what’s crazy is i genuinely do think if the writers weren’t cowards blair would have been a good mentor for jenny

I love Jenny and still do. In my head canon she eventually went no contact with her useless father and weasel brother and she was able to start her own fashion line and owns several boutiques in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The writers were determined to punish the character because Taylor Momsen never really wanted to be on the show imo. It was their own prejudice towards the teenage actress wanting to pursue music over dedication to the show that resulted in all the tragedy the character had to go through

People hate her character simply because she outplayed all of their favorite, self-aggrandized characters. she would continuously put blair, serena and other characters in their place; she rightfully changed to adapt to her environment and rose above.  They’ll bash her character despite the fact she is simply a byproduct of those around her their favorites

jenny doesn’t deserve so much hate :((

I wanted to strangle Agnes that scene enraged me.

Always loved Jenny and felt like she was failed by so many people. It’s so painfully clear how young she is in S1 and to see her light dim season after season was awful. Ugh.

Would love for you to talk about Vanessa, too! A lot of the hate she gets is… interesting.

As someone who’s been a Jenny fan since my first time watching this show over a decade ago, it genuinely blew mind mind when I realized people hated her for the same reasons they loved Blair and Chuck. All Jenny ever did was defend herself. People just couldn’t handle that she beat their favorites at their own game.

Everyone hates Jenny and Vanessa like Blair isn’t a horrendous person and friend for most of the show

The Humphrey family are not working class. Their Brooklyn loft is worth a few million even back in 2008. Ruffus was worth a few million himself from the band he was in. And he's able to open an art gallery and cafe and sell them at the drop of the hat. And Ruffus is not shown to have an actual job or career, like working class people. He spends most of his day at home not really doing anything and they buy their groceries from a farmers market. They weren't anywhere near Blair Waldorf or Chuck Bass money but they are not working class. Working class people would glading swap with what the Humphrey family had. That's what annoyed me so much about Dan, he had no idea how good he had it. He was never a "poor" boy from Brooklyn.

You are so right about Jenny’s situation with Chuck. I was groped by my uncle as an adult and never wanted to be around him again. I can’t imagine being a young girl and forced to still be around a guy who assaulted you.

Thank you SO much for discussing Jenny. That was so important. I'll never understand how anyone can hate her while liking characters like Blair or even worse, Chuck. A literal rapist! The people who stan and defend them are so delusional and have 2 fruity braincells! Jenny never truly stood a chance! Everyone around her failed her. I'll forever blame Rufus for everything that happened to her and the way she turned out. First of all, another thing you didn't mention about him is that he was so sexist raising his kids. He had a double standard when it came to Dan opposed to Jenny. Like Dan slept with a teacher and had no repercussions yet Jenny skipped school to work and he was livid over THAT. He even tried to get her arrested for the party hijack fashion show that everyone loved tf! Rufus of all people should have known that when you work in a creative field, you have to get yourself known and recognized so you can get a gig. And I don't get why everyone acts like it was Jenny's fault that first Eleanor, then Agnes abused her work. Then she got the businessman to negotiate with her, but her parents didn't cooperate. She was surrounded with unsupportive, abusive people. She deserved to be a fashion designer more than anybody and have her own fashion house that rivaled Blair's. He also chose to send her to a school for the wealthy and expected everything to be fine. Like no sir, that's not how the world works! They were rich af and they'd tease scholarship and poor students. Rufus didn't know the first thing about raising a teenage daughter and didn't understand the toxic UES atmosphere that he threw Jenny into and punished her whenever said environment influenced her behavior. He threw her to the sharks and blamed her for doing everything she could to survive. For example, when she got caught with Hazel's mother's dress in S1 and everything was revealed, Jenny explained her struggles perfectly and he still wasn't sympathetic to them. Rufus didn't understand and didn't want to! Like you can’t expect a young impressionable kid to be surrounded by toxicity and not absorb it/react. It’s like he expected her to be moral and herself and didn’t care whether that led to her fitting in and making friends or not which just wasn’t realistic. He refused to listen to her. He knew that Jenny was being actively bullied and he just brushed it off and didn't do anything about it which is also kinda why she started skipping school in the first place. I think Dan even told him at some point that the school is full of date rapists and mean girls and he just still had her go there??? I think a lot of her issues could've been avoided had he been emotionally available and a better dad! Also, that scene with Agnes drugging her and intentionally leaving her with a bunch of men to be gang raped was so disgusting and disturbing to watch, it had me raging! FORGET JAIL, GIRL DESERVED TO BE EXECUTED FOR WHAT SHE DID TO JENNY! And her losing her virginity to Chuck, the same guy who assaulted her in the first season was also a disgusting plot. Chuck went back to coming on to her after he noticed her interest in Nate. He used his "flirting advice" to get closer to Jenny, he flattered her, made her feel like "a grown woman" (even though she was still underage) and then sexually exploited her for his own benefit in one of her most vulnerable moments. Grooming at its best! And the WORST part is, everyone around him knows what Chuck has done with girls in the past (especially with Jenny and Serena in season one), but they didn't say or do anything to stop him or hold him accountable. And the banishing storyline was so stupid and unrealistic. Who tf does Blair think she is? She has no right to banish her, she's not the mayor! Also, half of Manhattan literally slept with Chuck. Might as well just banish them too. Pathetic! Jenny's the most tragic character in the show. Forever a Jenny defender!

i loved jenny never got the hate i always thought she deserved better fuck rufus😭

She never deserves the hate

blair and serena’s constant fighting was way more annoying than anything jenny ever did.

also, seeing her kiss nate is so fucking disturbing. i don’t know why they’d hired a child and put her in those situations. they could’ve literally hired a baby-faced adult.

ok, thank u so much for mentioning the pilot episode... i was literally attacked on reddit a few weeks ago because i said chuck was a horrible person bc that wasn't his first or last time assaulting another person in that show and jenny gets more hate for being a "rebel" than chuck gets for being a predator!

She was a byproduct of her environment, and became what blair and serena (and others around her) taught her, with an internally fragmented family who were emotionally inattentive (especially her checked out father which i think gets overlooked so much, and dan being as emotionally in depth as a brick, also being GG — and an absent mother). She was the MOST talented out of all of them and peope hate her because she ended their favorites and never lost, in the end she won, left the UES and went off to live her dream/lavish life, whenever the other characters are awful people overlook it but not when jenny rightfully lashes out and changes as a character. through and through, she remained being a nice character at heart and was always truly kind and just used  the cards she was dealt, and rose up. i love her character and style so much. these people hate on jenny without understanding her character and why she changed; these same people will idolize and endorse serena, blair, chuck, georgina and every other character who are categorically worse than her.

I've never disliked/hated Jenny, if anything I've always liked her character when I initially watched Gossip Girl in high school. Then during my last re-watch (2 months ago) I realized something crucial. She outplayed the rich elite on that show but she was always reprimanded for it or scolded by her father. I don't know but I made a "where's Jenny Humphrey now" after the finale of Gossip Girl a couple months ago. Jenny is now a famous fashion designer, she's a powerhouse. Not only does she have a successful fashion empire, she designs clothes, dresses to a lot of famous celebrities that actually appreciate her artistic talent, I'd like to say that she's cut ties with her father but she still talks to Dan Humphrey, the occasional calls and texts but nothing more than that as she's establishing boundaries with him. And all of the rich elites like Blair, Serena, and even Chuck are now jealous of her success.

Additionally she's too pretty/attractive to be likable when a female character is this pretty her character has to be completely unthreatening and usually funny/quicky to have a chance of be liked and avoiding villainisation. Because she has an unattainable type of beauty it massively triggers insecurity attracts resentment, especially when the most desired male characters show interest in her makes it worse.

THANK YOU I am a #1 little J defender always