What's in a Name?

Millicent Yates

Millicent Yates- English (Cornish ancestry);  A young Christian currently enrolled in the seventh grade at the middle school, Millicent is a polite and self-possessed student with a gift for painting and creating art. A self-taught girl who perfected her skill through continuous practice and watching videos on YouTube, she is a favorite pupil of the middle school's art instructor and is renowned for painting beautiful portraits of her family members and loved ones and watercolor landscapes of surrounding scenery. She also shows a strong aptitude for English literature, in addition to being in honors math courses and showing strong skills in algebra and geometry. She is often well-meaning, but private and tends to stick mainly to her older sister Avery, an eighth-grade student at the middle school, and best friend Cody Moore, a slightly nerdy, but good-natured Caucasian boy girl in her grade. Raised in a conservative household with strong fundamentalist values, Millicent often represses her homosexuality and budding attraction to girls, namely her female classmate Desirae Sweeney, in fear of being rejected by her family members due to her strict upbringing by a traditionalistic father who serves as the pastor of a small local church in Long Island. She wears glasses and tends to dress modestly at her family's suggestion, often wearing long skirts and buttoned up shirts with her signature Mary Janes to school, along with wearing her blonde hair in a low ponytail. She is considered tall at 5 ft. 5 in and ascetically trusts her own faith, being described as having innocent bluish-green eyes, as well as a light complexion. With her restrictive upbringing, she tends to be sheltered and repressed, often being unable to express or embrace her true desires or reflect the person she truly is. 

Millicent tends to be somewhat philosophical as well and sometimes questions some of the values and beliefs that have been imposed upon her over the years as a result of her upbringing, making her appear passively defiant and rebellious on occasion. A layout editor for the middle school's yearbook staff, like many of her female peers, she fell victim to the harassment and psychological manipulation of a sexual predator, the eighth-grade substitute English teacher and temporary journalist instructor Kip Brewster, who served as Mrs. Romano's replacement during her maternity leave. Mr. Brewster repeatedly insinuated sexual innuendos to Millicent during their encounters and, suspecting of her attraction to a slightly older student named Desirae, attempt coerced the two into engaging in suggestive behaviors with him and one another. Although Mr. Brewster true nature was later revealed after a concerned student, Wendy Nowak, secretly voiced her suspicions to the school's principal, the situation brought significant discomfort to her and led her to receive spiritual counseling from a family friend. Millie tends to be a discreet person who keeps her true opinions and desires hidden but has a humanitarian side, volunteering at her church as worker at the drop-in childcare. As a skilled young artist, she is excellent at drawing and creating artwork through various artistic mediums and has expressed previous desires to pursue a career as an art teacher to share her passion with younger students. Her favorite artist is Georgia O'Keeffe, as she deeply admires her abstractionism and ability to capture the essence of the American Southwest. She mentioned that she once begged her parents to take her to a fancy art auction that was being held in the East Village of Manhattan when she was younger. 

In art class, the teacher was impressed by Millicent Yates' painting, but much less happy with Hannah Quigley's finger painting of a purple cat. When she complained that the art teacher favored Millie more, she explained that it was simply because Millicent's artwork accessed places few could reach. She is nevertheless seen by others as a visual thinker, as she tends to remember things in pictures and has a good photographic memory. She enjoys observing beautiful artwork and might find herself with a rather strong opinion about what is "good" art, but doesn't have the motivation to try, only the desire. Millicent had also considered attending college to become a nurse who would travel to exotic lands as a missionary, admitting that her image of God looked like her dad. She then came to devote long hours to perfecting her sketches late into the night and routinely enrolled in art classes to further polish her skills, earning second place at a local art show. Art is one of the few things that came to bring her a sense of inner peace and happiness with all the big changes in her life, besides chicken parmesan and taking care of her now deceased pet dog and lifelong companion Trixie. Upon noting how happy her art makes her family and loved ones, she has expressed new desires of using her love of art in a way that will help or encourage those around her by becoming an art therapist in the future. Millicent's family claims that she was "clairvoyant", as she had visions of God ever since she was 4 years old and would paint images of him according to how she saw Him in her mind. Her family does not take lightly to her coming out of the closet however, causing her to be disowned by her father and kicked out of her house at 15 once she admits her true sexuality to them. 

The ongoing dysfunction in her home life caused her to develop recurrent struggles with panic disorder that made it difficult for her to fully concentrate on her schoolwork or lead a healthy social life. After a brief stay in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania while her family tried to make her undergo conversion therapy, she is left under the custody of her quirky Aunt Ida, who lives about 30 minutes away and receives her with open arms. Millicent refuses to change schools and begins taking a longer commute by riding the subway from Queens daily to attend the same high school as her best friend Cody, with whom she has a sibling-like bond. She eventually begins to dress less conservatively and wear less skirts. She opts for letting her blonde hair loose and sporting more casual attire, leading her to rarely being seen without her denim jacket, a pair of pants, or a flannel. She begins wearing contacts as well but still wears her glasses on occasion. Because of hers and Desirae's incompatible sexuality, Millicent later abandons her feelings for her and instead develops a romance with an equally artsy classmate and fellow lesbian from Albuquerque, New Mexico named Wren, a junior with short light brown hair, green eyes, and a light dusting of freckles upon her skin, who has hopes of becoming an exercise science major in college. An alternative soul and free-spirit, Wren is the bassist for local rock band and is known for wearing her short hair with pink streaks in it. She normally pairs her outfits with leather jeans, converse boots, and graphic tees, as well as an occasional beanie, which immediately captivates Millicent's eye. A running inside joke between them both is that Wren owns six of the same beanies, which Millicent claims "all smell like strawberries." 

She and Wren are able to bond once they find themselves paired off together as coworkers at Yogurty, the local frozen yogurt shop, leading them to form a connection once they self-disclose and find several similarities between themselves. When the two girls begin sneaking around and have sex for the first time in her basement, they are sure it seals a love that will be "forever". Wren proved to be very kind and supportive, as she was a big fan of communication and wanted to ensure Millicent was happy and satisfied. She would immediately run to Millicent at the sight of a text saying that she needed her and usually carried a blanket and extra thermos of coffee in her bag to help her relax if she was to suddenly experience an anxiety attack. Millicent also enjoyed being the "big spoon" in their cuddles and showed a surprising desire to feel in control after experiencing emotional abuse and manipulation in her troubled upbringing. She was slightly inclined to be the dominant partner in their relationship, yet always careful and concise in her words in order to hurt or offend others. Millicent finds herself estranged from most of her family for some time and becomes less religious as a young adult, coming to identify as agnostic. She attends the University of New Haven and later decides to pursue a new life in Wooster Square as Wren becomes the lead singer of a ghd rock band. Despite the harassment she received from some of her male classmates, including the lecherous and homophobic Eddy Beadles and narrow-minded Bradley Hargreaves, the two develop a lasting relationship and enjoy one another's company as they become the "moms" to three baby rats, among other creatures that they care for over the years. She truly enjoys unique and special creations and often appreciates whenever there is a meaning behind whatever art-form she is exploring. ISFP 9w1