Wendy

Wendy is Shannon's oldest sister and a recurring character in 'Real Friends,' a graphic novel written by Shannon Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Pham.

Personality
Wendy has difficulty making friends, like Shannon. However, she is often bullied (pages 182 and 185) and it is revealed that she had a worse time attempting to make friends than Shannon. Their parents even moved Wendy to a different school in hopes that things would be "better at her new school" (page 179). She and Shannon have a turbulent relationship at first, a perfect example of this is on page 77, where Shannon shows that their relationship is "up and down, up and down." Wendy takes her problems out on Shannon, and often hurts her. She scares her by threatening to hit her, and sometimes does actually hit her. Wendy only says that Shannon is "being obnoxious." In doing so, Wendy makes Shannon afraid of her. Shannon pictures her as a bear, ready to attack at any time. In the summer of 1985, Wendy moves away to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a model. At the end of the graphic novel, their relationship greatly improves. Shannon finds herself "telling her stuff [she] hadn't told anyone" (203). According to Hale's Author's note, the two "became great friends" (215) as they grew up.

Appearance
Wendy is very fashionable. She pays attention to how other people perceive her, as shown when she tells Shannon to put a poster of Billy Idol in her locker so "Jen will think [she's] cool" (206). She starts the novel with medium length straight brown hair, but on page 77, she cuts her hair very short and curls it. After she cuts her hair, she usually wears colourful button up shirts and rolled up fabric pants. She also has her ears pierced and paints her nails.