History Main / GirlNextDoor

* In ''VanishingActs'' by Jodi Picoult, Delia is this to Eric, the VictoriousChildhoodFriend, and Fitz, the UnluckyChildhoodFriend. [[spoiler: by the end of the book the tables have turned and Eric is the unlucky one.]]

* [[BettyandVeronica Betty]] Cooper in the {{Archie}} comics, as opposed to her UptownGirl rival for Archie's affections, Veronica.

* [[BettyandVeronica Betty]] Cooper in the {{Archie}} comics. (As opposed to her UptownGirl rival for Archie's affections, Veronica.)

* [[BettyandVeronica Betty]] Cooper in the {{Archie}} comics.

* Mary Jane Watson from the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' movies is an example, arguably due to her being a CompositeCharacter with Liz Allan, who in the comics attended Midtown High together with Peter Parker and Flash Thompson.

* [[FinalGirl Nancy Thompson]] in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'' lives across the street from her boyfriend Glen.

** Both [[FinalFantasyX Yuna and Rikku]] fit into this, both being sweet, caring, down to earth girls (albeit ones who can summon [[http://www.ffshrine.org/ffx/aeonpics/valefor2.jpg and befriend]] massive magical monsters and create explosive bombs to kill things with).

* There is an unusual example in WelcomeToTheNHK. Misaki Nakahara is a literal GirlNextDoor whose innocence and rather plain beauty is, at first, an integral part of her relationship with Satou, combining this trope with ManicPixieDreamGirl. However, ''both'' tropes become [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when she is slowly revealed to exhibit [[spoiler: nearly every symptom of a textbook case of Borderline Personality Disorder, including extreme self-esteem issues, self-harm, skewed social perspective, and an unhealthy (suicidally so) obsession with Satou.]]

* There is an unusual example in WelcomeToTheNHK. Misaki Nakahara is a literal GirlNextDoor whose innocence and rather plain beauty is, at first, an integral part of her relationship with Satou, combining this trope with ManicPixieDreamGirl. However, ''both'' tropes become [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when it is revealed that [[spoiler: not only does she have many problems of her own, but she has had an [[{{Yandere}} unhealthy obsession]] with Satou for a long time.]]

* Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series by TonyHillerman is the rare Native American version. She is a pretty, cheerful, down-to-earth fellow Navajo cop who is contrasted to Chee's previous love interest, the beautiful, sophisticated, half-white lawyer Janet Pete from Washington, D.C.

* Link gets a few of these in the ''Zelda'' series. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' there's [[FieryRedhead Malon]]; in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' there's [[GirlOfMyDreams Marin]]; in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' there's [[DoesNotLikeShoes Ilia]]. However, Ilia is the only one who is Link's lifelong friend -- he meets the others in the course of their respective games. And despite being the princess, Zelda herself comes across like this in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap,'' particularly the latter as it's explicitly stated she and Link have been friends since they were very small. The same also applies to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'''s Zelda, who, apart from being Link's closest childhood friend, happens ''not'' to be a princess this time around.

* Rachel from ''TowerOfGod'' is set up as this, being a childhood friend and mother figure for Baam. [[spoiler: The fact that she ran away from their life together should have been a first good hint, but it is subverted when she kills him out of jealousy and fear that he might stop her in her quest.]]

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/{{Spider-ManTrilogy}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/girl-next-door_spiderman_305.png]]]]

* Grella from [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]].

* To some extent, Alyx from ''HalfLife''. Only debatable thing is that when she was living in Black Mesa, she was only a baby. But then came the Combine occupation and she became a rather hot tomboy by the time Gordon returned two decades later. Since then, they've been together for most of the time.

* Monica Geller from ''{{Friends}}'' is a bossier and sexier version that most, but is down to earth, maternal, and TheHeart of the group. She lives across the hall her eventual boyfriend Chandler and Joey (who was originally going to be her love interest).

* Monica Geller from ''{{Friends}}'' is a bossier and sexier version that most, but is down to earth, maternal, and TheHeart of the group. Plus she literally lives across the road from Ross, and across the hall from Joey and her eventual boyfriend Chandler.

As the kind of girl that male protagonist might have been friends with all his life, the Girl Next Door is easy to talk to, like a {{tomboy}}, but she doesn't force her presence on anybody; she may keep to herself, like a NaiveEverygirl, while not rejecting social interaction. Equally, she may well be a bad boy's fantasy or target, because [[CorruptTheCutie he finds her "good girl" image a challenge]]. She has the goodness of the light feminine in LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine; she is good and attractive but not vain or arrogant about it. She certainly doesn't give the impression that she's [[SpicyLatina spicy]] or [[FieryRedhead fiery]] -- at least not obviously so, though she may have hidden depths of any sort.

Often when a Girl Next Door is involved, you have one of three types of plot: she's the UnluckyChildhoodFriend to the male lead (usually a [[JerkJock jock]]); she ''has'' a male UnluckyChildhoodFriend that is chasing after her; or she is the Betty in a BettyAndVeronica LoveTriangle. Occasionally, all three combine in a [[LoveDodecahedron huge mess]]. (This set-up was used, more or less, in several movies by Creator/JohnHughes.) Possibly she is with the main character as a [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood]], college, or [[HighSchoolSweethearts high school]] sweetheart, but this ''isn't'' always the case.

The SpearCounterpart, BoyNextDoor, is pretty much the same only, you know, male. Compare with {{Tomboy}} and contrast with FemmeFatale and PeerlessLoveInterest. Also compare TheAllAmericanBoy, who might well be her [[HighSchoolSweethearts High School Sweetheart]].

* Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series of TonyHillerman is the rare Native American version. She is a pretty, cheerful, down-to-earth fellow Navajo cop who is contrasted to Chee's previous love interest, the beautiful, sophisticated, half-white lawyer Janet Pete from Washington, D.C.

* Penny from ''TheBigBangTheory''. She moves into the apartment across the hall in the first episode and that alone gave Leonard some hope that she might become interested in him. She is consistently portrayed as a fairly down-to-earth and friendly girl that helps fill in the gaps with the guys own lacking social skills. Still, as she and Leonard start dating it's made fairly clear that if they weren't neighbors he wouldn't have had much of a shot with her.

* The titular character of the ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' arc [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=981114 "A Carnivorous Smurf for Kimmy Sue Hasenpfeffer"]] was one of these. Kimmy Sue, not the [[TheSmurfs Smurf]].

* In ''TheFairlyOddParents'', Tootie is a geeky girl who lives near Timmy and quite obviously loves him. Although Timmy at first doesn't return her affections, he sympathizes with her since they both have to deal with Tootie's meaner older sister and Timmy's babysitter, Vicky. [[spoiler: According to the Live Action movie Many years later, Tootie returns to town a transformed woman, and Timmy falls in love with her]].

* In a male example, Jeremy to Candace in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. There's also Isabella for Phineas, [[ObliviousToLove who hasn't noticed her feelings yet]].

* In another male example, [[MeaningfulName Gil Nexdor]] to Susan and Mary Test in ''JohnnyTest''.

The girl next door is used to indicate what is seen as [[GenericCuteness average]] and wholesome femininity. She is neither butch nor overtly feminine and not promiscuous but might be a {{foil}} to one who is like the down town girl in the TownGirls. Typically [[UnkemptBeauty pretty]] [[HollywoodPudgy in an accessible]] [[HollywoodHomely way.]] However since it's essentially about her personality there are several that are considered [[InformedAttractiveness knock-outs]].

She's the kind of girl the male main character might have known and been friends with all his life. She's easy to talk to like a {{tomboy}} but she doesn't force her presence on anybody, or she keeps to herself like a NaiveEverygirl while not rejecting social interaction. Of course on the other hand the girl next door is every bad boy's fantasy because he is drawn to her [[CorruptTheCutie "good girl" image]] since she has the goodness of the light feminine in LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine. Not only is she good but she doesn't act like she's ''all that''. And she certainly doesn't leave the impression that she's [[SpicyLatina spicy]] or [[FieryRedhead fiery]].

Often when the Girl Next Door is involved you have one of three types of plots: she is the UnluckyChildhoodFriend to the male lead (usually a [[JerkJock jock]]); she ''has'' a male UnluckyChildhoodFriend that is chasing after her; or she is the Betty in a BettyAndVeronica LoveTriangle. Occasionally, all three combine in a [[LoveDodecahedron huge mess]]. This was used more or less in several movies by Creator/JohnHughes.

Possibly she is with the main character as [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood]], college or HighSchoolSweethearts, but despite what TheOtherWiki lists as examples this is not necessarily so.

The SpearCounterpart, BoyNextDoor, is pretty much the same only, you know, male. Compare with {{Tomboy}} and Contrast with FemmeFatale and PeerlessLoveInterest. Also compare with TheAllAmericanBoy who might of course be her [[HighSchoolSweethearts High School Sweetheart]].

* Played with in regards to Gwen Stacy of SpiderMan. As portrayed in the comics, Gwen was more of an exotic flower whom Peter only met after he left Forest Hill and "went out into the world", i. e. Manhattan and college. She came from an upper-class background, her first boyfriend, Harry, was the son of a millionaire and in her first appearance she was introduced as a high-school beauty queen. However, as she became the Betty to Mary Jane's Veronica, she moved into this.

* HarryPotter's best friend's little sister Ginny Weasley, his helpful intellectual friend Hermione Granger and his loyal optimistic companion Luna Lovegood.

* Jamie Sullivan in ''AWalkToRemember'' is a believer in God who doesn't care what anyone else thinks.

* Rebecca "Becky" Thatcher from ''TomSawyer'' is classic and makes this OlderThanRadio.

* Ruby, Ralph's girlfriend in ''Literature/UrnBurial'' is literally the GirlNextDoor; she's lived in the house next door to him since they were born, and whilst not drop dead gorgeous is plenty attractive enough for being familiar and not having any pretensions.

* Subverted (HARD) along with most of the wholesome ideas of TheFifties in Jack Ketchum's ''Literature/TheGirlNextDoor''.

* Matt from ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' is the male version of this. He is a genuinely nice and friendly guy.
** Elena, Bonnie, Caroline.

* Monica Geller from ''{{Friends}}'' is a bossier and sexier version that most, but down to earth, maternal and holds the group together. Plus she literally lives across the road from Ross, and across the hall from Joey and (future husband) Chandler.