The character is a blonde. Therefore, obviously, she is beautiful, good, young, and innocent. Sweet, wholesome, kind, and feminine tend to be included, and the innocence can range up to Virgin Power. If she fights, it's reluctantly and she tends to avoid violence where she can.
Victorian literature would also use it to portray her as delicate and fragile, if not actually the Ill Girl — being, of course, Too Good for This Sinful Earth. This part is largely a Discredited Trope. (The only trace of this in Real Life is that blonde hair tends to be a feature of younger people- it tends to darken to 'mousy' brown or turn reddish throughout the bearer's early life.)
Men falling under this trope are rarer, but the blond hero can also have Hair of Gold. Such a hero is more action-oriented than the Hair of Gold heroine, but he is also good, wholesome, kind to those weaker than himself, modest, and prone to be the Chaste Hero or Celibate Hero.
For the personality stereotypes associated with even lighter hair, see White-Haired Pretty Girl and White-Haired Pretty Boy.
All inversions belong in Blondes are Evil. Also compare the popular and fun-loving Everyone Loves Blondes.
NOTE: Not all blondes belong in this list. Not even all good blondes. If the character does not match the personality type, she does not have Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold and should be listed only if she exploits the expectation.
Examples
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Janine from Animerica symbolizes this in the purest form imaginable, making her a direct contrast not just to her Love Interest, but to the black-haired Lita and the red-headed Malin. In fact, just about every blonde (except for Takuya and Shirogane) in the series symbolizes this.
Fate Testarossa who, even during her tenure as a Dark Magical Girl, was depicted to be kind and innocent to the point of Love Martyrdom. She then grows up to become the most Lawful Good character in the series.
Vivio, also of StrikerS, is a young, cheerful, Mysterious Waif adopted by the main character and the aforementioned Fate.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, the last Saint King of Belka, Olivie Sägebrecht (whose clone Vivio happens to be), is described to have been "bright as the sun, and subtle as a flower".
Soul Eater has a very interesting version with its girls: Maka Albarn's blond hair has hints of silver (and she is the wisest), Liz Thompson has a caramel blond coloring (she is the most jaded, though remains optimistic), and Patti Thompson has cornsilk coloring and is the sweetest and most idealistic of the three (most of the time). Then again, there is Marie Mjolnir. Justin Law at first seems to follow this, being a chaste (or so we think) young death scythe. Unfortunately...
Project A-Ko: C-ko, who is a strawberry blonde, was described in one of the original Japanese promos as "innocence personified".
Not even a demon can find much fault in Elizabeth in Black Butler, even if she did probably lose any Virgin Power she might have had.
Ouran High School Host Club has Tamaki, a boy who has a very optimistic view on life, despite his own past and present hardships. He tries to see the good in people and, like a true romantic, thinks every woman is beautiful in her own way. Despite him being The Charmer, his views on love are quite innocent and old fashioned. Honey would fit this trope as well, especially considering he even LOOKS a lot like a child, although he's actually the oldest of the Hosts. He also carries around a bunny plushie and has a love for sweets—cake in particular.
In A Certain Magical Index Vento of the Front is an interesting case, since her appearance is described as that of a holy virgin, but is ruined by her self-presentation.
Reinhard von Lohengramm in Legend of Galactic Heroes subverts this trope beautifully: he's certainly an angelic-looking young man, he's viewed by people as a perfect hero but his methods firmly place him into the Anti-Hero territory. His sister Annerose, though, is a straight example.
Alibaba from Magi - Labyrinth of Magic starts out as somewhat of a subversion, with greed and ass-kissing being his primary traits, but later chapters reveal his kindhearted and good nature. He goes on to become The Messiah for his home country and continues to get stronger for the sake of the entire world.
Kotori from X/1999 has flowing golden locks in the manga. Her design seems to be inspired from Victorian aesthetics—a sweet, innocent, Ill Girl who is kind beyond measure and associated with white birds and feathers as symbols of purity.
Mugi in K-On! is Spoiled Sweet, generous and cheerful. Also naive at times.
Shinku/Cinque from Dog Days is upbeat, kind and always has a smile on his face. Overall a very Nice Guy.
Ada from Pandora Hearts is a sweet girl who loves cats and wants nothing more than to bring her brother back from the Abyss. Turns out she was so inspired to rescue Oz that she did research into the occult and became quite fascinated with it, so much so that she managed to freak out Vincent, of all people.
Sailor Moon herself tends to fit the trope most of the time, and despite her flaws, she is a good-hearted person who believes that she can work through every problem she faces to make the best situation for everyone.
Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the kindhearted, feminine Team Mom of the group. But, of course, she's a subversion: she's also very lonely and depressed, and angsty over the accident that killed her parents. And she takes Good Is Not Soft to excessive levels. In one timeline, after learning that magical girls eventually become witches, she decides they all need to die before they become monsters and kills Kyoko on the spot, forcing Madoka to take her out before she does the same to Homura.
They've putten her into prison strang, A twalmon lang and mair, Until the mice and wild rattens Did tear her yallow hair.
"The Twa Sisters" Child Ballad has a beautiful and innocent blond girl murdered by her evil sister. A harp is made of her bones, and her golden hair is used for the strings. The magic harp sings out an accusation of her murderer.
Comics
In Non Sequitur, the blond Kate is the more optimistic and less ambitious Foil to her black-haired sister, Danae.
In Peanuts, Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally, fits this trope. When he accused her of "evading responsibility" by trying to avoid kindergarten, she responded with, "I don't know what you're talking about...I'm too young and innocent."
The youngest of the three brothers, whose name was Ferko, was a beautiful youth, with a splendid figure, blue eyes, fair hair, and a complexion like milk and roses.
Films — Animation
Pricess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is kind, friendly, polite and generous, and was blessed with the gift of beauty, which includes sunshine golden hair.
Played straight with Rapunzel in Tangled, as she is sweet, kind and innocent. Subverted when we find out she is actually a natural brunette when her hair gets cut off.
Miguel from The Road to El Dorado is a male version, despite being a thief for a living. His lack of actual innocence is made up for by his genuine sweetness and optimism about the world in general. Overall he's a really good person who isn't above using puppy eyes to get his way.
Subverted, as pretty much all other fairy tale tropes, with the Shrek series. Prince Charming has blonde hair, a rugged masculine appearance and seems to be the bold hero. But, it turns out he is an extremely vain, self-centered, spoiled boy who turns out to be the Big Bad in Shrek The Third
Films — Live-Action
Following the frequent book descriptions as "fair-haired", in the 2003 and 2005 film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, the prettiest (and most innocent) Bennet daughter, Jane, is a blonde. She isn't a blonde in the 1940s film, though.
In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Johanna is definitely one of these, fitting the innocent, child-womanish category almost to a T. Johanna got this from her mother, Lucy, who is described by Sweeney as "beautiful" and "virtuous" at the start of the whole thing, if something of a "silly little nit" according to Mrs. Lovett. Of course, in the stage play, Johanna gets one of the two kills that Sweeney doesn't get when she guns down the asylum keeper Jonas Fogg.
Amy Kane (Grace Kelly) in High Noon. Initially portrayed as innocent and naive, she proves to be the only person willing to help her husband fight the villains.
Manon of Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) is proud, beautiful, and no man's fool — but she is also good-natured at heart and righteous. Her role, in juxtaposition to the other characters, is basically purity personified.
Rosemary in Shallow Hal is kind and generous with attractive inner beauty.
In the movie Dear John, Savannah is naive, kind, and morally upstanding.
Though to be fair, she was brunette in the book.
Jesus in some film depictions, despite Him being from the Middle East. King Of Kings and Jesus Christ Superstar come to mind.
Kim in Edward Scissorhands is a Double Subversion. She's first seen in a family photo where Peg describes her as her pride and joy. When we meet Kim, however, she seems like a bratty teenager. But as the film goes on and she warms to Edward, we see she is kind and caring, thus fitting the trope.
In C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, the innocent Lucy, who first finds Narnia and is closest to Aslan, is described (near the end of the first novel) as having blond hair. However, the illustrations by Pauline Baynes show her with black hair and pigtails. The only adaptation that actually has her as a blonde is the 1970s animated film.
In The Clique novels, Claire Lyons has light blonde hair and is the nicest member of the Pretty Commitee.
A Song of Ice and Fire: Hair color is no guarantee of characterization, but the trope is referenced when a bard writes a propagandized ballad about the Battle of Blackwater. The lyrics make a big deal of the handsome, young, golden-haired prince and equally golden-haired mother going up against his wicked, black-haired uncle.
Prince Tommen and Princess Myrcella play this trope straight, which makes a nice contrast to their older brother Joffery.
In the The Demon Princes, Alusz Iphigenia Eperje-Tokay has dusty blond hair and Gray Eyes. She's beautiful, intelligent, gently bred and fatalistic.
The title character of Jane Austen's Emma is interested in befriending a girl of lower social standing than herself, Harriet, specifically because of Harriet's beauty—she has Hair of Gold and big Innocent Blue Eyes.
In Goblin Market, Laura's golden hair is a key part of the plot, because she buys fruit with "a golden curl" rather than with actual money. Using her hair this way leads to the loss of innocence (and, metaphorically, her virginity).
Most of J. R. R. Tolkien's elves are dark-haired, so the golden ones stand out, and it tends to be symbolic. In The Silmarillion, this is the hallmark of the Houses of Ingwë and Finarfin, and they are of the High Elven houses the wisest, kindest, least rash, and (in the case of the Exiles) most friendly and helpful to mortals. One of those (Galadriel) even survived long enough to appear in Lord of the Rings.
Ingwë, and his people (the Vanyar) in general, are noted as the wisest and most holy of the High Elves. They live exclusively in Valinor itself. Every one of them chose to come to Valinor instead of staying behind in Middle-earth, and only a small handful joined the rebellion of the Noldor. Which is why they get the least page-time of the three clans.
Of the Noldorin royalty, Finarfin's family are the wisest, and he was the only major character who quit the rebellion and returned to Valinor to humbly ask the Valar for pardon before it was too late. Thus, they made him king of what was left of his people. His kids all continued with the rebellion but were the most reluctant to participate (other than Galadriel, who was just itching to leave).
Galadriel's hair is literally luminescent, and said to have been like "a mesh of gold" with the light of Laurelin (a holy golden tree that served as a precursor to the sun) bound up in it. Her part in the Fall of the Noldor changed as Tolkien's concept of her character evolved — in most versions she's a leader of the rebellion and more eager than her brothers to leave Valinor. Later, Tolkien decided she was entirely innocent of any wrongdoing, and planned to change the stories to say she didn't participate in the rebellion, but only happened to leave Valinor at the same time.
Averted, however, with Celegorm the Fair, the only one of the seven sons of Fëanor to have blond hair - and quite possibly the worst of them.
Maybeth, the third sibling in The Tillerman Family Series by Cynthia Voigt, is practically angelic by description.
Fantine in Les Misérables is noted for her beauty and particularly her long, angelic golden hair. She is presented as the model of motherly virtue, and at the beginning of her transition to Broken Bird she sells her beautiful hair to provide for her daughter Cosette. Cosette herself is described as brunette in the text, but in the musical and other adaptations is often played by a blonde actress because of this trope. Enjolras also has Hair Of Gold and is explicitly a Chaste Hero.
Lucy Westenra in the novel Dracula is blonde. Dr Seward makes a reference to her hair laying on her pillow in "sunny ripples", but after she becomes an evil vampire eyewitnesses describe her as having dark hair.
Little Eldie Porter in A Brother's Price, five years old and entirely innocent in her parents' scheming. It does get dyed black by the end.
Prim and Mrs. Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Prim is a compassionate young blonde girl with blue eyes. She loves all living creatures. She was also a good healer at an early age, often helping her mother with patients. When Katniss leaves her family she doesn't bother suggesting that Prim learn to hunt because her attempts were disastrous. The woods terrified her and whenever Katniss shot something it would make Prim teary and she'd talk about how they might be able to heal it. Katniss is always amazed when her mother brought a wounded or sick patient: "she morphs from someone who calls her daughter to kill a spider to a woman immune to fear", Katniss says.
Peeta also qualifies.
Both Laurana and Goldmoon in the Dragonlance books are naive but kind beautiful blond princessess (elf and barbarian human, respectively). The former especially was naive and sheltered to the point of being an airhead while the latter was actually worshipped as a goddess by her tribe. They both grew out of it into an Action Girl and The Messiah, respectively.
Susan, Roland's Lost Lenore in The Dark Tower, has blond hair. She's 16, innocent and noble. About the only thing we know about her appearance other than her beauty is that she has long blond hair. The villain of her story tries to hypnotize her into cutting it all off.
Song at Dawn: Much is made of Alis' blond hair and 'Daddy's little angel' often follows it. She also has a frail constitution.
Anna Karenina: Kitty is a beautiful, kind and feminine girly girl, greatly admired in society for her beauty and grace. When she gets disappointed in love by her suitor, she becomes an Ill Girl, but her parents take her to a spa and she recovers.
In Gelsomino in Land of Liars, Gelsomino's golden hair corresponds with his charachter: sweet, kind-hearted and generaly helpul. This is contrasted with Big Bad Jakomone, whose golden hair is fake.
Clover from Entwined is in no short supply of suitors and can barely say a bad word about someone.
Live-Action TV
In Smallville, Chloe Sullivan. She might not be as "innocent" as some older examples, but it is very much so for the "realistic" take of Smallville. She is definitely attractive, on par if not more so in the Incorruptible Pure Pureness department than Clark, willing to give her life for even Lex Luthor, and the mild Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl interactions between Clark and her says the rest.
All three daughters on The Brady Bunch have "...hair of gold, like their mother." This is because the four are the innocent girls, while all the boys have dark brown/black hair (they even colored Mike Lookinland's hair from its natural reddish for the first season).
Don "Doc" Dogoier of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger stands out among his crew of pirates for being kind, gentle, shy, cheerful, and a pacifist - even more so than supposed Token Good Teammate (and dark-haired) Ahim, who has proven herself to have a devious side that Don doesn't share.
In Victorian flashbacks, Sanctuary's Helen Magnus has long, curly blond hair. She's also more soft-spoken, cheerful, and younger (obviously) than in the present. Sometime after discovering her fiance is Jack the Ripper and being contracted by the Crown to kill Adam Worth, she goes brunette.
She also has red hair during World War II.
Henry VIII sees Jane Seymour as this in The Tudors. In season 3, it becomes clear she has a little more depth, but Henry reacts aggresively to any indication that she doesn't agree with him. When she returns briefly in season 4, she's the only ghost Henry seems happy to see. Unfortunately for him, she is not as meek as before.
Truth in Television, at least in part; blond Jane was significantly more tractable and sweet than her tempestous, brunette predecessor Anne Boleyn.
The New Normal has Goldie, a straight ally to gay couple David and Bryan. She stands up to her bigoted grandmother for them, and carries their baby.
Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess, even to the point where her hair got darker for a while as her character became less innocent.
Cassiopeia in Battlestar Galactica, who decides to abandon her life as a Socialator to become a Med Tech. Other than her past life, she is sweet and kind, often looks after Boxey and even takes care of an ill-ridden Adama in "The Young Lords".
Despite being a Cowboy Cop who along with his partner seems to get around, Ken Hutchinson fits the bill as a male example. Jokes were made about his hair, too - mainly by Starsky.
In the Doctor Who episode The King's Demons, Hugh has this — a young knight valiant in his defense of his father.
The X-Files: The Serial Killer in the episode "Elegy" targets very young and beautiful women who have blond hair and who were very kind. They were all friends with a mentally handicapped man who was in love with them.
Degrassi has had three female characters that fit this mold.
The first was Emma Nelson, who was a trusting Soapbox Sadie nature lover until reality happened and she fell off the path. She fit up until Season 3 or 4, when she suddenly went to all sorts of impure, corrupt places and it went downhill from there.
Then came Maya Matlin, a cute innocent band geek. She still mostly fits the mold but she's shown to have some bite to her when pushed, but her intentions stay mostly good. And it didn't take much to put her back on track.
And the writers played with this when Becky Baker was introduced, the faithful Christian. She's a "playing with" example because several of her actions qualify as bigoted and evil, but at the same time her intentions were pure, just her reasoning and understanding was misguided. Once she learned better, she's just as optimistic and innocent as ever.
Despite working for years in the worst slums of London's East End, Call The Midwife's young, lovely, devoted, soft-spoken Sister Bernadette remains as kind and hopeful as ever, her spirit shining as brightly as her seldom-seen golden hair. After enduring a crisis of faith over her calling when she falls in love with local physician Dr Turner, she comes out of it radiantly in love and determined to continue serving God as a wife, mother, and midwife.
The girl described in Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" (actually his then-wife, and muse, Pattie Boyd).
She puts on her makeup and brushes her long blond hair...
In the Pentangle song "Cruel Sister", the good, innocent sister who is "loved above all things" by the prince is repeatedly described as having bright golden hair. Her evil sister is repeatedly described as having black hair and being cold and dark. The story is taken from a Child Ballad called "The Twa Sisters".
Beautiful, young, good, and innocent? That's Amano's concept of Terra/Tina from Final Fantasy VI all over (the sprite gave her green hair instead - the cutscenes of the PS1 rerelease and Dissidiagoes back to blonde), and applies to a lesser extent to Celes as well. And Relm (she really is a sweet girl, deep down...Really really deep down). Next tier has the heroic male characters Edgar, Sabin/Mash, and Locke, who was originally conceptualized with blond hair. If you really wanted, you could argue that General Leo fits this, though he really shines as a subvertedBlond Guys Are Evil, foiling the blond Kefka. The world of Final Fantasy VI has no Canon Name, but we have reason to believe it's Blondania.
Lucas from Mother 3 has gold hair, an innocent personality, a pure mind, and, unlike Claus, stays good. Claus' hair, orange, could possibly be that way because of red (evil) mixing with blonde (purity).
Another male example: Teddie from Persona 4in his human form, where he appears as a blond, blue-eyedBishōnen, with an innocent personality to match.
Spiritia Rosenberg from Rosenkreuzstilette has flowing gold hair held in a huge ponytail and is a straightforward, honest, and kind girl whose moral convictions are second to none and who is greatly respected by others, including other soldiers of the Holy Empire. Iris also has gold hair, but unlike Tia, believe it or not, she only pretends to be kind and innocent to disguise her true, evil intentions. Both characters are reincarnations of the legendary Magus Rosenkreuz, whom the organization of RKS is named after - Tia got his soul and his ability to tap into the strength of others', and Iris was blessed with his magical prowess and the abundance of knowledge he had acquired over the course of his life.
Wendy from Rule of Rose could have her picture describing this trope; a quiet, sickly little girl with a pretty smile and a blue sundress. Unfortunately, she's also a manipulative Yandere.
The Hero from Half Minute Hero. His nobility earns him respect from a Time Beast (and an extra 10 seconds on a stage where you can't reverse time).
Lady Aideen of Jungby and Father Claude of Edda from Fire Emblem Jugdral: both blonde, both calm, gentle and caring.
This is lampshaded to a degree in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn with the three blonde heron siblings: Leanne is sweet and ladylike but is also revealed to be stubborn and childish, while Reyson absorbed much of the Hawk tribe's rough personality quirks. Only Rafiel, the oldest, is as passive and serene as a heron is meant to be.
Visual Novels
Regina Berry, in Ace Attorney, is so sweet and innocent that she actually doesn't understand the concept of death or the consequences of her naive but dangerous actions.
Colias Palaeno has a near-constant smile and is ridiculously friendly to everyone he meets. Which is why Manny Coachen was able to manipulate him so easily.
Komari from Little Busters has short blonde hair with side twintails and is extremely innocent, cheerful, and childlike. Her route even deconstructs this a little, as she is innocent mainly because her brother tried to shield her from anything painful, meaning that she cannot encounter things like death without breaking down entirely. She also has a bit of Dumb Blonde to her, too.
Web Animation
Red vs. Blue has platinum-haired Freelancer Agent North Dakota, who's the closest thing the Crapsack World of RvB has to a 100% genuine hero. He's such a kindly and nurturing Team Mom that he even gets given the most childlike of the project's AIs, which he acts like a proud parent towards. All of this is a deliberate contrast to his twin sister, who turns out to be an evil blonde with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder that leaves him and other Freelancers to die in various circumstances.
Webcomics
Rolan and Zalanna of Ears for Elves have this. In the former case, it shows that he's a high elf, as well as being innocent and such. For Zalanna, straight blonde hair symbolises her status and how she embraces it, and provides contrast with the Rebellious Princess Tanna's messy and short(er) brown hair.
Elan in The Order of the Stick is apparently extremely attractive, in part due to this trope, although it's hard to tell from the stick-figure art. He also fits very well in terms of personality, being the sweetest and most innocent major character in the comic (as well as not too bright aside from his Genre Savvy).
Melissa, the Alpha Bitch Witch of Charybdis Heights in Eerie Cuties, less so in Magick Chicks. She's lazy and occasionally mean, but mostly falls under Jerk with a Heart of Gold. In that she can stand for a friend in serious danger, while the worst action we know of was trying to cause a break-up between Kade and Layla, but this relationship doesn't look like a fragile and precious thing, to say the least.
Chloe, a cripplingly shy succubus — she got worse and better later, but retained some good streaks even while Drunk on the Dark Sidebadly.
Web Original
Apollo, Artemis, Aglaea, and Eros in Thalia's Musings. Apollo, though hardly a Chaste Hero, is one of the more moral gods in the Pantheon and renowned as a champion of moderate living. His twin sister, Artemis, is a sworn virgin. Both have healing powers, as does Aglaea, Apollo's granddaughter, who is a dedicated physician. Eros can make life difficult for his "victims", but he ultimately just wants everyone to find true love, something his parents never had.
Mega-Girl of the Whateley Universe. Not only is she a beautiful Exemplar with flight and super strength, she's extremely feminine and bubbly. She's also a virgin (she's only a high school sophomore) mainly because she doesn't have a vagina yet.
Hanami of Tasakeru fits the bill: an Innocent Flower Girl with a shy nature and long blonde hair, the color of which is unique in the setting.
Western Animation
Adventure Time: Underneath his hat, Finn has a glorious head of long, beautiful, shimmering golden hair.
And by extension, his Gender Flip Fionna, though part of her hair is always visible.
