth grade -- they started ostracizing her after the bed-wetting incident. One of the reasons her father accepted the transfer to Connecticut was to get Stacey away from the bad memories. See AllOfTheOtherReindeer.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: One of the books is even called "Boy-Crazy Stacey".
* InformedAttribute: Is said to have a perm but often the book illustrations don't depict that hairstyle or even the shorter cut she gets in "Claudia and the Mean Janine" (which is rarely depicted until the late 90s).

* OnlySixFaces: She and Dawn are both pretty girls with long blonde hair and cannot be differentiated on the book illustrations without paying attention to Stacey's perm. This isn't so in the graphic novels; while Stacey did start with long blond hair, after Dawn joined she was made different by having a short bob, while Dawn is now the one with long blonde hair.

* SmittenTeenageGirl: Regularly crushes on other guys and has crushed on two older guys.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's ''Mary Anne'', not Mary Ann/Marianne/Mariann/Maryann/Maryanne/Mary-Ann/Mary-Anne/etc.
* TenderTears: One of her defining traits.

* OnlySixFaces: She and Dawn are pretty girls with long blonde hair and cannot be differentiated on the book illustrations.

* PutOnABus: When Stacey's father gets transferred back to New York. Eventually, Stacey's parents divorce, and [[TheBusCameBack she and her mother move back to Stoneybrook.]]

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's ''Stacey'', not Stacy.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's ''Jessi'', not Jessie.

* {{Tomboy}}: Justified, due to her growing up with three brothers and no female siblings.

** She's also the Tomboy to her neighbor Shannon's Girly Girl. The reason why Kristy disliked Shannon at first was that the latter is a blond, rich and snobby fashionista, though they start an OddFriendship by the end of the book.
* TomboyishPonytail: Her default hairstyle in official art is a ponytail, to illustrate he being a Tomboy.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: She loved the bridesmaid dress for her Mom's wedding, likes babysitting (traditionally feminine), and [[GuiltyPleasures proclaimed beauty contests to be fun despite sexist]]. In early books, despite having a tomboyish personality, she also wears skirts and similar clothes to her best friend Mary Anne, in contrast to the later books where she always jeans, sneakers, and TomboyishBaseballCap. Also throughout the entire series, she’s seen in the color pink and has no problem with it.

Vice-president of the club, by virtue of being the only one with her own private phone line. Additionally, her junk food habit meant that she always had snacks stashed in her bedroom that the other girls could eat during their meetings. Artistic, flighty, and [[BookDumb hopeless at school]], Claudia defied the "model minority" stereotype to an extent. Her family was very conservative, and she often felt as though she was being compared unfavorably to her genius older sister, Janine. She had many casual boyfriends, but few serious ones.

In ''Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout'', she sent back to the seventh grade, and returned to the eighth grade with her friends in ''Claudia Makes Up Her Mind''.

* SiblingYinYang: With Claudia; she's the smar responsible one to Claudia's artistic and lack of academic interest.

Claudia's older sister, a certified genius high school student who takes classes at the local community college.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: She is seen this way by Claudia, who knows she will be never as smart as Janine, no matter how much she tries.

* BigBrotherInstinct: NEVER ACCUSE AND/OR FRAME CLAUDIA FOR CHEATING ON A TEST AND EXPECT TO GET AWAY WITH IT.
* CharacterDevelopment: She starts to come out of her shell a little more as the series goes on. Claudia even notes that after Mimi's death she spends less time at her computer.

* SiblingYinYang: With Claudia.
* TeenGenius: She's only a high school student, but has an enormously high IQ and, as noted above, takes extra courses at the local college.

Rioko's mom and Claudia's grandmother.

Mallory's younger brothers, identical triplets.

* BigBrotherBully: All three to Nicky, especially in ''The Ghost at Dawn's House''. Occasionally they do this to their younger sisters too, such as informing Claire that all the dinosaurs are dead (which is, of course, true- but can still be quite traumatizing to a five-year-old!).

* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: Claudia's books for a long time were titled ''Claudia and [Noun Phrase]''. The first one to avert this was #56, ''Keep Out, Claudia!'', her ninth narrated title. Out of the in the main series, fourteen out of twenty-one books--two-thirds--have this title styling, which can be very noticable if a person focuses only on Claudia books. There's two more in the ''Forever Friends'' series.
* DeadpanSnarker: Or as close as the [=BSC=] ever gets. She gets even snarkier whenever she talks about Janine.

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: All of them have several moments of this.

* ThreePlusTwo: Kristy, Mary Anne, and Claudia have been friends and next-door neighbors since childhood. To form the club, they are joined by {{New Transfer Student}}s from out of state Stacey and Dawn. In later books, the younger members [[ThoseTwoGirls Mallory and Jessi]] also join the club.

* DeathGlare: Kristy's "Look"

* GirlNextDoor: The Tomboy version.

* ImNotPretty: "I don't think I'm as pretty as Mary Anne."

%%* ShipTease: With Stacey.

%%* AnnoyingYoungerSibling

* {{Flanderization}}: In ''Boy-Crazy Stacey'', Margo almost gets carsick on the way to Sea City but feels better once she moves to the front seat. Somehow, this turned into pretty much her only character trait, to the point where it was surprising she could walk down the street without getting sick.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: On her worst days, she can be one of the most annoying of Mallory's siblings.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: She goes through an extremely silly phase, calling everyone "Silly-Billy-Goo-Goo" and running around the house naked.

%%* LimitedWardrobe: Her "uniform".
* KendoTeamCaptain: Of the Krushers.

%%* TwoFirstNames

Vice-president of the club, by virtue of being the only one with her own private phone line. Additionally, her junk food habit meant that she always had snacks stashed in her bedroom that the other girls could eat during their meetings. Artistic, flighty, and [[BookDumb hopeless at school]], Claudia defied the "model minority" stereotype to an extent. Her family was very conservative, and she often felt as though she was being compared unfavorably to her genius older sister, Janine. She had many casual boyfriends, but few serious ones. In ''Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout'', she was pushed back to the seventh grade, only to be returned to the eighth grade with her friends in ''Claudia Makes Up Her Mind''.

* AffectionateNickname: Her grandmother Mimi frequently calls her "my Claudia".
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Sometimes to Janine, particularly in early books.
* AsianAirhead: Early books treated this very mildly; later books made her seem almost borderline developmentally delayed.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The foolish to Janine's responsible.
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: With Janine. She is "the pretty one".

** Her artistic talent, which - due to the medium - is rarely shown.
** She's supposed to have a "cool" fashion sense and style but, based on the descriptions, most of her outfits seem just ridiculous.
** Even though she gets bad grades, Claudia is repeatedly referred to as BrilliantButLazy (she just doesn't apply herself, etc.) but the "brilliant" part is just an InformedAttribute for the most part.

* RoseHairedSweetie: In the Gabriella Epstein graphic novel adaptation, the front of her hairstyle is pink.

* SiblingYinYang: With Janine.
* SweetTooth: She hides junk food all over her bedroom (and always shares it with her friends).
* TookALevelInKindness: In the first few books, she looks down on Kristy and Mary Anne because they are too "childish" and not as cool as her and Stacey, and she also can be a complete brat to Janine (especially in the book ironically titled [[NeverTrustATitle "Claudia and Mean Janine"]]). She becomes more easygoing later on, and nicer to both Janine and her friends.

* UnlimitedWardrobe: The way her clothes are described, it's like she never wears the same thing twice. Could be limited though: she once mentioned she'd wear the same outfit, but with different jewelry.

The secretary of the club, as she is extremely organized and had very neat handwriting. Was raised by her father, her mother having passed away when she was very young. In early books, her father Richard was very strict, but he gradually loosens up as time passes. She was Kristy's next-door neighbor before Kristy's move, and throughout most of the books is her ShrinkingViolet best friend. She was the first of the club members to have a steady boyfriend, club associate officer Logan Bruno, whom she meets in ''Logan Likes Mary Anne''. Becomes stepsisters with Dawn in ''Mary Anne and the Great Romance''.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Mary Anne is very sweet and shy but...
* BewareTheQuietOnes: ...she gets ''extremely'' vindictive when pushed too far.

%%* TheQuietOne

** In early books, Dawn is into healthy food and "prefers" to not eat red meat, but still eats chicken and fish. In later books, she is a strict vegetarian.
** Her first book had her convince her just as health foodie Mom that they must serve things like hot dogs at their BBQ because this is what most residents of Stoneybrook eat. Later, she makes a big deal out of things like cold cuts being served.

** Books like ''Jessi Ramsey, Pet Sitter'' and ''Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise'' also describe her as very organized -- not as organized as Mary Anne, but significantly more so than the other club members, which is why she's a good treasurer in the absence of Stacey. She's written this way mostly as a contrast to her mother. However, after her mother marries Mary Anne's father, she loses this trait and becomes much more casual and unconcerned with any kind of neatness, so that she and her mother would contrast Mary Anne and Richard Spier.

%%* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: For her mother.
* CoolBigSis: Most of the time she gets along with her younger brother.

%%* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Read.

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Played With. She has the stereotypical "Calfornia Girl" looks (blonde thing GranolaGirl with long hair) but starts out being described as "not pretty" but pleasant-looking. This stands in contrast to other books where she is described as drop dead gorgeous and can be mixed up with Stacey on the book illustrations.

* ItsAllAboutMe: At her worst. Most notably in ''Dawn Saves The Planet'' and the above-mentioned example in ''Mary Anne's Makeover.''

* OnlySixFaces: She and Stacey as the blondes of the club, the book covers often depict two pretty girls with long blonde hair, without the perm that Stacey is said to have.

* SoapboxSadie: Infamously played straight in ''Dawn Saves The Planet.'' By the end of the story, it ends up blowing up in her face.
* StrawVegetarian: She starts off reasonable enough, being a vegetarian but telling her mother in one early book that most of their neighbors in Connecticut are going to expect meat at their BBQ but {{Flanderization}} made her so gung ho that she'd prepare a carrot cake with yogurt frosting instead of a vanilla with chocolate frosting and make faces at her friends eating meat.

%%* ThoseTwoGirls: With Jessi.

%%* AllGirlsLikePonies: Not as much as Mallory though.

%%* NaiveNewcomer

%%* ThoseTwoGirls: With Mallory.

%%* CoolBigBro: See TeamDad, below.

A 2 years old girl adopted by the family.

* HappilyAdopted: A Vietnamese child adopted by Kristy's family.