The Baby Sitters Club/Characters

Kristy Thomas

Full name Kristin Amanda Thomas. Founded the club in the first book Kristy's Great Idea, and became the President, renowned for having an endless stream of "great ideas" (including the Kid-Kits, and many one-off events such as the Mother's Day Surprise, the various day camps they ran, and so on). Her father ran out on the family when she was very young, and in Kristy's Big Day, her mother got remarried to "real live millionaire", Watson Brewer. Tomboyish and sporty, Kristy founded a kid's softball team for many of their sitting charges in Kristy and the Walking Disaster. In later books, she had a bit of a romance with the coach of the Krushers' rival team, Bart of Bart's Bashers.

• Control Freak: On the one hand, Kristy's organization and strong personality allow the club to run smoothly and let the girls accomplish many things that pre-teen girls would often find difficult. On the other hand, she can sometimes run too tight a ship — she has a special glare for members who show up one minute late to a club meeting!
• Cool Big Sis: Is seen this way by her stepsister Karen.
• Disappeared Dad
• Fan Nickname: K Ron.
• Girl Next Door
• Kendo Team Captain: Of the Krushers.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: In most books, identified only as "Kristy".
• Tomboy
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Mary Anne.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Tends to keep her hair like this most of the time.
• Two First Names

Claudia Lynn Kishi

Vice-president of the club, by virtue of being the only one with her own private phone line. Additionally, her junk food habit meant that she always had snacks stashed in her bedroom that the other girls could eat during their meetings. Artistic, flighty, and hopeless at school, Claudia defied the "model minority" stereotype to an extent. Her family was very conservative, and she often felt as though she was being compared unfavorably to her genius older sister, Janine. She had many casual boyfriends, but few serious ones. In Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout, she was pushed back to the seventh grade, only to be returned to the eighth grade with her friends in Claudia Makes Up Her Mind.

• Asian Airhead
• Book Dumb
• Deadpan Snarker: Or as close as the BSC ever gets.

Stacey: [The local department store] lost their Santa Claus. Claudia: Disappeared between men's shoes and kitchenware, huh? I know that area. It's like the Bermuda Triangle.

• The Fashionista
• Informed Ability: Her artistic talent, which due to the medium, was rarely shown. The movie allowed her to show off her talents just a bit more, including in the intro where she's seen making a wind chime out of old silverware and a hanger.
• Sweet Tooth

Mary Anne Spier

The secretary of the club, as she was extremely organized and had very neat handwriting. Was raised by her father, her mother having passed away when she was very young. In early books, her father Richard was very strict, but he gradually loosened up as time passed. She was Kristy's next-door neighbor before Kristy's move, and throughout most of the books is her Shrinking Violet best friend. She was the first of the club members to have a steady boyfriend, club associate officer Logan Bruno, who she meets in Logan Likes Mary Anne. Becomes step-sisters with Dawn in Mary Anne and the Great Romance.

• Author Avatar: Ann M Martin identified her as such.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Mary Anne gets extremely vindictive when pushed too far.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Her father makes her wear her hair in braided pigtails until the end of the fourth book, when Mary Anne stands up to him as well as proves she can be the adult in a dangerous situation instead of panicking. She lets her hair down in celebration.
  • Important Haircut: In the later books she starts taking on a more mature appearance with a bob Haircut and pierced ears. Her friends are surprisingly offended by this.
• Girl Next Door
• Girlish Pigtails: Her braids, meant to symbolize her father trying to keep her an innocent little girl for way too long. She finally gets rid of them in her first spotlight book.
• Missing Mom
• Naive Everygirl
• Overprotective Dad
• Shrinking Violet
• Tender Tears: One of her defining traits.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Kristy.

Stacey McGill

Full name Anastasia Elizabeth McGill. Originally from New York City, she moved to Stoneybrook when her father was transferred. Frequently described as chic, sophisticated and "boy-crazy", Stacey, like Claudia, had many boyfriends but few long-lasting relationships. She was the treasurer of the club, as she had a gift for mathematics. She moved back to New York in Goodbye, Stacey, Goodbye when her father was transferred back, but returned to Stoneybrook in Welcome Back, Stacey when her parents divorced, and her mother decided that she preferred living in the small-town environment. Frequent attention is paid to the fact that she is diabetic, and she is hospitalized multiple times throughout the series. She quit the club to spend more time with other friends in Stacey vs. the BSC, but she rejoins in Stacey and the Bad Girls.

• Do Not Call Me Paul: Stacey does not like being called "Anastasia".
• Embarrassing First Name: Stacey doesn't tell anyone her real name is Anastasia for a long time.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Her father calls her "Boontsie".
• The Fashionista
• Good with Numbers
• Hair of Gold
• Only Known by Their Nickname
• Overprotective Dad: After she is diagnosed with diabetes.
• Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Or watched Mary Poppins once a week, totaling hundreds of times.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Stacey's dad is a workaholic.

Dawn Read Schafer

Introduced in Mary Anne Saves the Day, Dawn is the alternate officer of the club. Originally from California, Dawn moves to her mother's hometown of Stoneybrook when her parents divorce. She becomes fast friends with Mary Anne, which makes Kristy extremely jealous. She is identified throughout the series as being a very casual, individual health-food nut, though this was retooled in later books to place the emphasis more on environmental activism and strict vegetarianism, rather than simply being into health food. Her mother and Mary Anne's father marry in Mary Anne and the Great Romance. Later in the series, she grows increasingly homesick, and moves back to California to live with her dad and younger brother in Dawn's Big Move.

• Characterization Marches On: In early books, Dawn is into health food and "prefers" to not eat red meat (and doesn't even feel sorry for cows), but still eats chicken and fish. In later books, she is a strict vegetarian who rants about the evils of killing animals for meat.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Shows a dose of this in Mary Anne's Makeover, in which she admits that she's jealous of all the time Mary Anne's been spending with her father and that it makes her miss her own terribly. Dawn comes off as being resentful of Mary Anne for having her father around, apparently forgetting that he is Mary Anne's only living parent.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Read.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Sunshine". In part embarrassing, because it's also her California best friend's full first name.
• Granola Girl
• Hair of Gold
• Health Food Fanatic: And how.
• Informed Attribute: Dawn is usually described as being the "individual" of the group, but at times she changes herself to attract boys. For instance, in Dawn and the Older Boy, she cuts her hair so a boy will like it better.
• Sixth Ranger
• Soapbox Sadie: Infamously played straight in Dawn Saves The Planet. By the end of the story, it ends up blowing up in her face.
  • It's All About Me: Bordering on A God Am I, in this book.

Mallory Pike

First introduced in The Truth About Stacey as a ten year old client, she is invited to join the club at age eleven in Hello, Mallory!, after Stacey moves back to New York. The oldest of eight kids, Mallory is described as very responsible with children. Despite this, at first the club is hesitant to let her join because of her age, making her do a number of difficult tests before finally relenting and letting her and her best friend Jessi join the club. As she is the only one in her family with red hair, glasses and braces, Mallory often feels unattractive and an ongoing plot arc of hers was trying to convince her parents to let her spice up her look with contacts, pierced ears, and a new wardrobe. She is forced to leave the club for a while when she comes down with mononucleosis in Get Well Soon, Mallory. She rejoins the club in Kristy and the Copycat, but then leaves for good in The All-New Mallory Pike when she leaves for boarding school.

• All Girls Like Ponies
• Ascended Extra
• Bookworm
• Butt Monkey: A list of the tragedies that befall her can be found here.
• I Am Not Pretty: How Mallory sees herself.
• Meaningful Name: Mallory is Norman French for "unlucky".
• Naive Everygirl
• Off to Boarding School: In The All-New Mallory Pike. In this case, however, going was her decision.
• Only Sane Man: In many books where the club members are fighting, Mallory and Jessi serve as this.
• Sixth Ranger
• Straw Fan: In Mallory Pike, #1 Fan, she comes across like this.

Jessica Davis "Jessi" Ramsey

Jessi moved to Stoneybrook from Oakely, New Jersey at the beginning of the sixth grade, coincidentally into Stacey's old house. She has an eight-year-old sister called Rebecca or "Becca," and a baby brother named John Phillip Ramsey Jr., better known as "Squirt."

Jessi is incredibly talented at ballet, and when she grows up she wants to become a professional ballet dancer. She has been doing ballet since she was four, and was admitted into a special ballet school in Stamford. She has had the lead role in several productions at that school. In book #115, Jessi's Big Break, she had an opportunity to join the Dance New York programme and study ballet under David Brailsford for 3 1/2 weeks. Toward the end of the story, she was also given a chance to join the Dance New York programme full time, but she decided to accept it when she was a little older.

• Black Best Friend: To Mallory and the other girls.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Essentially Mallory 2.0 before later books explored her character.
• Friendless Background: Of the Newcomer variety. Doesn't help that many people are racist towards her and her family.
• Only Sane Man: Like Mary Anne, she doesn't go overboard on something like many of the other girls.
• Sixth Ranger
• Token Black: As every single book will tell you, she is the only black member.

Abigail "Abby" Stevenson

The final Sixth Ranger, taking over after Dawn left and Demoted to Extra as soon as Friends Forever started up. Abby moved with her mom and twin sister, Anna, from Long Island to Kristy's neighborhood in part for her mom to distance herself from Abby's father's death. Abby is a big joker, a natural athlete, asthmatic and allergic to half the things in any given room.

• Alter Kocker: Abby's Grandpa Morris and Gram Elsie in Abby and the Mystery Baby. Less so in other appearances.
• Blithe Spirit: Greatly enlivens BSC meetings with her jokes and her refusal to take Kristy too seriously.
• Different As Night and Day: Abby and Anna
• Pungeon Master
• Technician Versus Performer: According to Kristy, Abby is a natural athlete, while Kristy is a sportsperson.