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When it comes to style, Snow White's apple fell far from the tree.
Examples of Tomboy and Girly Girl in television.
  • Allegra's Window had added rambunctious mail carrier Encora to sweet, beautiful teacher Ms. Melody in season 2.
  • The Amazing Race: Happens from time to time with female teams, notable in that the girly girl is always inept, forcing the tomboy to carry her.
  • Amber Brown (2022): Brandi, a fashion-oriented girl with long hair who wears feminine clothing, vs Amber, who isn't into that, with a boyish style. At first Brandi assumes Amber will be putting on a new outfit for their first day of school like her. Amber though is happy with her afro and the same shirt and pants she has there. Downplayed as they're both just eleven however and it's not pronounced for either of them.
  • America's Next Top Model:
    • Season 7 had Amanda and Michelle Babin, identical twins. Amanda was girlier, whereas Michelle was the tomboy.
    • Cody and Tash Wells, at least as far as Tash is concerned.
  • The Barrier: The twins Julia and Sara seem to have this going on, at least clothing-wise. When they are shown as children, Julia is wearing her hair in a braid and an outfit with pants while Sara wears her hair down and a dress. In the plot's present day, Julia still favors outfits with pants and is working as a maid in a rich household while pretending to be Sara (Sara is dead and the job offering her widower desperately needed was for a married couple). Due to the nature of maid uniforms, Julia is usually wearing a dress around people who think she's Sara. Some photos and flashbacks of Sara show her to have continued favoring skirts and dresses into adulthood.
  • Batwoman (2019): Kate is the tomboy in contrast with multiple other female characters.
    • With Beth. In their childhood, Kate wore dark-colored, fairly tomboyish clothing and kept her hair in a braid while Beth wore lighter, feminine colors with her hair let down. This was especially pronounced at their Bat Mitzvah, with Kate in a dark purple suit and tie and Beth in a bright pink and blue floral dress. This carried over into their adulthood, as Batwoman fights crime in a black combat suit while Alice wears flashy and lacey vintage apparel with many skirts and dresses. Kate prefers a Bifauxnen style for formal occasions while Alice gets dolled up in a shimmering golden gown when infiltrating a gala.
    • She is the tomboy to all of her love interests, who were more feminine lesbians.
    • With Mary, who is generally more fashionable and excitable than her.
  • Battlestar Galactica has The Lad-ette Starbuck and the more feminine Boomer. Both of which are female remakes of previously male characters.
  • Best Friends Whenever: Shelby Marcus (girly girl) and Cyd Ripley (tomboy). Shelby is a very flamboyant fashionable girl who runs her own fashion website, while Cyd is a sarcastic tomboy who randomly punches others and loves to eat junk food.
  • Better Call Saul has a downplayed example between Kim Wexler (more tomboyish) and Paige Novick (more girly). Both Kim and Paige wear a lot of feminine attire when on the clock as lawyers, but with Kim it's more reserved, while Paige wears significantly more necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry than Kim and wears skirts, dresses, and high heels even more often than Kim does. She seems to indulge more in wearing feminine clothes and accessories while Kim sees it more as a necessity to appear professional, while actually being fairly tomboyish at heart. As far as we know, Paige also lacks the mischievous and rule-breaking side that Kim displays in the later seasons of the show. That said, Paige is still an assertive career woman with Boyish Short Hair, meaning Kim and Paige could be seen as a Tomboy with a Girly Streak and a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak respectively.
  • Better Things: Frankie is the tomboy to her sister Max's girly girl (at the very least, as it's indicated Frankie's possibly in fact transmasculine), with short hair at first (she lets it get longer later, though not too much) and rejection of feminine gender norms as Frankie wears more boyish attire often.
  • On The Big Bang Theory there's Bernadette's girly girl to Penny's tomboy. While Penny has a prominent girly side, she's also very tough and knows more about traditional manly interests like football, hunting or fishing than the guys. Bernadette loves to dress as a Disney Princess (she adores Cinderella), often wears floral dresses, skirts and pink cardigans, and gets excited about her prom-do over. She makes Penny look butch.
    Bernadette: Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna make a beeline for the place that gives you a princess makeover.
    Penny: You're kidding, right? We're not just gonna get drunk and go on rides?
    • Penny is also the tomboy to Emily Sweeney's girly girl in seasons 7-9. It's subtle, but Emily is more outwardly romantic and prone to acting mushy in her relationship with Raj than Penny is with Leonard. She also appears to be a little more emotionally sensitive than Penny, based on how hurt she was by Sheldon's comments in one episode. It also helps that Emily had long hair while Penny's hair was short in that era of the show. The two women actually had a mutual disdain for each other for a while after they first met.
  • Downplayed between Diane and Zoey in Blackish but Diane is much more abrasive, snarky and brutally honest in comparison to fashionable, cosmetic loving Lovable Alpha Bitch Zoey.
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine has the two female detectives of the precinct: the violent and grumpy Badass Biker tomboy Detective Rosa Diaz who frequently wears black leather jackets and the sweet goody-two-shoes girly girl Detective Amy Santiago who frequently wears pink or blue blouses — for a certain value of Girly Girl, anyway, considering that both of them are police officers, an occupation that isn't particularly girly. They both act as the tomboy to the precinct civilian administrator Gina Linetti's high-maintenance dance-loving girly girl.
    Santiago: (talking about her planned first date that evening) Dinner and a movie. (Diaz makes a farting noise) Dinner and a movie is the perfect first date.
    Diaz: For me: cheap dinner, watch basketball, bone down.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy is the chosen vampire slayer who cares about boys, clothes, and cheerleading. When the other slayer Kendra shows up she is seen as the perfect slayer: solemn, respectful, and efficient.
  • Bunk'd has some of these through out the series.
  • Caprica: Lacy and her best friend Zoe Graystone are this respectively.
  • Carrusel: All the girls were feminine, given that this is a Mexican telenovela that aired in 1989-1990. But if you look closely, one gets a bit of a tomboy vs. girly-girl vibe with Valeria and Margarita, who happen to be David's love interests. Valeria is adventurous and not afraid of mice- she even caught one and gave it to David. Margarita is very fashionable and dreamed that David gave her jewelry.
  • The first five seasons of Cheers have Carla The Lad-ette as the tomboy and Diane the Spirited Young Lady as the girly-girl. Their dynamic is basically Friendly Enemy...usually tending towards the "enemy" side. Diane tries, though.
  • Chouseishin Series:
  • Cinderella and the Four Knights: The main female characters are the brusque, self-sufficient fighter Ha-won and the romantic, conventionally feminine aspiring seamstress Hye-ji. Ha-won is insecure about it and assumes guys prefer pretty girly girls like Hye-ji.
  • Cobra Kai has this dynamic between Sam and Tory. Tory is from the Wrong Side of the Tracks, prefers flats, jeans, plaid and dark colors, and studies the aggressive, linear Tang Soo Do-derived Cobra Kai karate. Sam, on the other hand, is an Uptown Girl who likes skirts, pastels and heels, and studies the circular, defensive Goju-Ryu-based Miyagi-do karate. Needless to say, these two women hate each others' guts.
  • Conversations with Friends: Bobbi has the Tomboyish Name and is a bold woman with her personal style being slightly more masculine. Frances is shy and more conventionally feminine. It's downplayed since neither is that extreme either way.
  • Dates: Kate and Erica, respectively. The former is a fairly aggressive woman in masculine clothing, while the latter has a demure, submissive personality (at first) with traditional feminine looks.
  • Degrassi: The Next Generation has Alex and Paige. Alex being the bitter loner and Paige the one who's concerned about social life.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Fifth Doctor traveled with both brassy, sassy, loud Australian air hostess Tegan Jovanka and soft-spoken, femme, scientific genius alien princess Nyssa of Traken. "Farewell Sarah Jane" that they eventually settled down together.
    • Under the Tenth Doctor's run, there was season three, which had companion Martha Jones and her sister Tish as a mild example. Martha was a medical student who eventually became a soldier. She was very proactive when travelling with the doctor when it came to adventure and defeating alien threats. Tish was someone who hopped from job to job in Public Relations and was normally employed just to stand there, smile and look pretty, mainly because she was given jobs above her experience level because Harold Saxon was luring her sister and The Doctor into a trap. Their outfits also slightly hinted at this. Martha would often wear jeans and casual clothes, while Tish would always be seen wearing dresses and generally more feminine clothing.
  • El Chavo del ocho: Tomboy Chilindrina and Girly Girl Popis. Also with the tough, loud Dona Florinda vs. frilly, solicitous Dona Clotilde.
  • The Empress: In the first episode, Princess Ludovika asks her younger daughter Sisi, mangled and dirty from the horseback detour she took to drive away a suitor, why she couldn't be more like her dutiful and ladylike older sister Helene.
  • Everwood: Preteen Delia Brown loves sport and dresses very casually - she likes wearing football jerseys, jumpers or jeans. Her friend Brittany is a girly girl who's interested in makeup, jewelry, fashion or celebrities.
  • The Facts of Life has Jo's tomboy and Blair's girly girl.
  • Family Ties: In the early years, Jennifer was a big tomboy who frequently beats her older brother in sports, while her sister Mallory was a gossipy, popular fashionista. Averted in later years, after Jennifer goes through puberty and becomes more feminine (her sporty, athletic side completely disappears).
  • Fraggle Rock: Red (tomboy) and Mokey (girly girl) Fraggle. Red is a sporty and energetic character who loves to swim and play, is very competitive with her friends, especially Gobo, is rather quick-tempered and acts like a Jerk Jock on her worst days, but on the inside, proves herself to be a loyal companion and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Mokey, on the other hand, is an artistic and mellow Fraggle who's very much connected to nature, willing to help others in need, and has a particular soft spot for her plant, Lanford, and music (especially those coming from Cantus and the Minstrels), but can be a bit absent-minded at times and even angry if pushed too far. In spite of all of this, the two are best friends and roommates, with a dynamic similar to that of Bert and Ernie.
  • Friends: Monica (tomboy) and Rachel (girly girl). Monica is a mild version of tomboy since she loves cleaning and cooking, but personality wise she's domineering, loud and hot-tempered and has a Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy relationship with Chandler. She also likes sports including football and is the most strong and athletic of the six friends, along with Joey. Rachel, on the other hand, is interested in fashion and shopping, is shallow, sweet, ditzy and unlike Monica, she's weak and bad at sports.
  • Game of Thrones: Arya is the tomboy to her sister Sansa's girlishness. Arya doesn't aspire to be a Proper Lady as Sansa does and is unconstrained by social expectations such as gender roles, preferring to learn swordplay to needlework. Meanwhile, Sansa is devoted to traditional, refined "feminine virtues", with her goal in life being to marry a heroic and handsome prince, which sometimes causes friction between herself and Arya. The two girls have a playful rivalry. Later, Arya is given a Cool Sword by her older brother Jon, which she names Needle, commenting that she has a different kind of e needle to her older sister.
  • Gabby Duran & the Unsittables has the title character as the tomboy and Olivia as the girly girl.
  • Girl Meets World: The title character is bubbly, cheerful Nice Girl Riley and the first person she wants in her world is her best friend the rebellious, snarky, Troubled, but Cute Maya. The former loves to wear dresses and skirts, the latter has a punky fashion style.
  • The Good Place:
    • Eleanor is a foul-mouthed, beer-drinking Ladette who's turned on by Janet kicking some demon ass, almost never cleans up after herself, and watches wrestling religiously. Her neighbor Tahani is a well-dressed, endlessly polite Socialite who wouldn't be caught dead in cargo pants, and considers being seen with an off-brand handbag a Fate Worse than Death.
    • Good Janet is the Girly Girl to Bad Janet's Tomboy. Good Janet is a polite Proper Lady who wears a colorful blouse, and a purple vest with a matching skirt, while Bad Janet is a foul-mouthed Ladette who farts, insults everyone, and wears black pants and leather jacket.
  • Gotham: Theo Galavan's two female associates are the intimidating Dark Action Girl Tabitha Galavan and the romantic and emotional (in the scariest way possible) Barbara Keane.
  • In Gullah Gullah Island, Vanessa is the tomboy to Shaina's girly girl.
    • In the Season 1 episode "Please Don't Eat the Alstons", Vanessa was stated to be a girly girl.
  • Hannah Montana: Lilly and Miley for the first two seasons, where it's played very straight. Despite being just as boy crazy and fashion obsessed as Miley, Lilly is a skateboarder, loves sports, is a pig when it comes to eating, and doesn't seem to like dressing girly in school.
  • The Haunted Hathaways:
    • Frankie, the young preteen who loves pranks and doesn't mind getting dirty vs her older sister, Taylor who is very much into boys, although she is also very much a gymnast.
    • Frankie and her nemesis Penelope also count. Penelope loves wearing dresses and the color pink and has plenty of teddy bears and dolls. In this case, their differences annoy each other which is why they dislike each other.
  • Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha: Lampshaded by the village gossips when discussing the Cho-hui/Yeong-guk/Hwa-jeong love triangle. Hwa-jeong is described as a no-nonsense tomboy, while her supposed romantic rival Cho-hui is considered a delicate flower.
  • House:
    • The show started out with only two women; people-oriented Dr. Allison Cameron and career-oriented Dr. Lisa Cuddy.
    • In the last season the dichotomy was represented by soft-spoken Dr. Jessica Adams and laddish Dr. Chi Park.
  • House of Anubis: Patricia is the tomboy to the girly girl of every other girl in the house. Everyone else is afraid of her, she used to play sports, and in the movie, the only reason she wore a frilly pink dress was that Sophia thought Eddie would like it. She gets softer as time goes on, but her fellow girls are definitely not tomboys. It's most obvious when she's compared with Amber, but one can still see it even when she's with Mara and Nina, who have their own tomboy qualities but remain much girlier than Patricia.
  • House of the Dragon: Rhaenyra, a Tomboy Princess, is into dragon riding, likes violent combat and longs for adventure. Meanwhile her best friend is Alicent, a more shy, demure, bookish girl.
  • How I Met Your Mother: Robin and Lily, though they tend to flip flop on which one is which. Basically whichever one makes the situation funnier. With regards to Lily, being a tomboy was enforced on her by her feminist mother who didn't want her daughter to conform to traditional gender roles. Some episodes show she is a girly girl at heart. Additionally, Robin was actually raised by her father as a boy (her middle name is Charles).
  • How to Get Away with Murder features this kind of friendship between Posthumous Character Lila Stangard, the rich and girly sorority girl, and Goth tomboy Rebecca Sutter.
  • iCarly:
    • Sam and Carly, in their own words, the "dirty blonde" and the "sweet (and prissy) brunette". Sam is an aggressive, gluttonous tomboy who is very strong and often physically attacks people. Carly is a sweet pretty Naïve Everygirl, and popular with boys. One episode has Carly teaching Sam how to attract a boy by acting more girly and Sam says to Carly “I wanna be more like you. You know, all soft and girly and weak”.
    • Sam and her twin sister Melanie. The latter is sweet, classy, feminine and Sam's complete opposite. Sam admits that Melanie makes her sick.
  • The Irregulars: Sisters Bea and Jessie. Case in point, Bea wears pants in Victorian England and is aggressively outspoken while Jessie is a hopeless romantic.
  • Jessica Jones (2015): The crass, grungy, and violent Jessica is best friends with Trish, who is fashionable, charming and more outwardly feminine.
  • L.A.'s Finest: The stars of this female buddy cop show are Gabrielle Union as Syd Burnett, the crazy, anarchic, break the rules, shoot first, sexually promiscuous, hard drinking one and Jessica Alba as Nancy McKenna, the married, by the book, quiet, reasonable,nerdy one. Sort of like a female version of Lethal Weapon.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Kamen Rider Fourze: Although not fitting the tomboy stereotype exactly, Yuki (bold and energetic with a passion for the male-dominated field of astronomy) counts in contrast to Girly Girls Miu and Tomoko.
  • Last Man Standing: Athletic and JROTC member Eve (tomboy) and The Fashionista Mandy (girly girl).
  • Laverne & Shirley are, respectively, a tough-talking tomboy and a stuffed-animal-loving girly girl.
  • LazyTown: Trixie and Stephanie. Trixie is a tough girl who prefers jeans and gender-neutral colors, while Stephanie is a Nice Girl who prefers pink and dresses.
  • Leverage: Sophie and Parker definitely qualify, but it works to fit their roles in their plans, as Sophie's specialty is conning people, often by seducing them, and Parker's specialty is breaking into high-security vaults.
  • Lip Service: This seems to be Cat's preferred relationship model, as she was with tomboys Frankie and Sam in succession. Fin and Tess are an example as well.
  • Liv and Maddie are, respectively, a Genki Girl fashionista who loves acting and singing and an athletic tomboy who likes to play basketball. They are also Polar Opposite Twins.
  • Love Is Blind: In season 1, both the main women with crushes on Barnett- Amber the former tank machanic and Jessica the regional manager. Amber is a self-proclaimed tomboy who is One of the Guys, loves beer and sports, and likes to make sex jokes. Jessica can come off as a Girly Girl With A Tombou Streak with her love for the Cubs, but compared to Amber is much more of a Girly Girl with her fashionable look, loves wine, prefers to have an emotional connection before having sex, and is neat and elegant. (When she's not a Messica, that is.)
  • The L Word: The series had multiple romantic examples.
    • Dana the Tennis player, and flirty Alice. Later on, Alice was in a relationship with a military officer, Butch Lesbian Tasha.
    • Lipstick Lesbian Jenny also dated Shane, who's a more bifauxnen tomboy.
  • The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Midge Maisel and Susie Myerson. Midge is a perky upper-middle-class Fashionista who loves make-up and clothes and until the separation was a paragon of the 50's housewife. Susie is a grumpy, hard-drinking, tough-as-nails Sir Swears-a-Lot who wears men's clothing and couldn't care less about being fashionable.
  • Alisha and Kelly from Misfits are this. Alisha is a vain, sex-mad Hard-Drinking Party Girl and Kelly is a loud-mouthed Boisterous Bruiser, and on one of their first meetings Alisha calls Kelly a "chav" (British slang for Lower-Class Lout) and Kelly replies with: "If you call me that one more time, I'll kick you so hard in the cunt your mum will feel it". They do become friends in the end though.
  • Modern Family: Alex and Haley Dunphy, however, while Haley's girly girl is definitely the case, Alex's tomboy is mostly only implied, with the aspects of it, such as her being a lacrosse and soccer player, only being mentioned and not shown.
  • Muñeca Brava: the Cholito is an orphan tomboy, who dresses like a boy, play football with men, swears a lot, and refuses to fall in love. Gloria, a fellow orphan in the convent, is a girly girl, always happy, and always trying to convince the Cholito to have a boyfriend (as well as getting one for herself). The Cholito eventually left the convent and moved to the Di Carlo mansion to work as a maid, and started a similar relation with fellow maid Lina.
  • Miss Piggy and Janice from The Muppets have this contrast. Piggy is as girly as they come, proud of it and will break your nose if you don't acknowledge her delicate femininity. Janice doesn't mind makeup, jewelry or the color pink, but she plays electric guitar (an instrument associated more with men) and hangs out with her rather rowdy rock band. Piggy is always dressed in haute couture accessorized with lavender High-Class Gloves. Janice's favorite outfit is a pink tank top and blue cut-offs or miniskirt. Janice only wears long skirts in period pieces and has been known to occasionally wear a tuxedo. Piggy adores the spotlight so everyone can go mad at her beauty while Janice is content to just supply background music. Both have worn their hair long or short as trends demanded. Piggy has shown more variation in her hairstyles whereas Janice at the most has put her hair in a Tomboyish Ponytail.
  • Mustangs FC has stepsisters Marnie and Lara. Marnie is the sports-mad tomboy who founded the Mustangs, and Lara is the girly girl who excels at gymnastics. They have to share a room at home and argue over things like Marnie's smelly sports socks ending up on Lara's side of the room, and Lara's glitter getting into Marnie's deodorant. Lara joins the team mostly to annoy her stepsister, but Marnie can't be rid of her because the team needs her: both to make up the numbers and because she is a brilliant natural athlete.
  • MythBusters: Scottie and Kari occasionally give this vibe when on screen together, though Kari is not afraid to get her hands dirty.
  • Naturally, Sadie has the outdoorsy, animal-loving Sadie whose ambition is to become a naturalist who does field work in the jungle, and fashionista Margaret whose ambition is to become a world famous fashion designer.
  • NCIS: Kate, an investigator and former Secret Service agent along with Perky Goth Abby for the first two seasons. Sexy but deadly Mossad agent Ziva fills the tomboy role after that.
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: Moze is very aggressive and short-tempered, likes beating people up (she's been beating Ned up since Pre-K), likes woodshop, couldn't care less about most girly things like boy bands and gossip, hates skirts and had to be dared to wear a pretty dress, while Suzie likes kitties and stuffed animals, is generally gentle and caring (except for in Season 1, when she was the Alpha Bitch and therefore was proper and self-centered), seems to be very against violence, and frequently wears skirts. However, both are athletic, though Moze seems to care about sports more than Suzie, who initially only tried out for the volleyball team because Moze guessed that she wouldn't be able to make the team if she tried.
  • New Girl: Quirky, girly-girl Jess likes baking and brakes for birds. Roommate Nick's one-of-the-guys lawyer girlfriend Julia unfairly dislikes Jess at first for being close to Nick and being so feminine.
  • Nos4a 2: Vic and Maggie display this contrast. The former is a bit of an unkempt beauty who has fairly masculine clothing, works as a mechanic and rides motorcycles, while Maggie has more feminine looks, working in a library (at first anyway).
  • Once Upon a Time:
    • Mulan as a badass, stoic warrior and Aurora as a dainty, proper princess.
    • Emma, the town's sheriff, and Mary Margaret, an elementary school teacher (especially while they're roommates).
    • Emma Swan, the leather wearing and often sleeveless sheriff, is also the tomboy to Regina's, who prefers to wear elegant dresses, girly girl. Especially after the two buried the hatchet and became a co-parenting team.
  • The Outpost: Talon is the tomboy, dressing in masculine clothing and having trained to fight. Gwynn on the other hand is a proper lady who's in a dress habitually and has traditional female manners. Though not a fighter, Gwynn is also a strong woman in her way and becomes less girly in time, putting on armor and wielding a sword by the end of season one. Both get along well and complement one another.
  • The Patty Duke Show has many elements of this involving a pair of identical cousins, both played by Patty Duke. It's slightly blunted by being attributed to European vs American culture
  • While all of the Pretty Little Liars play with this trope, special mention goes to Emily the Passionate Sports Girl, not a fashion slouch herself, and Hanna The Fashionista, no physical lightweight, either.
  • Princess Returning Pearl has Xiao Yan Zi, the hyperactive, bubbly orphan with Robin Hood tendencies from the streets of Beijing and Zi Wei, the educated, demure, gentle lost princess looking for her father.
  • Punky Brewster has Punky as the tomboy and Margaux as the girly girl. In syndication, Punky would shake her tomboy tendencies after a meeting with a boy.
  • Raven's Home: Nia is a serious and fashion-conscious Go-Getter Girl who wants to fit in (girly girl), her friend Tess is an impulsive Passionate Sports Girl who speaks in urban slang, and loves basketball and rapping (tomboy).
  • Ready or Not (1993): Busy and Amanda are teenagers and have been best friends since childhood. Busy is a major tomboy who loves all kinds of sports, plays the drums and wears casual clothes like plaid shirts, baseball caps and jeans. In contrast, Amanda is a romantic boy-crazy girly girl who likes makeup, nice clothes, writing, and wants to be an actress.
  • Rebelde Way is littered with these pairs:
    • Of the main characters, there's Marizza and Mia. The former likes causing chaos and annoying authority figures wherever she goes; the latter is more concerned with fashion, make-up, and annually makes a fashion fair dedicated to lending her old clothes to other classmates.
    • Amidst Mia's group; sultry, street-smart punkish Vico is the tomboy to Mia and Feli's more sheltered Girly Girls.
    • Luján is a sporty gal who is One of the Guys and is barely interested in romance or dating. This contrasts heavily with the flirty Marizza and the more demure, romantic Luna (who was later replaced by the shy, studious Laura).
  • Rizzoli & Isles: The title characters. Jane Rizzoli is a no-nonsense cop with an attitude and prefers to be treated equally to the men on the force. Dr. Maura Isles is a brilliant (though eccentric) medical examiner who acts much more feminine than Jane.
  • Roseanne: Becky was an over-emotional girly girl, Darlene was a snarky tomboy.
  • Sam & Cat: Sam continues her tomboy role from iCarly while Cat takes over the girly girl role.
  • Schitt's Creek: Scenes featuring Alexis and Stevie heavily lean on this dynamic, with Alexis usually trying to relate to Stevie's tomboy nature in a condescending way.
  • School of Rock: Tomika's Tomboy to Summer's Girly girl.
  • 7th Heaven: Mary and Lucy are close in age and share a room so there's quite a bit of interaction between them. Mary is an aspiring basketball star who looks down on her insecure sister for being a mall rat and wanting to be a cheerleader.
  • Shake it Up: According to Bella Thorne, CeCe and Rocky as the Tomboy and the Girly Girl, respectively, though they can rotate Depending on the Writer. They have also been compared to Sam and Carly: CeCe is the fearless, wild troublemaker who gets a lot of detention at school, just like Sam (though Sam is a full-blooded tomboy, while CeCe has a girly streak), and Rocky is the sweet, well-behaved Go-Getter Girl like Carly.
  • The Shannara Chronicles: Eretria, who's a tough Action Girl in masculine clothes, vs her girlfriend Lyria, an elegant princess who wears beautiful dresses.
  • Shining Time Station:
    • Kara and Becky. Their Halloween costumes (train engineer vs. Princess Classic) make it clear which is which in their first appearance. Their everyday clothes are subtler, but if you pay attention to the series, Kara almost always dresses and acts more boyishly.
    • Grace is the more tomboyish of the girls in the band, has more of a rocker personality, and always wears pants, while Didi wears a pink and blue dress, and in the specials, she's a bit of a flirt towards Mr. Conductor.
  • Sister, Sister: This was apparently semi-forced (in much the same way as the Olsen twins) on Tia and Tamera. It was played straight early on but gradually faded. Tia was initially the tomboy and Tamera the girly girl but their personalities gradually evolved into Tia simply being the smart one and Tamera being a ditz. Both were fairly feminine towards the end. Although a fashion designer, Lisa is aggressive, hot-tempered, has a Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy relationship with Ray and is naturally Sassy Black Woman cranked up to eleven.
  • South of Nowhere: Ashley and Spencer. Interesting case with that the two of them ended up becoming the Official Couple. The name thing is still similar to Shake it Up.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager also have two major female characters apiece, and they also avert this trope: Dr. Crusher and Counsellor Troi on TNG are both closer to the feminine side of the scale, while Captain Janeway (notorious for a certain amount of recklessness; a quote: "Sometimes you just have to punch your way through") and B'Elanna Torres (half-Klingon, 'nuff said) are closer to the tomboy side of the scale. Though played straight in TNG's first season with Tasha Yar, the tomboyish security chief who bonded more with Worf than Troi and Crusher. Similarly, for Voyager's first three seasons the third female regular was girly nurse Kes. Her replacement, Seven, was less girly personality-wise but still sent most of her time in tight-fitting catsuits.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Jadzia Dax and Kira might be considered an aversion of this, in that both are tough women who can put up a fight: Kira is a former terrorist and Dax is familiar with Klingon martial arts. Perhaps ironically, given that she was a man in her past life, Jadzia tends to be more comfortable expressing her feminine side: she has long hair while Kira's is short and no-nonsense, Jadzia has to talk Kira into visiting spas and playing princess in the holosuites, etc. Justified with Jadzia. Though her directly previous host Curzon was male, as were three of the others, she also had three prior female hosts. Her fourth host, Audrid, was shown to be very feminine indeed — partly as a joke as her personality was inhabiting Quark's body at the time. Jadzia also refers to her third host, Emony, as being highly emotional. Joined Trill take on personality traits from all of their hosts, the symbiont and the new host to create a new person. In turn Jadzia and Ezri maybe the Tomboy and the girly representatives of the Dax chain.
  • Stargate SG-1: Samantha Carter and Vala Mal Doran in the Ori episodes. Action Girl Sam is a physicist, engineer and air force officer with a boyish haircut. Ms. Fanservice Vala is an Action Girl too, but less so than Sam; she prefers to use her feminine wiles, and she wears her hair long.
  • Stingray (1964) featured Atlanta Shore as the Tsundere Military Brat, and Marina as the sweet, gentle water princess.
  • Super Sentai: Seen in several series. Often, if a series has two girls, Pink (or White) is a classic case of Kawaiiko or a girly, and Yellow (or Blue) is often more down-to-earth, though not usually a full-on tomboy. Boukenger switched the colors, but has badass soldier Sakura and bubbly, pigtailed Third-Person Person Natsuki teaming up to rescue the boys on one occasion. This is also played straight in almost every Power Rangers team with two girls, where Pink (and once, White) would be more feminine than Yellow though color reversals (such as Cassie and Ashley) weren't uncommon. For a case of a female Blue Ranger, Tori was as big a sports junkie as her friends, but didn't appreciate being told they thought of her as "like a guy-girl".
    • Dengeki Sentai Changeman had the short-haired tomboy Mai contrasting the more graceful and feminine Sayaka. Interestingly though the roles would change depending on who was writing the ep. An early ep had Mai as the serious one who wanted to focus on Ranger work and the fight against the big bad while Sayaka wanted her to blow it off for a while and do girly things. Then a later ep had the same thing only with Mai as the girly one and Sayaka as the serious one. Ohranger's girls had a similar dynamic with one being the competent one and one being the Chick varying between the eps.
    • Choujuu Sentai Liveman had the team member, Megumi, as the tomboy while the ally Colon (whom herself is a machine) is the girly-girl. Sometimes Super Sentai would have the lone female as a tomboy with a non-member counterpart as a girly-girl. Or vice versa, as in Hurricaneger where team member Nanami is the girly-girl and mentor Oboro is the tomboy.
    • Choujin Sentai Jetman initially had Ako (Blue) as the tomboy and Kaori (White) as the girly-girl, with an interesting role reversal of positions over the series; by the end of the show, Ako has become an Idol Singer and much more looks-conscious, while Kaori becomes less shallow and materialistic and more down to earth.
    • Power Rangers Turbo had a pink tomboy (Cassie) and a yellow girly girl (Ashley). But for its Sentai counterpart, it's the opposite; tomboy Yellow Racer and girly girl Pink Racer.
    • Denji Sentai Megaranger averts this trope as both female Megarangers are a pair of girly girls.
    • The female White Ranger noted above, Wild Force's Alyssa, plays both roles in her own show, as she's the girly girl to Taylor's Tomboy and the Tomboy to their mentor, Princess Shayla.
    • For a villainous example, the two female executives of the Jakanka in Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger are the boyish and immature Furabiijo, and the vain and seductive Wendinu.
    • Power Rangers Mystic Force is an interesting twist on its sentai counterpart, Mahou Sentai Magiranger, in its rare-for-PR use of this trope. In Mystic Force, the Blue Ranger, Madison, is the serious, down-to-Earth one, as is her Sentai counterpart... but the Pink Rangers bear no similarities, Mystic Force's being a Hot-Blooded Shorttank (and Madison's sister, at that) and Magiranger's being a sweet Kawaiiko. In other words, Blue remains essentially the same person in both versions, personality-wise... but winds up being the tomboy figure in one and the girly girl figure in the other because of the very different Pinks.
    • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger once again inverts the usual trend. Kotoha/Shinken Yellow is much more soft-spoken and feminine, while Mako/Shinken Pink... while not outright a tomboy, usually plays the part of a cool, reliable big sister. She's also a horrid cook. Both would be girly girls in contrast to the later addition of Kaoru. Its Power Rangers counterpart, by contrast, had the Yellow Samurai Ranger (Emily) as the tomboy and the Pink Samurai Ranger (Mia) as the girly girl whilst the female Red Samurai Ranger (Lauren) remained a tomboy.
    • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has rugged treasure hunter Luka contrasting to graceful princess Ahim.
  • The Suite Life on Deck has tough and physically adept farmgirl Bailey and Rich Bitch fashionista London.
  • Teen Wolf: Allison is an Action Girl whereas Lydia is more The Heart and a Teen Genius.
  • Teletubbies: Po and Laa-Laa. Po is more sporty and she loves to ride her scooter while Laa-Laa is bubbly and likes to play with her ball or dance in a skirt.
  • That '70s Show:
  • Career-minded and sensible Mancie O'Neill and her sister, shallow and vain Showbiz Expert Amber O'Neill on That Puppet Game Show. (Sports Expert Jemima Taptackle is less girly than either of them, but this isn't played up as a Foil.)
  • Tomica Hero Rescue Force: Juri is the girly-girl and Rei is the tomboy. Their roles seemed to be reversing at the end of the series as Rei had settled with a boyfriend and stepson, whereas Juri was being groomed to succeed Nancy as the head of UFDA.
  • Tweenies: Bella and Fizz respectively, although roleplaying is another issue. Bella wears overalls, is loud and bossy and likes playing sports with Milo and Jake, being in charge, and arguing when she doesn't agree with something, while Fizz wears a pink dress, is shy and more introverted and likes doing ballet, playing with stuffed animals, and dressing like a princess.
  • The eponymous 2 Broke Girls, Max and Caroline play with this. Max is a tough, snarky, streetwise girl with a Tomboyish Name who grew up poor while Caroline was a wealthy, high society girl who likes riding horses. However, Max enjoys baking and sells homemade cupcakes from the diner where she works. Caroline learned a lot from her business mogul father, and it's her idea for the two of them to start the pastry business.
  • Two of a Kind: Polar Opposite Twins Mary-Kate Olsen as Mary-Kate Burke, a tomboy who loves sports and Ashley Olsen as Ashley Burke who is very girly and likes boys and modeling.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place: Alex is a sarcastic rebellious prankster and The Lad-ette, while her friend Harper is an optimistic Nice Girl who is very emotional and creates her own outfits (though she has a weird fashion style).
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena and Gabrielle, at least in the beginning.

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