Jenny Humphrey
From Gossip Girl Wiki
| |
| Jennifer “Jenny” Humphrey | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jennifer “Jenny” Humphrey |
| Portrayed by | Taylor Momsen |
| First Appearance | 1.01, 'Pilot' |
| Age | 14-16 (TV), 12-16 (books) |
Jenny Humphrey is a characetr in the TV series Gossip Girl and the book series of the same name. The television character is played by Taylor Momsen.
Contents |
[edit] Book Series Background
Jenny is the daughter of Rufus Humphrey, an editor for beat poets who has never been published himself, and Jeanette Humphrey, who ran off with a European aristocrat. She has an older sibling named Dan Humphrey, who is an aspiring poet. Jenny is a student at the Constance Billard School for Girls, a small, elite, all-girls school located at 93rd and Madison Avenue, where Upper East Side princesses like Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen attend.
She idolizes the sexy and wealthy Serena van der Woodsen. Jenny also has a large chest, that of which has drawn the attention of many boys and is the bane of Jenny's existence, particularly when she is sexually assaulted by Chuck Bass in a bathroom at a party. Jenny is described as being just caucasian American. She is just under 5 feet. Jenny is a talented aspiring artist.
[edit] T.V. Series Background
Jenny Humphrey is the daughter of rock 'n roll player Rufus Humphrey, and younger sister of Dan Humphrey. She and her family reside in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her mother, Alison, left them temporarily to fulfill her dream of becoming an artist. Jenny always wants to fit in. She has long blonde hair and attends the Constance Billard School for girls. She is 5'8"
[edit] Book Series
[edit] Books 1-6
[edit] Books 7-12
[edit] T.V. Series
[edit] Season 1
Jenny Humphrey is introduced in Season one. She is a pretty, blond freshman at Constance Billard. She is always desperately trying to fit in with the it crowd. She has been the pawn of the main characters of many of the main cast, especially Blair Waldorf, from episodes one to nine. However, when Blair's affair with Chuck Bass is let known, Jenny becomes increasingly popular. The cool kids and former friends of Blair shun her and bring Jenny into their inner Queen Bee circle in Episode 13. Jenny then becomes one of Upper East Side's It girls. Jenny's low self confidence is due to never having as much money as the other girls. This provokes her to steal a dress worth $15,000 from one of her new "friends's" mother; but when she realizes it's worth so much, she tries desperately to get it back to the owner. At a surprise birthday party thrown for her by Blair, the other girls realize that Jenny has the dress, bringing Blair's scheme full circle. However, Penelope has a major crush on Nate Archibald, who Jenny has become friends with. Jenny turns to him after all of her friends have abandoned her and brings him to the popular restaurant where the popular girls are. When they see Jenny with Nate, they immediately bring her back in. Blair, however, gets even more angry with her, thinking that Jenny is trying to hook up with Nate. However, Jenny told Nate about Blair and Chuck, which not only ruined Blair and Nate's relationship, but put a thin line between Chuck and Nate. After a mess, Jenny thinks she needs a Prince Charming to win the popular crowd. Jenny thinks she's found true love with Asher Hornsby, but their romance is short-lived: he convinces her to say that she lost her virginity to him in order to put the rumors of him being gay to rest, and as long as she pretends it's true, he'll pamper her with Upper East Side things like parties and clothes. However, Blair and Eric out Asher at his own party, and Jenny confesses that she lied about having sex with him. The popular group abandons her once again, and she later finds Blair to tell her that she's won as it's "not worth it".
At the season finale, Jenny receives an internship at Blair's mother Eleanor's company.
[edit] Season 2
At the beginning of season two, Jenny spends her summer working hard as a new intern for Eleanor Waldorf designs. She tries to impress her boss, Laurel, by making her a dress for the upcoming white party. But that didn't work when Laurel says she would never wear a dress an intern made to the white party. Later, Jenny called Eric and apologized for being "a complete and total bitch to him" saying that he was the only real friend she's ever had, and she hurt him the most. Eric forgives her and brings her to the white party, where she meets up with Tinsley Mortimer, a fashion designer who offers Jenny an internship at her designs. Jenny was flattered, but politely turned down the offer, saying that she is learning enough right where she is. She is later almost fired at her internship for making a comment to a model on one of Eleanor's dresses but was soon hired back.
During Fashion Week, she suggests that Serena and her newly acquainted friend/socialite Poppie Lifton sit in front row seats at Eleanor's fashion show to boost publicity and draw more attention than Marc Jacobs' fashion line. Blair finds out about the change of seating, and is enraged Serena is in the spotlight now, and that this would break their tradition of watching the fashion show from backstage, but also that Jenny was the one who caused the changes. She swears payback to Jenny, and she finds it when she learns from Eleanor that Jenny has been helping out so much at her company because she has an "independent study" semester hence Jenny has been skipping class for the past two weeks. Her father finds out she has been cutting class due to Blair's slip of the tongue. Though she is caught, Jenny refuses to return to school even after a scheduled meeting with the headmistress, and rushes back to help Eleanor and Laurel prepare for the fashion show. Jenny is in charge of getting the runaway models ready, but Blair foils her job having persuaded the models to leave at the last minute. Jenny devises the plan to have Serena, Poppie, and her friends walk the runaway modeling Eleanor's clothing line. However, Blair tries to ruin things once more for Serena by giving her the wrong dress for the finale. Serena ends up wearing one of Jenny's homemade dresses on the runaway. Jenny is flabbergasted with Blair for messing with her but then realizes the real reason why she has been trying to screw things up (because of Serena). There they share a moment when Jenny comforts her saying both she and Blair have worked hard for what they've wanted but Serena just glides through everything. She admits that she wanted to be in Blair's clique last year because she wanted Blair to like her. Shortly after the fashion show finale, Eleanor is furious with Jenny for trying to humiliate her (since Serena wore Jenny's dress) but before Jenny can explain they are informed of the popularity the dress is unexpectedly receiving from the audience. During the after party, Blair and Jenny share a friendly moment. She is confronted by her father thereafter who pressures her to go back to school. He doesn't want her making the same mistakes he did by dropping out of school and chasing his dream. Still, Jenny refuses; making an affirmative statement when asked if she really did not care about going back to school.
In "New Haven Can Wait", Jenny and Rufus make a deal. If Jenny will take Rufus to work to see how committed she is to fashion, Rufus will let her be home-schooled. At work, Rufus asks Eleanor Waldorf to fire her, saying he's not sure he can keep his promise,but Eleanor won't budge. When Rufus still won't let her be home-schooled, Jenny asks him to do one more favor for her and let her drop off some clothes. When he runs into Lily, who lets him know how wonderful Jenny is at her job, Rufus decides she can be home-schooled, and Vanessa drops off the transcripts.
In the episode entitled "Pret-a-Poor-J", Jenny befriends a model named Agnes. The two start their friendship and Agnes immediately starts to stress out Jenny, taking her dress to a party when Jenny needed it for Eleanor's meeting with Bendel's. When Eleanor attempts to exploit Jenny's designs, Jenny quits her internship and decides to start her own fashion line. Jenny meets some new friends and Nate does not approve. She also starts a relationship with Nate after he rescues her from being taken advantage of by an older photographer. When confronted by Jenny, Nate shows signs of interest and Jenny goes in with a kiss. Just when she thought she had made a mistake, Nate pulls her back and the two share a passionate episode-ending kiss.
[edit] Etymology
- Jennifer is of Welsh origin, and it's meaning is "fair one". It is a variant of Guinevere, who, in Arthurian tales, was King Arthur's queen.
