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Lovable Alpha Bitch

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"Jade even takes time out of her busy schedule to give a couple of private lessons in social maneuvering and image, or 'how to be a bitch and make them love you for it'."

So, there's this girl. She's beautiful, popular, manipulative, exclusive, and... not so bad once you get to know her. She still hangs out with the popular crowd, regularly attends Wild Teen Parties, and has been known to be vicious and petty to the unfortunates at the bottom of the Popularity Food Chain with some rare occasions of Pet the Dog in between. She may even act this way toward the heroine at first. But a few bonding activities and a little Character Development later, she's the one who has the heroine's back, with whom she often forms a Tomboy and Girly Girl or Light Feminine and Dark Feminine pair. In cases where she's also the Academic Alpha Bitch, it might be her meanness comes off from feeling like she is the Drill Sergeant Nasty for the rest of the school, and warms up to people who impress her.

Note that the Lovable Alpha Bitch doesn't have to be pally with or even nice to the heroine's True Companions, although she usually tolerates most of them. It also doesn't mean that she won't continue her Alpha Bitchy ways toward other unfortunate victims…she's just showing more restraint or better at making friends. In a lot of cases, a Lovable Alpha Bitch will be joined by a Beta Bitch who is the really nasty one and will resent the relationship between her and the heroine. When placed in situations that force her to choose popularity or going completely against the heroine, she would stand by the heroine and would never cross the Moral Event Horizon (she may lament the loss of her popularity but when asked if she regrets standing beside her, she would chastise the heroine for even bringing that up and would be glad to join her True Companions in a heartbeat). Basically, she is an Anti Villainous Alpha Bitch.

Generally, the Distaff Counterpart to the Big Man on Campus and a likely candidate to be his girlfriend. Compare Spoiled Sweet, which is about characters who are nice despite being spoiled; Class Princess, where the character has all the trappings of the Alpha Bitch (contrast that trope) but never really is one or alternatively what the Lovable Alpha Bitch develops into; Fallen Princess, where the Alpha Bitch has to lose her status to become sympathetic; and Academic Alpha Bitch, who might care about her classmates as long as they know she's the best in the school. May overlap with Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Defrosting Ice Queen, Sugar-and-Ice Personality, or sometimes Big Bad Wannabe. This trope may follow Break the Haughty. Also compare and contrast the Lovable Jock, who similarly inverts a common stereotype of a popular student but may be a straight-up Nice Guy. For the beta version, see Innocent Beta Bitch.

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Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Seika "Mariana" Akishima from Amakusa 1637 is flighty, spoiled, and once the group is Trapped in the Past she isn't super kind to her foreign Dogged Nice Guy Jan. However, she has a good heart and is quite loyal to her friends, and takes their "Mission from God" quite seriously.
  • Marianne Hamilton from Ashita no Nadja. Very rich, very blunt, a Clingy Jealous Girl. Loves her dude Francis sincerely despite her clinginess, aids Nadja in her ultimate quest, quietly and tearfully walks away when she sees that Francis has chosen Nadja in the end.
  • Izumo Kamiki from Blue Exorcist is an Ice Queen, but not only is she slowly defrosting, she is the first to accept the fact that Rin is the son of Satan. In her own way. Interestingly, her back story suggests that she isn't exactly popular (due to her ability to see demons) and only has one friend, which she insists is all she needs.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun:
    • Kongou Mitsuko, who apparently got the idea that acting like an Alpha Bitch would get her some friends. Suffice to say, she got friends by acting otherwise. She still puts on the haughty whenever dealing with Kuroko, though.
    • Misaki Shokuhou is also an example: despite outwardly appearing like a typical Alpha Bitch, she is extremely protective of her clique in spite of her paranoia and is even willing to work with Misaka, her chief popularity rival in Tokiwadai, when push comes to shove.
  • Alice from CroisĂ©e in a Foreign Labyrinth can't help but show her exuberant young-girl side, despite her desire to be seen as a classy rich lady. This is possible, however, since she's not chosen as the pride of her family who is expected to be the successor of the family, which is her elder sister, Camile. This makes Alice able to express the former side more freely due to much less pressure exerted on her by her family.
  • Bulma from the Dragon Ball franchise is an extremely rich Proud Beauty and somewhat vain and shallow, especially in the original Dragon Ball series. She's also very loyal and helpful to her friends and family.
  • Food Wars!:
    • Erina Nakiri becomes this following her Character Development. Even though she starts out as an Academic Alpha Bitch, coming from a high-class family and very much aware of her own talent as a chef, she does exhibit some traits by being very caring towards those close to her like her assistant/best friend Hisako. After she learns that Soma is the son of the chef she's always admired and following how the Polaris Dormitory's tenants take her in when she's running away from her father, she becomes much friendlier and even takes it upon herself to ensure they all pass the exams and become second-year students, even though she still remains a rather prideful person.
    • Her cousin Alice is another example. She's smug and competitive, but a lot more social than Erina, and while she does throw a tantrum upon being defeated by Soma, they're later shown to be engaging in some friendly banter. She's also willing to cook dishes for people who ask for it.
  • Sumire Shouda from Gakuen Alice is this type. Throughout the series, she is the bossiest and snobbiest girl in the class, holds Alices well above non-Alices, and bullies Mikan when she first arrives at the Academy. However, she becomes helpful, resourceful, and even kind when there is trouble and helps organise the students to fight. In later chapters, she always takes Mikan's side when she is in trouble.
  • Amachi Hitsugi of Hayate Ă— Blade is something of an odd duck. She's obscenely wealthy, beautiful, the head of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, and the rules of the school are often secondary to whatever she thinks would be interesting. But aside from her treatment of Tatewaki, she's encouraging to others and tends to be charmingly pretty crazy.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Despite her haughty demeanor and effectively being at the very top of Shuchi'in's Popularity Food Chain, Kaguya refuses to judge others based on rumors and hearsay. This is best shown with her relationship with Ishigami, whom she develops a close Senpai/KĹŤhai bond with despite him having supposedly stalked a girl back in middle school, and goes so far as to scare off several girls with a Death Glare when they try to dissuade her from associating with him. Of course, it helps that she knew that he was innocent.
  • Kimi ni Todoke:
    • Yano is not someone you want to get on the bad side of, but you have to really deserve it to get there. Otherwise, she's actually very friendly, even for this trope.
    • Kurumi becomes this throughout the series as well, with the similarity to Yano being very well noted by her.
  • Diana from Little Witch Academia comes from a long line of master witches. As a result, she is a Perfectionist who acts stuck up, takes pride in being better than the other witches in training, and acts condescending to those she feels are unworthy of the title with cold disrespect. She even has her own Girl Posse. However, deep inside, she is really caring, wants what's best for the witches guild, and is a Closet Geek like her rival, the outgoing Akko.
  • Shinka Nibutani from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, especially in the anime version.
  • Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier. Sure, she can steal Alto's free day just for fun and bend everybody to her schedule, but she is generally sweet and friendly, and actually helps people around her.
  • From Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid comes Riko Saikawa, a girl who was introduced as the Alpha Bitch of her class confronting Kanna (a young dragon banished to Earth for one too many pranks, and took the form of a young girl to fit in), with a decidedly mixed message.
    Saikawa: (Angrily) "Those clothes are too cute and you're good at everything. It makes me so angry that I want to give you a hug!!"
    • It takes Kanna about 30 seconds and Crocodile Tears to get Saikawa to feel bad and swear friendship out of regret. From that point, being the Alpha Bitch is almost entirely overshadowed by Saikawa's running gag of Cuteness Overload by Kanna and being her (maybe) girlfriend.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Secelia Dote, the only female member of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, spends the entirety of the first season hanging out on the couch and making snide remarks about anyone within earshot. However, as the show's stakes start to rise and the other members of the Dueling Committee drop off, she increasingly shows a softer side, taking her role as a leader of the student body rather seriously, performing duties as a student counselor (though her methods, while effective, are ethically dubious), being genuinely friendly with her Shrinking Violet companion Rouji, and even gladly loaning a Super Prototype suit owned by her company to one of the main characters. As it turns out, petty school drama is really the only kind of drama she's involved in, which makes her far preferable to the corporate skulduggery, Mad Science, or outright insurgency of her fellow Committee members.
  • Ino Yamanaka from Naruto is a milder version. She does act a little bit like one would expect an Alpha Bitch would (at least in terms of interests) etc. At the same time, as a young girl, she was the one to reach out to bullied Shrinking Violet Sakura by teaching her how to accentuate her apparently large forehead, introduce her to her friends, and stick up for her when an actual Alpha Bitch Ami and her Girl Posse were trying to pick a fight. Not to mention, she comes from a long line of ass-kicking ninja, specializing in techniques to go inside peoples' minds (which she uses even on the nigh-unstoppable Big Bad.) She also serves to keep her team together (a team in fact that has been together since their forefathers), but soft encouragement to Gentle Giant Choji and a harsher more "kick in the rear" to Brilliant, but Lazy Shikamaru.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Emily Sevensheep. Which makes her death in Yue's arms as heartbreaking as possible, and her subsequent resurrection (along with countless others) courtesy of Negi and Asuna's restoration of Mundus Magicus' denizens all the more heartwarming.
    • Misa Kakizaki is another example of this. She's definitely the alpha girl of class 3-A, but there's no indication that she isn't just as liked as any other 3-A student.
  • Kourogi Mikage from Nononono who is a gold medalist and having both looks and brains is thought of (and thinks of herself) as a national celebrity. At first glance, she is a grade-A Alpha Bitch that treats others as inferior to her and is ready to make their life miserable if they dare to deny her anything, once you get to know her though it turns out that despite all her arrogance she is a decent and caring person whose bitchiness comes as much from her "upper class" status as from her inability to honestly express her feelings.
  • While she isn't actually popular, Haru from Ojojojo acts this way once her character development sets in.
  • If One Piece had taken place in a high school, Boa Hancock would be one of these. She takes care of her people, is brave and caring when it comes to her sisters and those that earn her favor. But to everyone else, well… quote the Queen herself:
    "Whether I kick a kitten… tear off your ears… even slaughter innocent people… the world will never cease to forgive my actions! Why, you ask? Why, it is because I am beautiful!"
    • And, even more weirdly, people do forgive her. Kinda justified in that she is genuinely the strongest and most gorgeous woman in Amazon Lily. As for her behavior, it's revealed that it's the result of a seriously messed-up past of child slavery. So much so that she and her sisters still go into panic attacks thinking about it and much of her bratty behavior (along with her preteen girl-styled romance toward Luffy) could be attributed to stagnated development (she was kidnapped as a pre-teen) from sheer force of trauma.
  • Nanami in Revolutionary Girl Utena becomes this in the final arc. She used to be a major straight-up Alpha Bitch, but a Trauma Conga Line helped to develop beyond it and she even befriends Utena in a Tsundere kind of way.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • One-time character Sonoko Iijyuin from Sailor Stars. Grade A Alpha Bitch to Usagi, demanding her to leave Seiya alone since she's his number 1 fan and challenging her to beat her at her sport… which is a totally unequal position, as Usa is a Cute Clumsy Girl while Sonoko is a Passionate Sports Girl and REALLY good at softball. But when she sees that Usagi is still determined to try it, she softens up and sees Usagi as a Worthy Opponent. And THEN, she's attacked by Lead Crow and forcibly turned into a monster—but Usagi, as Sailor Moon, manages to save her.
    • Rei Hino (aka Sailor Mars) is this as well. She is popular at her school, and she does act kind of snobby and mean towards the other Guardians, particularly Usagi. But she is actually nice to her classmates, and then she becomes nicer (though still Hot-Blooded) to the other Sailor Guardians.
  • Touka Ryuumonbuchi from Saki. She's a total bitch to everyone who isn't from Ryuumonbuchi High School (yes, the school belongs to her family) but is seriously nurturing toward everyone whom she takes under her wings, especially the Killer Rabbit Koromo.
  • Akina in Shinozaki-san Ki wo Ota Shika ni! would like to be an Alpha Bitch but missed her chance after being sick for the first week of high school. Since all the cliques she would have joined are already formed, now she's forced to be friends with Otaku. What's worse is not only is she starting to fall for one of those Otaku, she's starting to become one herself.
  • "Monkey Queen"/Reika Jogasaki from Switch Girl. In the early volumes, she does everything to ruin Nika's life, setting up traps and malefic plans. But as the story goes on, she reveals herself to be a nice, kindhearted person, as she supports and helps Nika, especially during the Shutei arc.
  • Saki Tenjouin in To Love Ru. She comes off as a queen bee (even proudly declaring herself the queen of the school at every opportunity), but when someone needs help she is not hesitant to do what she can.
  • Fatina from The Tower of Druaga definitely feels like one of these. She's materialistic, vain (her whole reason for adventuring is to become rich so that she can buy her favorite fashion accessories), has a tendency to be judgmental and slap labels on and look down on people, enjoys mild bullying… is highly concerned about her companions, and has a strong sense of duty. When Jil is depressed after the events of season 1, Fatina is the one who takes care of him and works hard to support him financially for several months.

    Comic Books 
  • Sylvia Wellington in The Adventures of Oliva has all the trappings of a classic '80s Rich Bitch: greed, Conspicuous Consumption, a snobby accent, and being the sole married woman of the bunch. However, she shares the wealth as much as she spreads her legs, and, when hubby's finally shown, the couple are proven to be Happily Married swingers that mutually sleep around, but only truly get off with each other.
  • Veronica Lodge from Archie Comics can be bitchy and catty, but underneath her bitchy facade, she is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and definitely has a kind and caring side to her personality which makes her very likeable.
  • Guillotine from Mini Monsters is a good example. She's a goth girl who bullies the Frank's gang alongside (or not) his "boyfriend" Morty (The leader of the gang and a Big Jerk on Campus). In spite of that, she's best friends with Piruja (one of the Frank's gang) and helps her to conquer Victor (The spoiled protagonist), although she absolutely doesn't get along with him and his friends.
  • Liz Allen in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Liz typically plays this role in most mediums. In the original series, she ended up developing a form of Hero Worship for Peter when they were in high school, though he sadly didn't notice, having since moved on from his crush on her.
  • Brittany Parsons of Von Herling, Vampire Hunter is one. She's even got her own Girl Posse but cares about her friend Peggy Jo Warner and goes as far as to tell her posse to stop insulting Peggy.
  • Cornelia from W.I.T.C.H. was known to be incredibly disagreeable after getting her powers, but eventually gets used to it. She's also the local Bully Hunter, being the one who protects younger and/or new students from the local bullies (that's how she first met and befriended Will and Taranee) and keeps in line the actual Alpha Bitches.
  • Emma Frost from X-Men. She's almost always conceited, extremely critical, and absolutely ruthless in any kind of fight. Not to mention she intentionally wears all those skimpy outfits just to get attention. However, she's a Mama Bear to anyone who's officially or unofficially her student, and she's almost always been a loyal, reliable member of the various teams she's belonged to.

    Fan Works 
  • Disney High School gives this role to Jasmine and Charlotte, with Kuzco has a sort of male example (and a more egotistical one).
  • The Forever Captain series: There is a suggestion that Maria Carbonell is one of these, though she often uses her powers for good.
  • Several fanfics for Miraculous Ladybug from season 2 and then on turn ChloĂ© Bourgeois into this, mostly as a foil to Lila Rossi post-Chameleon. She takes Alya’s place as Marinette’s new best friend, while Alya herself becomes Lila’s Beta Bitch, and isn’t afraid to tell off her classmates for dropping Marinette for Lila.
    • Marinette Dupain-Cheng's Spite Playlist: Original Character Gabrielle. She’s head of the clique for children of Old Money at Marinette’s new school. At first, she challenges Marinette for control. But then Marinette accidentally discovers that she’s secretly gone broke. Gabrielle expects Marinette to tell everyone and relish in her misfortune, but instead, Marinette is kind to her. Gabrielle shows a softer side to Marinette, and goes on to become a better person than she was in the beginning, helping Marinette in her career and charities.
    • Un Nouveau Contes de FĂ©es: Marinette instantly recognizes that Swanhilde Von Lebedev is the “alpha girl” of Olympe and a possible mean character. She is even described as being nice to those she likes and mean to those who cross her. However, Swanhilde is a dedicated ballerina, who does not take her talent or success for granted. Unlike ChloĂ© or Lila, who make Marinette their enemy, Swanhilde respects and admires Marinette’s ambition and talent, accepting her as a fellow “diva”, which is what they call the popular girls at school.
  • The Odds Were Never In My Favour: Lavender Brown cares about little besides beauty treatments, prestigious party invitations, and gossip, and can be rude, but some of her gossip is important and non-malicious, she occasionally helps Neville with his misguided but well-meaning heroics, and she doesn't immediately pounce on every anti-Alexandra bandwagon.
  • one day at a time (Nyame): Bette Kane. Heavily involved in Gotham politics and a little elitist, but never lords her status over others and accepts Bruce's adoptive children as family. Jason is reasonably fond of her since her future-self tutored him in Gotham politics, and trusts her to watch out for Tim, Stephanie, and Cass at his return gala.
  • In Danny Phantom fanfic Resurrected Memories, Ember, as Amberline, eventually manages to gain this sort of reputation around Casper High, in contrast to straight up Alpha Bitch Paulina. The combination of her good looks, brains, musical talent, growing friendship with Team Phantom, and her nerve to go against Paulina and the other A-listers eventually ends with her becoming very popular among her peers at school.
  • The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy: While Sofia has a very minor impact in the story, she seems a bit haughty and mischevous, quite shallow and uninterested in school and grades (even if it was simply implied by a very jealous Luca) and shamelessly flirted with Alberto. Otherwise, she seems to be quite nice and friendly.

    Films — Animated 
  • Penny from Mr. Peabody & Sherman starts out as a straight-up Alpha Bitch, to the point of literally treating Sherman like a dog. This, until she made a trip to Ancient Egypt where Peabody and Sherman rescued her from marrying King Tut, finally becoming into this.
  • Siobhan from Wendell & Wild is the daughter of a pair of Corrupt Corporate Executives and the resident queen bee at RBC Girls, but she's Innocently Insensitive and Entertainingly Wrong at her worst and genuinely tries to befriend Kat. Once she actually does research on what her parents' private prisons are like (and in the process discovers exactly how awful the two are), she turns on them and goes to warn the heroes about their plans.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Avalanche Sharks: Jenna is a college spring-breaker version. She's introduced throwing her top at the sheriff and laughingly saying "everything goes" after he asks her and Lacy to show less skin. Later, when Randy tries to flirt with her, she walks away and says "loser alert." However, the next day she's shown cheerfully hanging out with Randy and approving of his crush on Carol. She also takes Wade and Madison seriously rather than ignore their You Have to Believe Me! warnings, helps them try to warn people, looks shocked when Wade accidentally hits Madison during a struggle with a lift attendant, and then helps Madison up.
  • Claire from The Breakfast Club. In fact, her bitchiness comes less from herself and more from peer pressure, and it's shown that deep down she's miserable due to it.
  • Jules from The Cabin in the Woods is an interesting subversion of the trope… as is every other trope in this movie. She's the typical Alpha Bitch sex tease, but only because of the pheromones and chemicals she's been given by the White Collars, to change her behavior and intelligence. In truth, she's very friendly, loveable, and funny, as seen at the beginning of the film.
  • Tess Tyler from Camp Rock becomes one by the end of the first movie. And again by the end of the second one.
  • D.E.B.S. starts off with Max as the captain of the D.E.B.S. squad. She has a Type A, take-charge, and aggressive personality that tends to dominate everyone around her and can be quite rough with Amy Bradshaw. After she's demoted to second-in-command she's devastated and becomes more sympathetic and by the end of the movie, she covers Amy's escape with Lucy, proving that she's a true friend.
  • Ashley Fruend and Ashlyn Halperin from Final Destination 3, despite behaving like typical ditzy popular girls, are actually friendly towards the protagonist Wendy. During their funeral, Ian mentions how they had never done anything bad to anybody.
  • Vicki from The Final Girls is blunt and sometimes downright rude, popular, beautiful, jealous, and a bit full of herself. However, she has a good heart underneath it all, and she eventually breaks down crying, full of regret about how mean she's been, and sincerely apologizes to Max and Gertie. They forgive her.
  • Freaks of Nature: Lorelei is a pot-smoking, promiscuous popular girl who ignores the unpopular Dag's flirting and uses him to hide her drugs. However, she doesn't go out of her way to lord over other people, enjoys talking to Dag, and doesn't hold a grudge over Petra turning her into a vampire or ending up with Dag right when Lorelei started liking him back.
  • G.B.F. focuses on a high school with three alpha bitches, all of whom reveal a far nicer side. 'Shley is willing to befriend Tanner despite Mormonism forbidding it and is generally the nicest and most approachable out of the three of them. Fawcett is the only one to stand up for Tanner re: the school's homophobic prom policies. Caprice is the only girl to understand Tanner needs a romantic life and isn't a neutered purse-poodle—so she tries to set him up with a hot British guy.
  • Dylan Schoenfield of Geek Charming (both the film and the book it's based on) could be a codifier for this trope.
  • Goosebumps (2015): Popular girl Taylor calls Plucky Comic Relief character Champ "chump" instead of his real name (although one scene implies she may think his name really is Chump). However, she wants to help defend the gym against monsters rather than run away like her boyfriend. She also goes on to have a cute Rescue Romance with Champ.
  • Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray (the musical and its film adaptation, in which she accepts her defeat and decides to join everyone else in having fun dancing… in the film, she even does so with a black dancer, defying her mother's racism.)
  • Hello Mary-Lou: Prom Night II's Kelly, while venomous to protagonist Vicki, is perfectly nice to most everyone else, and shows poignant hints of insecure desperation for esteem and adulation.
  • Sharpay Evans from High School Musical either becomes this in her own movie (Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure) or always was this for some audiences.
  • Deconstructed in The Hole with Keira Knightley's character Frankie. When Liz tells her story to the police we see in flashbacks that Frankie is popular but isn't bitchy to Liz and helps her out (it's implied that Liz does her homework for her). Then we learn that Liz's story is a lie and we see real flashbacks and Frankie fits the Alpha Bitch stereotype down to a T. Though Liz is actually worse than her.
  • Jessica Spencer of The Hot Chick is a Jerkass to certain people she doesn't like but takes good care of her baby brother. The Pet the Dog moment with her brother is important because it makes it easy for us to feel sorry for her later on when she is magically transformed into a man (don't ask).
  • The title character of I Love You, Beth Cooper is this pretty much from the outset, even if she Drives Like Crazy. It's not her fault her boyfriend's a psycho...
  • Gen Harwood from Ice Princess comes off as an inconsiderate party girl at first, but later turns out to be a good friend and guide to Casey. Notably, Gen seems quite disgusted by the trick her mother Tina pulled on Casey, even though Tina was doing it for Gen.
  • Jason X: Janessa is constantly snarking at her fellow anthropology students and is quick to resort to Sextra Credit for a better grade. Still, she loans Human Popsicle Rowan some of her clothes after Rowan thaws out, tries to comfort a traumatized witness to one of Jason's murders, and never comes across as a Dirty Coward while working with the others to survive.
  • Jawbreaker had Token Good Teammate of the Girl Posse, Liz Purr, who was never a real Alpha Bitch though part of a bitchy girl posse. Julie became this through Character Development. At the beginning of the movie, she's suffering from Bystander Syndrome, which leads to her involvement in the prank that killed Liz. She then grows a moral spine, quits the posse, and takes Alpha Bitch Courtney down via Engineered Public Confession.
  • Mean Girls
    • Regina George is a subversion. She's a Villain with Good Publicity who knows how and when to be nice to people, such that Cady initially wonders if she's really as bad as Janis and Damian say she is. That question is answered with a definitive "yes" the moment we see what she's like behind closed doors, to the point where we learn that even her Beta Bitch Gretchen can't stand her. By the end of the film, it's implied that she's learned her lesson and become a straight example of this trope, channeling her rage into field hockey.
    • Cady Haron is actually a much straighter example than Regina, because even though the former became the new Queen Bee, she shows signs that she still kept her inner goodness despite her transformation as a Plastic, as best evidenced by a couple of tears during the house party scene.
  • Miss Congeniality: Miss Texas is extremely focused on winning the pageant and the primary source of gossip about the staff and contestants. Her reactions during the final make it clear that she assumed she'd win and is visibly confused when she comes third. Despite all this, she's still friendly enough to the other girls and happily joins in when they go out for drinks. During the final, she's one of the first to intervene when it looks like Gracie is trying to steal the crown from Cheryl. Gracie ends up breaking her nose during the scuffle but in the final scene, Miss Texas is still happy for Gracie when she wins the titular award.
  • Misa from Oyayubihime is nosy, rude, and gossipy. But she definitely isn't a bully, and she stands up to Saeko in spite of being blackmailed into staying quiet. Not to mention her fights with the teacher provide much comic relief.
  • Amanda Jones of Some Kind of Wonderful is set up to be this, but really isn't. In fact, both her nastiness and her social status stem from her Manipulative Bastard boyfriend Hardy Jenns and once they break up, she improves very quickly.
  • Mikaela Banes, the attractive and open-minded girlfriend of a Jerk Jock, from Transformers looks like she's developing into this before the plot kicks into high gear and her troubled history comes out.
  • Lovable might be putting it too strong, but Brittany from the fourth Lake Placid movie starts out as a more generic Alpha Bitch before showing some more admirable aspects later on. From her first scene, she is jealous of Chloe (who has some mild chemistry with her boyfriend Drew) from the get-go and doesn't hesitate to peck away at Chloe through Accidental Misnaming and Anti-Intellectualism, as well as having sex with Drew to further make up his mind. Once the giant crocodiles attack though, she displays real concern for the others and does try to save someone whose being eaten. Afterwards, she is clearly traumatized by what happened and shows a much softer attitude towards Chloe and her friend Elaine throughout the attempts to escape the creatures, never questioning them or endangering the rest of the group or acting entitled towards them.
  • Prom Wars: While Jen B. is subordinate to Diana in her school's social order, she does have a lot of independent moments and is blonde, relatively shallow, and shows open favoritism to the Proud Elite Jerk Jock Lancaster school over the long-abused Lovable Nerds at Selby for most of the competition. Still, she is capable of showing respect for the Selby students or solidarity with her friends and thinks Joe's Love Letter Lunacy is cute.
  • Step Up: Sophie Donovan from the second movie is the most accomplished female singer and dancer at the school and has a distant, slightly entitled demeanor. However, she appreciates the happiness and passion of the street dancers, starts smiling more, defends them against the Dean Bitterman, and never insults, sabotages, or mistreats her love rival or any of the less popular students (except in one Deleted Scene) even before her Character Development.
  • White Wolves: Pamela is a senator's daughter, doesn't hesitate to mention this (and various other achievements), asks for help a lot, and complains some about how hard wilderness survival is. However, she does have some moments of good humor, determination, compassion for Jack and Quentin, and helpfulness, especially later in the movie.
  • Youth (2017): Shuwen is the dorm captain and the daughter of a high official, and flaunts her family status. She is hard on Xiaoping at times, and one of the first people to make fun of her body odor. However, she doesn't go as far as some of the others do with their bullying behavior and is shown to have sympathetic qualities. She points out to Dingding when she's being unfair to Liu Feng, and years later, sticks up for Liu Feng when she sees him being shoved around.

    Literature 
  • 4 Kids in 5E and 1 Crazy Year: Destiny is the gossipy leader of a group of popular female girls and can get caught up in getting what she wants. She is also sensitive to other people's feelings most of the time, reaches out to help several of her classmates during difficult times, understands that some secrets are off-limits for gossip, and works hard to be a good student.
  • Alexia of Because Of Mr Terupt is the most popular girl in the school and initially appears to be manipulative and mean, but her softer side comes out among her friends and with the kids in the Collaborative Classroom, especially Emily.
  • Carrie:
    • Sue Snell is a pretty, popular straight-A student, who initially participates in some nasty locker room bullying of Carrie White (egged on by the much more evil Chris Hargenson). Afterwards she suffers a Heel Realization and tries to make amends to Carrie.
    • In the 2002 TV film adaptation, Helen Shyres is initially shown as a bully towards Carrie, but she too has a Heel–Face Turn; complimenting her on her prom dress, nearly stopping the prank from happening, and slapping someone for laughing at her.
  • The protagonist of Daughter Of The Drow. Liriel was a minor member of the ruling clan popular among young party-loving nobles and wasn't more malevolent than being good at the Drow brand of humour required. Later in the Academy, she habitually pranked her peers, mainly the plump girl she referred to as "a peasant" (in fact, noble, but from an agriculture-focused House)—a senior student known as humorless and too vicious with younger students. Which only made the perpetrator more popular as a wizard sneaky enough to repeatedly humiliate the hated jerk without leaving any proof.
  • Bethany Davis in Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Lampshaded:
    Bethany: I'm shallow, not a sociopath.
  • Kirche from The Familiar of Zero starts off the series as a bully towards Louise, but becomes nicer as the series continues. By this time, she doesn't act rude anymore and often ends up being the gang's big damn hero along with either Tabitha or Mr. Colbert.
  • Full Metal Panic!'s Kaname Chidori is well-known at her school as "The Coolest Girl In School You'd Never Want to Date" because, while people recognize that she's smart, pretty, athletic, and actually quite helpful, she's also a very abrasive and occasionally violent loudmouth who never quite shook off the Brooklyn Rage she acquired from growing up in New York. Kaname seems to be generally content with this reputation, as it's a huge step up from her miserable experience in middle school.
  • Sena Kashiwazaki of Haganai is a ridiculously hot Rich Bitch who lords herself over her schoolmates at the academy her father runs. Then she signs up for the Neighbors Club and reveals that she wanted true friends. Thus she does make some within the club in the form of Kodaka Hasegawa, a British-Japanese boy whose blonde hair and oriental face make his classmates mistake him for a "delinquent" and, secretly, Club President Yozora Mikazuki (whose Jerkass tendencies hide her social-relationship problems as grave, if not even worse, than Sena's).
  • Harry Potter:
    • Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Academy in the books gets a lot of flack for dating Bill Weasley, due to his family believing her to be a pure Alpha Bitch who's only superficially interested in him. She proves them wrong by standing by her man even after his face is disfigured. Though part of her reasoning is in pure Alpha Bitch fashion—she's beautiful enough for the both of them, and the scars Bill received from Greyback prove that her husband is brave. She then promptly starts cleaning his wounds.
    • There's also Cho Chang of Ravenclaw, who's pretty, popular, a star Quidditch player, has her own Girl Posse, but is actually a Nice Girl who just has some severe emotional and psychological problems. Her first boyfriend being casually murdered by the Big Bad in Goblet of Fire didn't help.
  • InCryptid: Annie muses that her old friend Sophie Vargas-Jackson got elected cheer captain during her sophomore year by promoting a policy of letting girls besides "skinny blondes" onto the squad and "not being a jerk without good reason." She would go from snapping at Annie for arriving late to practice to expressing concern over signs that made her think Annie had an abusive boyfriend. This carries over to Sophie's present adult career, where she wears a pantsuit the same color as the paint in her office building (deliberately making it look like a cheerleading uniform), and is demanding but considerate toward new employees.
  • Constanza Grayfoot in the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld may not be particularly nice to any of the other Midnighters—though she will admit that Dess "knows her trig"—but she's a genuine and supportive friend to Jess, though a somewhat superficial one.
  • Lana in The Princess Diaries. By the end of the series, she's become close friends with Mia and is shown to be genuinely sympathetic. As soon as the film premiered in 2001, she is Mia's enemy even though Mandy Moore portrayed her as an ultra-snobby cheerleader in which she doesn't like her princess friend (Anne Hathaway) at all due to the protagonist stealing her boyfriend, Josh Bryant, right from under her nose.
  • The Twilight Saga has Rosalie Hale for the vampires and Leah Clearwater for the werewolves as aloof, socially prominent and capable of surprising compassion.
  • Ginevra Fanshawe in Charlotte BrontĂ«'s Villette. She is completely open about being a superficial Gold Digger, but she seems to genuinely value Lucy's friendship.
  • Sally from Spooksville may be pretty, vain, sarcastic, and overconfident, but is a pretty decent girl overall. Also, even though she's always fighting with Cindy, she really does care about her as in one book Cindy is seemingly killed by a pterodactyl Sally is really upset and even starts crying.
  • Ami Kawashima from Toradora! starts off as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing but eventually learns to be a somehow more balanced snarky Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Justified in that, at first, almost everyone thinks Ami is a bitch (except Kitamura, a close friend of hers). It is later revealed she has to deal with creepy stalkers and legions of fans almost every day, due to being a famous teen model.
  • The I Hate Fridays character Kirsty is not a bully, but she clearly thinks she's better than everyone else in Koala Hills and tends to be Innocently Insensitive in her pursuit of fame and luxuries. Most of the other students avoid her.
  • Reena in The Poison Apples to contrast her eventual two best friends Molly and Alice who come from a Friendless Background. She is good-looking, rich, brutally honest and finds it very easy to befriend the right people to become popular. Despite this, she never bullies unpopular kids like Molly and even though she and her roommate Alice get off on the wrong foot, she doesn't do anything mean besides avoiding Alice. Her best friend from her previous school, Katie, is stated to be this, too.
  • Spy School: Elizabeth Pasternak, a girl at Ben's school who he used to have a crush on (and who Mike dates for a few books), who, according to Alexander, doesn't even know Ben's alive but doesn't seem malicious or snotty upon actually appearing. When she briefly expresses attraction to Ben upon reappearing in the eighth book he doesn't refer to her as stuck-up or unpleasant, but just too normal, when discussing why he's no longer interested in her.
  • Just Juliet: Lacey, who's the most popular girl at Grant and frequently insults people, but only in jest. She's really not malicious at heart. Lena dubs her "Queen Bitch" nonetheless, though they're best friends.
  • This trope is deconstructed in the book The Kate in Between. The main character Kate makes friends with the local mean girl Taylor and the two have a genuine friendship with each other but while Taylor is shown to have her good points and really seems to appreciate Kate's friendship her bad points eventually begin to overtake them to the point where after Kate chooses to go to her old best friend Haddie's birthday party over a get together with Taylor and her friends, Taylor in a petty act of spite leaks an incriminating video of Kate nearly destroying her reputation. After this they stop being friends.
  • Ghost Girl (2021): Nellie, while starting off as Zee's rival and bully, reveals herself to be this when they're forced to ally to save the town. She puts more effort into getting along with Zee even when the latter is initially hostile towards her, forming a genuine friendship as they work together. Even prior to this, she's shown to be on good terms with Elijah despite him being friends with her nemesis and the two being on different ends of the social ladder, the two gradually growing closer and developing a mutual crush.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 8 Simple Rules - Bridget is a vain, superficial blonde ditz. However, she's shown with enough Hidden Depths to be presented as a likable character. In fact, one episode has her introducing herself on the intercom and is met with thunderous applause from around the school.
  • America's Next Top Model: Bianca from Cycle 9 was a monster, picking on poor Heather and Stripper with a Heart of Gold Lisa. But you can't hate her too much when her disses are as poetic as "check your thighs in the mirror, and I'm done" and her claim that she's a "fun bitch" not a "bitchy bitch". It's more fun to judge America's Next Top Model contestants by their capacity for Memetic Mutation as opposed to their actual modelling ability.
  • A.N.T. Farm: Lexi started the show a straight-up Alpha Bitch, but has slowly been shaping up as this, getting some moments of potential friendship with Chyna and even some Ship Tease with Chyna's brother, Cameron.
  • Beverly Hills, 90210
    • Kelly is initially portrayed as a popular, stuck-up snob but over the years she grows into a much more likable person.
    • In the Sequel Series, Naomi. She's not that bad. She genuinely has a nicer side, but would still act like a bitch if anyone has ever hurt or betrayed her in any way. She evolved into this after her Character Development in season 3.
  • The Big Bang Theory: Penny is a gorgeous young woman who socializes easily. In high school, she was a very popular Alpha Bitch, a realization that leads her to try and apologize to everyone she bullied, though none of them wanted anything to do with her. As an adult, her closest friends are female scientists Bernadette and Amy (with the latter even being her best friend) and she's also a Team Mom to a group of male nerds.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Carrusel: Maria Joaquina had two Kick the Dog moments in the beginning when she ripped the card that Cirilo gave her for her birthday and then when she ratted Marcelina for cheating on a test. The second one, however, bit her in the butt badly as her classmates (Cirilo included) isolated her; Maria Joaquina ended up breaking down in tears due to this, and after that, she became the Lovable Alpha Bitch we know and love.
  • Cobra Kai: In season 4, Aisha mentions a girl at her new school who wears more pink than Malibu Barbie and initially gave her a dismissive look due to her overweight and nerdy appearance. However, when Aisha asked the girl if she could show Aisha around, rather than rebuke her, the other girl agreed and they quickly became close friends (although the fact that Aisha made sure to compliment her shoes to break the ice helped).
  • Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Rebecca meets a quintet of these girls in the episode where she volunteers at her old summer camp. At first, five of the teenage girls there are determined to make Rebecca's life hell, laughing at her and mocking her every chance they get. However, when Rebecca tries to give a speech on female empowerment, only to break down into hysterical sobs due to her own personal issues, all the campers leave... except the five girls who were making fun of her the whole time, who instead approach Rebecca and sit with her on the stage. They sympathetically listen to Rebecca's troubles, and then give her a makeover and sing a Self-Empowerment Anthem to try and encourage her. Their advice is questionable, to say the least, but it quickly becomes clear that they're not really bad people.
  • Daredevil (2015): When we first meet Marci Stahl, she seems like Regina George if Regina George became a lawyer. She makes no secret of being selfish and mostly interested in her own career. But it turns out that Marci has moral standards and her open bitchiness can be strangely endearing. Karen finds it amazing that Foggy used to date her. Marci eventually drops the selfishness bit after Foggy persuades her to turn against her colleagues at Landman & Zack and sell them out for conspiring in Wilson Fisk's criminal enterprise. By season 2, she's been hired on at Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz and has become a somewhat nicer person. She's also one of the most observant of Foggy's true potential, and in season 3 is responsible for prodding him into running against Blake Tower for District Attorney.
  • Dead of Summer: Jessie starts out looking like a more conventional Alpha Bitch, but receives some major Character Development in episode 4 showing her to have a softer side. Of the two people who learn that Drew is transgender, she's the one who accepts him for who he is — and given that the show is set in The '80s, that says a lot about her character. (Especially since the other person who found out about Drew's sexuality, Blair, was himself gay and was squicked out about his would-be boyfriend's gender identity.)
  • Degrassi: Three examples. Paige (S1-S5), Holly J (S7-S11), and Zoe (D:TNG S13 - NC S4) all start out as the standard Alpha Bitches, but all undergo Character Development. Paige comes to the point where she's ready to stop worrying about what other people think and have a same-sex relationship with Alex in her senior year. Holly J also grows into this trope by the time she's a senior. Zoe also mellows out after coming out as a lesbian in season two of Next Class.
  • Friends: Rachel started off like this before her Character Development. This goes back to her days in high school when she was a spoiled Alpha Bitch cheerleader but was still friends with the unpopular Monica.
  • Glee:
    • Quinn Fabray starts off as a nasty Alpha Bitch, gets pregnant, and becomes a Fallen Princess. Now that she's had the baby she's back to being a cheerleader...but is still friends with everyone in the glee club. Except Rachel. Unfortunately, it seems her character has reverted back to her original personality. See this chart for a general outline of her inconsistent personality throughout the first half of season two.
    • Santana Lopez started out as The Dragon to Quinn's Alpha Bitch only to inherit the top title when Quinn became the Fallen Princess. She's now nursing a healthy dose of Gayngst. Also, she's been getting more and more sweet moments, with Brittany in particular and arguably the club in general. All while keeping her spiciness.
    • Glee seems to be unable to function without at least one of these in the cast. The newest version is new head cheerleader Kitty, who spends most of a season in the New Directions apparently just to mess with them. Then, when she hears of other popular girls harassing Unique, she vehemently demands their names, so she can put Nair in their shampoo bottles. Off the rest of the cast's shocked looks, she finally admits that they're her friends...and, naturally, she will deny that at the top of her lungs outside of that room.
  • The Facts of Life: Blair Warner is a Rich Bitch but the rare Hidden Heart of Gold subtype.
  • Gossip Girl: Blair Waldorf, the ruthless queen bee, can be sweet and does worry about the people she likes if she's on good terms with them, but only her close friends and family get to see this side of her.
  • Hemlock Grove: Catty popular girls Alexa and Alyssa Sworn make fun of Shelley's appearance, flippantly pressure their best friend Christina to be more sexually active, and supposedly pressured Christina into touching a decaying corpse once (the accuracy of that flashback is a bit debatable). However, as the first season progresses, the twins are also genuinely concerned and supportive toward Christina during her Sanity Slippage, show some warmth and vulnerability around their dad, stop picking on people after a few episodes, and at one point try to stop some bullies from assaulting Peter.
  • Charlotte Hinchcliffe of The Inbetweeners is the Lust Object of most of the boys at school, very popular, and the lads are shocked when she turns up to a party that was so uncool that they were actually invited. However, when Will gets to know her they develop a friendship of sorts over the course of the series, although Will has a crush on her she makes it clear they're Just Friends.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze: Miu Kazashiro becomes one early in the show's run, losing her fanbase after the Monster of the Week records her badmouthing her admirers and broadcasts it during the school's Beauty Contest (and beats her up). She ends up winning back her classmates' respect by going up on stage during the last part of the contest (while still bandaged and using a crutch) and delivering an epic speech where she explains that she hates admirers because it means they're focusing on her rather than improving themselves. She also accepts the Magnetic Hero's offer of friendship and ends up becoming the (self-proclaimed) president of the Kamen Rider Club, and then the (self-proclaimed) chairman after she graduates.
  • Lizzie McGuire: Kate was originally friends with Lizzie and her friends until she got a bra. At the start of the series, she is the Alpha Bitch stereotype. Later on, she has moments of sympathy, such as when her sister and mother seem to show her little to no affection, and some moments that show her character develop, such as helping Lizzie and Gordo in the movie (also becoming a Shipper on Deck for the two).
  • Little Lunch: Tamara has elements of this, although given her athleticism she may be more of a female Jerk Jock. She has the bossiness and tendency to dictate other people's social status of the traditional alpha bitch, but she's not really a bully, and she inevitably comes around and proves herself a good friend in the end.
  • Maggie & Bianca: Fashion Friends: Bianca starts off as an Alpha Bitch and Rich Bitch, especially towards Maggie. As it's obvious with the title of the series, she quickly reveals her Hidden Depths behind her shallow Ice Queen attitude, and learns to appreciate Maggie's friendship... at times. By contrast, Nausica is a straight-up Alpha Bitch all the time, although even Nausica ends up becoming lovable (or at least, nicer) at the end of the series.
  • Misfits: Alisha. Although other characters have called her out on her bitchy behavior and after going through a lot of Character Development she is no longer an Alpha Bitch.
  • Mortified: Brittany, although how much of an Alpha Bitch she is varies from episode to episode.
  • My Babysitter's a Vampire: After being turned into a vampire, Erica adopts a stereotypical Alpha Bitch persona. However, she's still nice toward Sarah and is willing to help her out on occasion. The show also gives her the Freudian Excuse of being bullied before becoming a vampire and implies her post-transformation personality is her trying to overcompensate for this.
  • The O.C.: Summer Roberts starts out as a rude and spoiled Alpha Bitch. But then becomes more of a somewhat ditzy, but likable girlfriend for Seth.
  • One Tree Hill: Brooke Davis. Early on, she's closer to the Alpha Bitch side of things, but she's also very protective of the people she considers friends, even if they aren't the typical popular people (note her friendship with Mouth).
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "Abduction", Danielle initially seems to be an Alpha Bitch as she taunts the deeply religious Brianna for being a "Jesus freak" and mockingly suggests that she is still a virgin. Cody Phillips resents her for laughing in his face when he asked her out. However, she tells Cody that he needs to forgive her for doing so and that she is as much trapped in her role as the most popular girl in school as he is trapped in his role as the school outcast. Danielle is later as delighted as everyone else when she learns that Brianna is still alive and is the first of the students to hug her.
  • Power Rangers S.P.D.:Syd is a Girly Girl who can be acid-tongued on occasion (especially toward Z). However, she's generally loyal and caring, takes things like Sky dumping a bottle of water on her head with a good deal of humor, and is the first character shown treating Boom The Chew Toy lab assistant nicely.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Averted with Libby in early seasons who is an Alpha Bitch through and through (and former Trope Namer) but played straight with Morgan in later seasons. She is a shallow, selfish, spoiled airhead but not a bad person, and she actually gets better after her first few episodes becoming one of Sabrina's best friends.
  • Saved by the Bell': Lisa Turtle is fashion-obsessed and boy-crazy - as well as prone to occasional moments of Brutal Honesty. But she too is a fundamentally good person, and her fashion obsession is in fact because she wants to pursue a career as a designer.
  • Schitt's Creek: Alexis Rose is a Fallen Princess but it gradually becomes clear that even before losing her wealth and during her time as a globe-trotting socialite, Alexis was always kind-hearted and decent if a bit clueless and shallow.
  • Skins: Mini started out pure Alpha Bitch, but has grown gradually nicer over the course of Season 5 since becoming friends with the other kids, although the Mini/Franky/Matty love triangle can bring out her bitchier side.
  • Sonny with a Chance: Tawni was solidified as this by the first season finale, where she prevents Sonny and Chad's Ten Minutes in the Closet moment from being broadcast live by Gilroy Smith.
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: London Tipton has some Rich Bitch tendencies but she's rarely malicious and is way too stupid to be considered a true Alpha Bitch.
  • Teen Wolf: Lydia Martin especially when she's around Allison or Jackson. But she's a hard character to hate once you've seen her season-long descent into hallucination-induced insanity.
  • That '70s Show: The self-absorbed and spoiled Jackie Burkhart was originally The Friend Nobody Likes, but Donna eventually warms up to her, and they become a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair.
  • The Vampire Diaries: Caroline. Blonde, popular, pretty, ditzy (not helped by having been repeatedly mind-controlled), but nice enough.
  • Victorious: When she's first introduced, Jade West is set up as the Alpha Bitch rival to Tori. However, as the show went on, Jade was given some moments that gave the character depth and insecurities. She even warmed up to Tori, though there was still hostility between the two.

    Professional Wrestling 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Good aligned female dragons in Dungeons & Dragons are sometimes portrayed with this sort of personality when they're not the Team Mom.

    Theater 
  • Invoked in Heathers. After JD kills Heather Chandler, he forges a suicide note claiming that she killed herself because she was really suffering inside and no one could see who she really was. Everyone in school believes the note and concludes that Heather Chandler was, deep down, a genuinely good person, which couldn't be further from the truth.
  • Galinda/Glinda from Wicked. Spoiled, ditzy, entitled, and bratty... but also deeply loyal to Elphaba, and in possession of a genuinely good heart beneath it all. By the time act two begins, she's outgrown her Alpha Bitch ways almost entirely, and the end of the show has her ascend to a Benevolent Mage Ruler for the sake of the greater good.

    Video Games 
  • The villagers with the Snooty personality from Animal Crossing post-Wild World anyway. They compliment your house, get along well with Lazy villagers, are like Cool Big Sis figures to Lazy, Peppy, and even Normal villagers. However, they still are the prime source of gossip in your town, though should you befriend one, and you respond to her she'll just say she's just spreading the good word about you and that you are clearly better than everyone else there (even if a fellow Snooty lives there). In New Horizons their gossipy comments are pretty much gone, they say hello to everyone, act like a surrogate mother/big sister to the rest of the town, sing, flirt with just about everyone as part of their Camp Fashionista personality, and are pretty much exactly the opposite of what they used to be.
  • Mandy in Bully first appears to be the epitome of Alpha Bitchdom (beautiful, head cheerleader, dates the captain of the school football team, is viciously cruel to the nerd girl, etc.) however the inevitable humiliation she receives is not actually Played for Laughs when we see her reaction to it, and she is also shown to be well aware of how horrible she is and that it stems from her own insecurities.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Clarine from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. She keeps demanding vassalage from Rutger and Lance and can be pretty mean to those who get close to her brother Klein, but she also helps Dorothy with her self-esteem without any hidden agenda and secretly fears that, once the "adventure" is over, she won't be able to see the outside world again.
    • To a degree, Princess L'Arachel from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. She's shown to be selfish, kinda childish, and very bombastic, but she's also very brave and kindhearted when push comes to shove, like when she manages to pull Eirika out of an Heroic BSoD after losing the Stone of Renais to Lyon and gives her very valuable advice.
    • Maribelle from Fire Emblem: Awakening, oh so much. She's got a sharp tongue and can come off as snobbish and a bit cold, but she also has a strong sense of justice and is loyal to the death to her friends. Oh, and she's also a very powerful mounted healer.
  • In Growing Up, Alicia and Felicity start off as Alpha Bitches, but if you make the right choices, they'll become nicer towards you and even become your friend/girlfriend.
  • Juliet in Life Is Strange acts quite rude and is clearly a popular girl, but mostly she is just reckless and has a tendency to jump to conclusions. When reasoned with she proves to be a decent girl willing to change her behavior for the better, which sets her apart from Victoria and her Girl Posse.
  • Persona:
    • Persona 3:
      • Yukari. She's a popular Tsundere on campus and comes off as cheery, but also quite snarky on a bad day. Annoying as she seems, it's appropriate to call her a Jerkass Woobie rather than straight-up Jerkass due to her very troubled backstory.
      • Natsuki is the more clear-cut example of this trope. Her deeds and demeanor were more vile, and she often bullied Fuuka until their supernatural near-death bonding experiences brought them to be close friends instead.
    • Ai Ebihara from Persona 4, once you get close enough to her and max her Social Link which reveals her Rags to Riches and Formerly Fat past, which is what made her an Alpha Bitch to start with.
  • GLaDOS of Portal is one of the most loved video game characters, but she is horrible and verbally abusive toward the player character all the time. Despite this, as the sequel shows, she's not all bad at, er, "heart". At least until she deletes Caroline. Considering her history, though, that might be another lie.
  • Emma in The Quarry is a popular influencer who enjoys being the centre of attention. This is shown when she makes out with her best friend's crush during a game of truth-or-dare, right in front of her best friend and Emma’s (recent) ex-boyfriend Jacob, causing both of them to storm off. However, she can admit remorse for the act and genuinely wants what’s best for Jacob. She’s also playful, upbeat and has the potential to help Kaitlyn defeat one of the werewolves during the finale sequence by passing her a silver bullet.
  • Etoile, in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, is set up initially as the Alpha Bitch, but you mostly see her nicer side during your interactions with her in the game.
  • Rouge the Bat from Sonic the Hedgehog, though how lovable she is depends a lot on the game, as in her first appearance (Sonic Adventure 2) she is actively helping Eggman get the Chaos Emeralds, though by the time of Sonic Generations she is a straight-up Hero who comes to Sonic's birthday party.
  • Haley, one of the possible romance options from Stardew Valley, is initially established as a stuck-up little brat who insults The Farmer's scruffy appearance and throws tantrums at being told to do minor housework. However, her bonding scenes and her list of favourite gifts reveal she's quite sweet deep down. She's notably the only potential romance option who ends up taking a curious interest in the main character's farmer lifestyle, and she even takes up reading and donating much of her colossal wardrobe to charity.
  • Elise in Story of Seasons (2014) is a Rich Bitch who controls the majority of the town's fields in the beginning, and her servants paint a vivid picture of her as condescending and harsh, most of them loathing her. One servant even imagines her possible future spouse and pities the poor man. However, she's surprisingly affable to the player and gives you your first horse for cheapnote . After some Character Development, she becomes nicer.
  • Karin Kanzuki of Street Fighter Alpha fame debuted as an arrogant, haughty Rich Bitch, but over the course of her story in that game, she befriends her rival Sakura, sponsors up-and-coming wrestler Rainbow Mika, and generally matures to the standards her family expects of her. Come Street Fighter V and she's now become the de-facto Big Good of the story, using her money and power to assist the heroes in taking on Shadaloo and offering her family's massive estate as a base of operations for them to do so.
  • Nina from Suikoden II is Newleaf Academy's answer to this trope—she's quite mean to Nanami (thinking that she's also infatuated with Flik), is very self-assured, and does tease the hero's party with her ghost stories, but she's a nice girl at heart who'll step up to defend her mayor from Highlanders with a bookbag. She also has really good stats and a killer unite attack with Flik.
  • Jess from Until Dawn is a homecoming queen who looks the part of a queen bee from a teen movie, and is introduced tittering over having set up a Prank Date that results in the deaths of two of her friend circle because "she deserves it" in the prologue. She's also playful, goofy, and upbeat (for as long as anyone can be) in the main game, and will always express stress and regret over the events of the prologue.
  • It's implied that Sylvanas Windrunner from World of Warcraft was like this back when she was alive, as while she was very vain and felt the need to be the best at everything, she took her duty as Ranger General seriously and in a flashback, she is seen rescuing a woman and child from Arthas' undead army.

    Visual Novels 
  • Sasasegawa Sasami from Little Busters! is beautiful, popular, smart, and the captain and star player of the girls' softball team. She also has minions who follow her everywhere and a great tendency for gloating. She also happens to genuinely respect Rin as her rival, considers it important to take responsibility for the negative actions of her underclassmen, and even ends up joining the Little Busters to fill in for Rin in her route.
  • Mira Kagami in Tokimeki Memorial 1 when you get to see her Hidden Depths (dead father, painful rejections, poverty). Accentuated in the various tie-in Radio Drama, OVA, and spin-off games, which flesh out her character further.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Chrys'tel Vel'Sharen of Drowtales starts the series as a straight Alpha Bitch, but she's quickly shown to defend her roommate Faen from being tormented by the other girls. Later on, she begins to question what's going on in her own family and actually becomes The Mole to her aunt.
  • In Eerie Cuties, this'd be Layla Delacroix. She's the most popular girl at Charybdis Heights and she's hot enough that Even the Girls Want Her. But she's still regarded as an Ice Queen, by some of the students, due to her aloofness and her snarky nature. Yet, Layla's been shown to be fairly responsible and even helps organize activities at the school, as seen in the "Kissing Booth" bonus story in the print edition of vol.1. Nor is she the type to hold grudges...unless the other girl's name is Melissa Hellrune.
  • Zulenna in Girl Genius was at first a complete Spoiled Brat who looked down on Agatha (but wasn't that popular). When it was revealed that Agatha was a Heterodyne, Zulenna paid her as much respect as she despised her earlier, and even gave her life to slow the soldiers pursuing Agatha.
  • Diane from El Goonish Shive seems to be turning into one, being manipulative and snarky but genuinely caring about her Girl Posse and showing concern for the protagonists. She also undergoes some Character Development due to her pursuit of Elliot: she starts out seeing him just as "practice" and wanting him to buy her stuff, but in the course of learning about him from afar, she seems to develop genuine feelings for him.
  • Magick Chicks: To say Faith has an ego would be an understatement, even if it's justified, due to being the most popular girl at Artemis, the most powerful esper in its history, the student council president, and is considered the hottest girl on campus. So, yeah...she's pretty smug. But it's repeatedly shown that she takes her responsibilities seriously (despite bending rules when it suits her), cares for the safety of her fellow students, and has twice put herself at risk in order to protect them. All of which has earned her the admiration of the student body.
  • Penny of Penny and Aggie appears at the beginning of the comic to be a straight-up Alpha Bitch, and indeed Aggie and certain other characters see her that way for much of the series. However, while Penny is materialistic and often snobby, she's also genuinely ethical and compassionate. She even admits to Aggie, when they bury the hatchet and become friends, that "I don't really need the perfect shoes. It's just fun to pretend I do."
  • Emily Caston from Rain. She initially comes across as a typical Alpha Bitch who's concerned with having "the perfect year" and graduating valedictorian. However, after Rain gets to know her, she makes it clear that behavior is just a façade. In truth, Emily describes herself as awkward and antisocial, suffers from extreme Parental Neglect, and is very knowledgeable on the subject of romantic and sexual orientations. She also trusts Rain with the secret that she's pregnant with her (much older) ex-boyfriend's child, who she's going to keep, and also becomes the first person to whom Rain directly comes out as being transgender. The two of them become close friends and even call each other sisters, at least until Rain finally admits she has a crush on her and the two become an Official Couple.
  • Sandra and Woo has Zoey and Michelle who, though they start out as very straight Alpha Bitches, eventually become this around the time it's revealed that Zoey is very much not a "straight" example and Michelle has to grow as a person in order to preserve their friendship. During this event, Zoey and Larisa come to the agreement that "maybe we should stop doing horrible things to each other" and Michelle begins using her Alpha Bitch position for good causes, like convincing Landon Hill's overtly strict, religious mother that Larisa, even if she is a succubus that'll give birth to the antichrist as Mrs. Hill suspects, is still the only thing keeping Landon from becoming gay, so she should just let them keep dating.
  • Montana from season 3 of Survivor: Fan Characters. She starts out asking to be voted out first because she doesn't actually care about the game and just wants to lounge in Ponderosa, but when one of her tribemates gets sick, she agrees to not be voted out so that her ill tribemate can leave the game instead and is soon after motivated by Isaac's sexist comments to stay in the game to duel with him. She also responds to a tribal switch by making bitchy comments about her new tribemates but quickly befriends gay outcast N who notes that she's actually pretty nice for someone who constantly proclaims herself a bitch.

    Web Original 
  • Aki of Sailor Nothing has shades of this. Even before her Break the Haughty chapter, she is (secretly) friends with Himei, the class loser. She later considers her "breaking" to be the best thing that ever happened to her, as it freed her from the shallow pursuit of popularity.
  • Worm: Tattletale is explicitly beautiful and has manipulation (through knowing or being able to figure out just about everything) as a superpower. However, despite her bitchy tendencies towards the world at large, she lacks any crowd to be "in" with and is a loyal friend to Taylor from their first meeting. What little is known of her backstory would suggest that she probably used to be this played straight, given her honest concern about her brother and her constant beating herself up for not seeing the signs of his impending suicide. She certainly isn't the self-centered kind of bitchy, given how she ran away when her father attempted to use her power for incredibly selfish ends. Whether Tattletale is lovable or not seems to depend on the viewpoint character. She's certainly an excellent friend to Taylor, but in Ward, where Victoria (Glory Girl) is the protagonist, Tattletale is much more malevolent and generally an asshole. She has no reason to be nice to Victoria, and Victoria hates her guts due to her role in what happened between Victoria and Amy. Taylor's perception is colored by Tattletale's kinder side towards her, but Victoria's perception is colored by witnessing the nastier side of Tattletale that was never directed at Taylor.

    Web Video 

    Western Animation 
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Cindy Vortex is the Academic Alpha Bitch variant — she often picks on Jimmy out of jealously and looks down on other students, but she does genuinely help Jimmy and his friends every now and then. She also has a crush on Jimmy, which she adamantly refuses to admit.
  • Angelica Pickles from All Grown Up!, especially when compared to straight-up Alpha Bitch Savannah.
  • Tami from The Amazing Spiez! on numerous occasions. She even becomes the spies' friend for good and for real (albeit of the vitriolic variety) in the unaired-in-the-US Grand Finale.
  • Sasha Waybright from Amphibia deconstructs it. Sasha is genuinely protective of and affectionate towards Anne and Marcy, but these redeeming qualities only go so far when paired with her sheer selfishness, Control Freak tendencies, and sometimes outright cruelty. It's absolutely clear that she does care for the others, but she's also a pretty terrible friend because she simply refuses to admit she's wrong or change her bad behavior. Despite this, Anne and Marcy still love her and want to remain friends with her, although Anne seems to finally reach the end of her patience at the end of Season Two. Then comes Season Three, where Sasha finally realizes the consequences of her actions and decides to change for real.
  • Muffy Crosswire from Arthur, who is Spoiled Sweet and gets along with everyone in spite of her flightiness.
  • Courtney Gripling from As Told by Ginger. She may have a somewhat... anthropological approach to the world outside her sphere, but she really does have a kind heart. Her best friend Miranda Kilgallen is closer to the more typical Alpha Bitch but even she softens as the series goes on.
  • Chelsea Cunningham from Batman Beyond. She sees no contradiction between being best friends with Spoiled Sweet Dana Tan, hanging out with her ex-con boyfriend and his geeky friend, and dating Jerk Jock Nelson Nash.
  • Harmony Bear in Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot has a diva attitude, being bossy, perfectionist, and presumptuous, bragging constantly that has the best voice about all Care-a-Lot, however she clearly cares about the children and the other bears, she is kind to them and is always willing to help, even with those who tend to be more problematic.
  • ChalkZone minor character Michelle Norwegiano is one of these. While she can be stuck-up at times (Rudy even refers to her as "a total snob" when a misunderstanding causes him to think he and Penny weren't invited to her party in "Poison Pen Letter"), she's also been shown to be pretty friendly with Rudy (and presumably Penny—she's at both of her parties shown in the series but they don't have any real interaction).
  • Jetta from the Clifford the Big Red Dog animated series. Her dog, Machiavelli, is a male example.
  • Sissi of Code Lyoko, especially in Seasons 2 and 4 when there were a lot more episodes with her written that way, though she had a few moments in the first season as well. Much of her setbacks to being a just plain Alpha Bitch were due to the literal Reset Button the show regularly uses, and being a just plain Alpha Bitch to start with was because of a stupid misunderstanding between the heroes and her back in the prequel episodes. In the series finale, her status as one finally sticks when the heroes make her a part of their group.
  • Daria:
  • Beebe Bluff from Doug. While she can be a bit snobby, she's genuinely friendly to Patti, Doug, Connie, and the rest of the main characters.
  • Stephanie Knightleigh in Edgar & Ellen occasionally falls into this, either being nice toward her little brother, helpful toward her equally jerkish adversaries, or surprisingly badass in her scuffles with them that even they respect her for it. This is a contrast to the book series the show is loosely based on, where the twins gradually become better people (despite all their attempts to resist this) while Stephanie is gradually revealed as a sociopath with little in the way of redeeming traits.
  • Depending on the episode, Trixie Tang of The Fairly OddParents! can be one of these or just a straight-up Alpha Bitch.
  • Fillmore!: Head cheerleader Cheri Shotwell is a shallow girl involved in lots of school activities, but she is generally polite and helpful to Fillmore and Ingrid. She also congratulates a classmate over his petition to save his family's shop from being condemned in "The Shreds Fell Like Snowflakes" and shows horror when someone destroys the petition.
  • Shellsea from Fish Hooks. Although she tends to find Milo and Oscar ridiculous, she's also Bea's best friend.
  • Andrea Davenport from The Ghost and Molly McGee is an extremely popular Alpha Bitch who in her debut in "First Day Frights" easily turns the whole student body against Molly. However, she doesn't antagonize her after that and usually minds her own business, getting nicer with each appearance. Finally, she learns about Molly being homeless, immediately mobilizes all of Brighton to help, and publicly declares Molly to be her best friend.
  • Contrary to all expectations, the "one-dimensional bleach-blonde valley girl stereotype" Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls ends up becoming this in the second season, with both Mabel and Dipper bringing out her better side on separate occasions, especially with the revelation of her rather disturbing Freudian Excuse.
  • Rhonda Wellington Lloyd from Hey Arnold!, despite engaging in typical Alpha Bitch activities, can be remarkably friendly. Her best friend is a down-to-Earth bug collector, she has a great capacity for sympathy to those less fortunate, plays sports with her significantly less wealthy classmates all the time, and doesn't hold a grudge against the guy who stalked and blackmailed her into dating him for a week.
  • Lori Loud from The Loud House is a high school senior with a condescending and selfish attitude who still loves her family and will do the right thing, even if it requires being humiliated by her siblings to open her eyes occasionally.
  • Played with in Miraculous Ladybug with ChloĂ© Bourgeois, who goes backwards and forwards between a spoiled brat and a hero. Although it's ultimately subverted in "Heart Hunter", as she pulls a Face–Heel Turn and sides with the Big Bad Hawk Moth.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Rarity is somewhat vain and materialistic and occasionally looks her nose down on her more slovenly friends such as Applejack. However, she is no less helpful than the other ponies and embodies the Element of Generosity (her Establishing Character Moment being when she sacrifices some of her beloved tail to act as a mustache for a heartbroken sea serpent).
    • In later seasons, Babs Seed, and eventually Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are revealed to be this, and each time their excessive brattiness comes from serious personal insecurities. note 
  • The one Debbie in The Oblongs who gets her face all temporarily mutilated. Much to the chagrin of the outcast group, as she becomes as clingy with them as she was with the Debbies.
  • Elodie from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes was introduced as an ex-close friend of Action Girl Enid. Elodie seemingly turned against Enid after the two friends battled for acceptance into the prestigious P.O.I.N.T. Prep, leaving Enid with major trust issues. However, when Enid manages to also be accepted into P.O.I.N.T. Prep, Elodie admits that she regrets breaking off their friendship, and the two make up. After that, Elodie still has her Jerkass moments (such as talking down to K.O. for even suggesting that he could get into P.O.I.N.T. Prep), but does ultimately help reveal Chip Damage's secret power orb-pumping scheme, and chooses to stay at the school because she still believes in the morals it was founded on.
  • Academic Alpha Bitch Amity Blight in The Owl House is revealed to be one in "Lost in Language", being capable of self-reflection and remorse, and even outright kindness and heroism. In "Understanding Willow", it's revealed that Amity only qualified for this trope because she was forced by her parents into being "friends" with genuine Alpha Bitch Boscha. Once this comes to light, Amity no longer serves as this trope.
  • Trinket St. Blair from Pepper Ann. She is condescending and spoiled, but she really doesn’t mean any harm and has good intentions.
  • Ashley A from Recess could count. When she is kicked out of the clique, she befriends Gretchen, and during the Little Miss Blush beauty pageant, she secretly congratulates Spinelli. She has also asked the gang for help on other occasions and is seen talking to the less popular kids on the playground like The Diggers. Sometimes, the other three Ashleys can also be convinced to be nice and do good, like in "The Great Can Drive" and "League of Randalls".
  • Cassandra in Sabrina's Secret Life. She started as the witchy replacement of Alpha Bitch Gem Stone. But, as the series progresses, she became more kind-hearted, and by the end, she and Sabrina are officially good friends.
  • Amber from Sofia the First was originally a genuine Alpha Bitch and a Royal Brat in the Pilot, but quickly warmed up to Sofia and becomes this trope.
  • Liz from The Spectacular Spider-Man becomes this via Character Development, going from stuck-up in the second episode to eventually dating dorky Peter. Mary Jane also may count, as she interacts easily with both the popular and geeky kids, while Glory also has at least some hints of this, quickly bonding with Harry for a time.
  • Spirit: Riding Free:
    • Maricella starts out as a classic jerk, but in "Lucky and the Deadly Blizzard," she demonstrates a more vulnerable side and is ultimately fond enough of Lucky to ring the town's church bell for who knows how long in order to guide Lucky through a blizzard when normally she eschews manual labor. Although Maricella still seems awkward about being worried about Lucky, whom she generally dislikes, she does hug Lucky and accepts a hug from her in turn.
    • Bebe Schumann from the spinoffs is a downplayed example. Though she's initially more antagonistic to the PALs than Maricella was, she was eventually shown to be more sympathetic in The Palomino Family Affair, which introduced her father, Sergeant Jack Schumann, who is comparatively more cold toward her than Lucky's father, and it is made clear that her perfectionist tendencies throughout the show are a result of trying to live up to her father's high expectations. Although he eventually learns to cool it down by the end of the episode, Bebe still retains her Academic Alpha Bitch personality.
  • Flying Princess Pony Head from Star vs. the Forces of Evil can be jealous, manipulative, and selfish but is still for the most part a genuinely good friend.
  • On Steven Universe, the "cool kids" are Buck, Jenny, and Sour Cream. They're all extremely nice and have no problem hanging out with Steven, despite him being several years younger than them.
    Steven: Oh, but I—I don't have anything against squares. I like all basic shapes.
    Buck Dewey: (Chuckles) Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. You got that much-needed counterpart to our cynical worldview. You have to come.
  • Lo from Stōked technically should be the Alpha Bitch, given her "pedigree". She's a spoiled, gorgeous, manipulative, rich girl with a spray-on tan ...however, she's also friendly and loyal, downright sweet even, and loves her friends.
  • Kimmy in Sym-Bionic Titan becomes one as the show progresses due to her relationship with Octus.
  • Male example: Gordon from Thomas & Friends.
  • Clover from Totally Spies!, in contrast to Mandy, who was more of a classic Alpha Bitch. While Clover can be kind of rude, snobby, and conceited, she understands the importance of friendship and teamwork, unlike Mandy. Mandy has been shown to have a nicer side to her personality—unfortunately, it never lasts long and she pretty much always goes back to being mean again if she's provoked in some way.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Lovable Libby

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Home is Where the Haunt Is

Just as the McGees are about to leave Brighton after being forced out of their home, Andrea Davenport manages to rally the townsfolk into raising enough money for Molly and her family to get their house back, all because of all the good deeds the McGees have done for the town ever since moving into Brighton. Andrea even goes as far as calling Molly her best friend.

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