| MTV Name/Nickname | Burnout Girl, Burnout Chick, Christy, Jennifer |
| Fandom Names | Burnout (or Burn-out) Chick, Karen Disher, K.D., B.G., Jen, Jenny, Christy |
| Stock/stereotype | Normal (Introvert) |
| Classmates | Daria and Jane |
| Speaks? | Yelps in "The New Kid"; sings briefly in "Daria!"; cheers in "Jake of Hearts" |
| Frequency seen | Often ("Esteemsters" to Is It College Yet?) |
| Based on real person? | Yes (MTV staffer Karen Disher) |
| Alter egos? | No |
Burnout Girl has long pale blonde hair that (usually) falls across the right side of her face. She typically wears olive-drab pants (Army surplus?), black heavy shoes or boots, a black tee, and a long-sleeved dark gray jacket with a red skull on the back, plus assorted patches. (Could the jacket have once belonged to her father or an older brother?) The right knee of her pants is torn, and the left knee has a flower sewn on it. A necklace appears to be her only jewelry. Her expression is usually bland, and she gives the appearance of being quite introverted. One wonders what her interior life is like. As was revealed in "Jake of Hearts," she is a smoker.
Burnout Girl first appeared in the pilot episode of Daria and was carried over to the televised episodes as well. She is one of the few background characters seen in both the very first episode ("Esteemsters") and the very last (Is It College Yet?), as well as the pilot ("Sealed with a Kick").
A now-missing online flipbook called "Oh, the Obscurity!" from MTV's Daria website (c. 2001) contained more information about this character: BURNOUT GIRL—Daria supervising director Karen Disher designed this character and based it upon her very own self. "Burnout Girl" appeared in the original Daria pilot and is often seen roaming the halls of Lawndale High, lost in thought, much like Karen. (First appeared in the pilot)
Though never as popular as Andrea, Burnout Girl has in recent years enjoyed increased appearances in fanfiction, particularly following Roentgen's discovery of her "real name," Jennifer, on Mr. O'Neill's classroom seating chart in "Cafe Disaffecto."
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1. MTV line drawing (frontal view) of Burnout Girl.
2. MTV line drawing (front oblique view) of Burnout Girl, with Karen Disher in the upper left corner. The full view shows a screen capture from the MTV flipbook, "The Transformed Staff"
3. Preproduction version (c. 1995-1996) of "Burnout Chick," from the MTV flipbook, "Before They Were Daria Stars."
4. Burnout Girl (at left) makes her first appearance in Daria, in "Esteemsters." She is in Mr. O'Neill's after-school self-esteem class.
5. Different seating arrangement in the self-esteem class in "Esteemsters," with The Head now on the other side of Daria, off-screen to the right.
6. Seated between Jennifer 2 and Shaggy, Burnout Girl watches Daria and Jane discuss their "graduation" from self-esteem class in "Esteemsters." Burnout Girl was undoubtedly still trapped in that after-school class at this time.
7. Standard seating arrangement for Mr. O'Neill's classes, left side, seasons 1-4 ("A Tree Grows in Lawndale"). Brittany (foreground) has been crying because Kevin is no longer the "QB."
8. Standard seating arrangement for Mr. O'Neill's classes, up center aisle from back of room, seasons 1-4 ("The Misery Chick").
9. A terminally bored Burnout Girl suffers through Mr. O'Neill's lectures in "The F Word." Some of her classmates have dozed off.
10. Burnout Girl chats with Tall Goth Girl in the school cafeteria (episode unknown).
11. In "Lucky Strike" we get a closeup view of Burnout Girl, her hair now covering the left side of her face.
12. Like so many other students, Burnout Girl knows where to find the best pizza and company: Pizza King ("Daria Dance Party").
13. Is Burnout Girl leaning against her own car in the school parking lot: a blue VW Beetle? At any rate, she is smoking a cigarette. You can barely see the S-shaped curl of smoke rising from her right hand. In the episode ("Jake of Hearts"), she raises her hand to her mouth to take a drag.
14. The Daria Database shows an exhausted and sweating Burnout Girl, sprawled on the gym floor in Ms. Morris's PE class. As in #11, her hair now covers the other side of her face. Tiffany Blum-Deckler (one grade behind Jennifer) is sprawled beside her.
15. Two close-up views of the red skull on the back of Burnout Girl's jacket, from Is It College Yet?
16. Burnout Girl (high center) in the gymnasium scene in "Daria!" just before everyone bursts into song. She sits next to Josh (see #11).
17. And now she's singing with her hands in the air, like everyone else ("Daria!").
18. In "Prize Fighters," we see Burnout Girl eating lunch by herself. She does this about as often as she eats with other students, it seems, so she has a social life of sorts.
19. The "trampoline incident" from "The New Kid." Jane and Daria are spotting for Burnout Girl...
20. ...but fail to catch her when she falls, being engrossed in conversation. Note Daria's camera, with which she takes a picture of Burnout Girl moments later when B.G. is lying on the floor. Burnout Girl shrieks briefly as she goes over the side. We see her full face in #7 for the only time in the series.
21. In "Through A Lens Darkly," we see a guitar inside Burnout Girl's locker. Does she play it? (image from Lorenzo Sauchelli)
22. Her back visible behind Bob, Burnout Girl goes clubbing in the Zon at the start of "Jane's Addition." Mystik Spiral is playing, and Jane is about to meet Tom Sloane.
23. Jennifer is seen walking with Josh at the fund-raising carnival in "Fair Enough." Neither appears to have been assigned to work at the fair, and so are free to walk around and enjoy themselves. Linda Griffin is in the foreground, talking to Helen Morgendorffer.
24. At the fundraiser in "Fair Enough," Burnout Girl watches the black knight (Mr. DeMartino) best all comers.
25. A singularly unenthusiastic Burnout Girl participates in the exploration of the Mall of the Millennium in "Malled."
26. Though partially hidden, Burnout Girl can be seen in the upper left of the image, seated in the back of the school auditorium watching the bridal expo in "I Don't." She seems to be turning toward Kevin, who has interrupted the show.
27. Burnout Girl and Shaggy walk past Daria and Jane in "The F Word" without giving Jane's new outfit a single glance.
28. One of a number of students who did not wear school colors when Val came to visit ("The Lost Girls"), Burnout Girl sits through a very curious class with Mr. O'Neill that was taken over by Val.
29. Daria, Jane, and Val sit at the table next to where Burnout Girl, Bob, and Angel are talking. Angel is wearing school colors, the other two at that table are not.
30. Burnout Girl is a wallflower at Brittany's party in "Groped by an Angel." Mystik Spiral is again playing (or will be shortly).
31. In "Cafe Disaffecto," while Lawndale High students perform for their classmates, Burnout Girl sits in the back of the cafe between Shaggy and White Sweater.
32. Like everyone else around her, Burnout Girl cheers the disk jockeys visiting Lawndale High in "Jake of Hearts."
33. Jennifer, near the center of the image, listens to the announcement of the teachers' strike in "Lucky Strike." A few seconds later, she cheers and applauds like everyone else.
34. Jennifer sits next to Daria in the school auditorium (episode unknown).
35. In "I Loathe a Parade," Jennifer is one rank back in the crowd watching the parade. Her clothing detail is very sharp here.
36. Burnout Girl, sitting to Daria's immediate left (from Daria's point of view) in the graduation scene from Is It College Yet? This is the last we see of Burnout Girl in the series.
37. During the musical intro for Is It Fall Yet? we see Burnout Girl dancing (quite well) in a black bikini. Though this could be considered a fantasy sequence, it is realistic enough to use as fanfiction "reality."
38. During the time-traveling musical intro to Is It College Yet? we see Burnout Girl at a 1970s toga party, a la Animal House.
39. Burnout Girl, seen wearing a light blue peasant blouse in "Legends of the Mall." She is a background character in Stacy Rowe's retelling of the 1960s-era urban legend of the Rattling Girl, making this a fantasy characterization.
Daria Character Database: character page (as "Karen Disher")
Sick Sad World: character entry
DariaWiki: character page
PPMB thread: "BURNOUT GIRL'S REAL NAME!!!" (03/04/05): Discussion of the seating chart for Mr. O'Neill's classroom from "Cafe Disaffecto"
Daria Fandom Blog II: "Daria Deciphered" (01/05/08): Analysis of the seating chart for Mr. O'Neill's classroom from "Cafe Disaffecto"
Daria Encyclopedia 0.0: character entry (search for "Burn-Out Chick"; also search for "seating" to get seating arrangements and seating charts for classes)
Outpost Daria: "The New Kid" transcript (see Daria's comments about the trampoline accident)
Daria Fandom Blog II: All DFB2 posts about "Burnout Chick"
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