What's in a Name?

Kirsten Lundgren

Kirsten Lundgren- Danish/German (mother); Swedish (father); Kirsten Lundgren is a beautiful and charismatic cheerleader at the high school who has served as Hannah Quigley's archrival since the 1st grade. She often says "Obvi", which is slang for "Obviously" and is generally a very kind and sweet person, although she can also become extremely vindictive when she is provoked. She is a lover of all things related to fashion and makeup, namely shoes, and is very focused on her appearance, as according to her peers, she has experienced several fun, but short-lived flings. She also appears to be naturally tall and thin and has freckles and straight, waist-length blonde hair that has never been cut, which earns her positive reactions from some onlookers and slight jealousy from her female friends. Kirsten is often the first one to jump on the bandwagon of what's trendy or popular and often enjoys gossiping about others, having created a list ranking all the boys in her class by attractiveness. She also launched the Pleases and Sparkles club with several of the girls in her grade, during which the females join in to discuss their interests such as Orlando Bloom and NSYNC. She has often proven to be unkind to the point of cruelty, antagonizing Hannah since the 1st grade and ridiculing her among other students despite their friendship in kindergarten. She is keen on appearing well-behaved in front of adults however and was often seen as an exemplary child and student, making Hannah bothered by her "perfect attitude". Kirsten is often perceived as vapid and shallow by those around her and classified as stuck-up and unapproachable due to her good looks, which makes her secretly resent them. She often feels lonely due to the absence of her father, a pilot who divorced her mother when she was 6 years old and has since been estranged from her and the family. 

She looks toward her pet dog Robbie for affection and has considered him to be her most loyal companion since she was a young child. Her two best friends as of elementary school are Meygan Davis and Sharidan Tellez-Hodge, whom she first befriended due to their similarly rhyming names, with the three calling themselves "The Three Kittens". Kirsten is an influencer who is usually very friendly and flirty and posts under the screen name Cantaloupe Sinclair, and she is often seen hanging out with other students, especially the girls. She steadily dated a boy named Scott Tucker between the 5th and 9th grades despite their rocky on-and-off relationship and Hannah Quigley's mutual attraction to him. She dislikes the unwanted attention she receives from boys deep down and desires for them to appreciate her for her intelligence and aspirations rather than superficial traits such as her breasts. She shows hidden depths when she admits that one of her ancestors was a Holocaust survivor in class and desires to become a coder, making an app for her family's department store businesses. Despite generally being nice, Kirsten has a mean streak and can be quite tactless, as shown when she made fun of a new girl at her sleepover, although she felt guilty about that soon after. She is also implied to have a Machiavellian personality, being referred to as the "Two-faced Bitch" by a few others due to her duplicitous and dishonest nature. Much of Kirsten's negative attitude is rooted in the neglect she receives from her father Rolf and the toxic relationship she shares with her mother, causing her to resort to taking out her aggression on others to cope. She has a strong maternal instinct however, serving as the "Team Mom" among her friends, and seems very immersed in her duties in looking after an egg during a project at her school. 

Kirsten secretly likes to cook and often watches Food network in the privacy of her bedroom to pick up new recipes and refine her skills in the kitchen. She was one of the few students at Hannah Quigley's 10th birthday party however who refused to eat birthday cake due to fearing it had germs from blowing out the candles, resorting to eating an apple instead. Her favorite food is Pad Thai, as well as anything ethnic, and she has traveled to many locations, such as Milan, Italy and Vienna, Austria due to her father's work. She is also seen as a practical schemer with her ability to devise complex plans and bring them to fruition, in addition to her clever decision to make handmade paraphernalia to raise money to attend a concert. At first glance, Kirsten seems like a typical respected, well-liked cheerleader, although upon closer inspection, she holds onto a deep-rooted darkness due to suffering from an eating disorder. Her mother was seen to be the root of her eating disorder and poor bodily image, forcing her to maintain a "perfect" image while criticizing any perceived flaws. This presumably led to the development of her binge-purge anorexia, as her mother constantly wanted her to maintain a good appearance while keeping her under a tight thumb. She would hide her inner struggles from her friends and especially her boyfriend, as while the two appeared to share a loving relationship on the surface, they were fairly distant from one another in reality. Though she was slightly harsh to Hannah, she acted somewhat friendly towards her despite the labels given to her by their fellow classmates. Her "good attitude" and powerful presence would also affect the people around her and make the disaster she experiences in 9th grade gym class even more tragic when a boy ties a knot in her hair with gum.