Sydney Grace Persson
Nicknames:
Syd | Queen Bee | HBIC
Age:
17
Birthday:
February 10
Hometown:
New York, NY
Sexual Orientation:
Heterosexual
Character Role:
The Queen Bee
Family:
Sydney's immediate family consists of her mother, Elizabeth "Liza" Persson and her father, Stefan Persson. She has no siblings, something that she often disliked as a child, but has grown accustomed to now. Her relationships with both of her parents are strained, but in different ways. She and her father get along quite well, but he works endlessly, and therefore, Sydney only sees him a couple of times a month, really. Her mother is at home far more often, and the two of them butt heads quite frequently. Her mother struggles with alcoholism, and though it's something that she has always managed to keep under the wraps publicly, to protect her family's image, she has a tendency to drink heavily in the privacy of their own home, and her drunk side is closer to being verbally abusive than it is maternal and loving.
Home Life:
New York has always been Sydney's home, and as the only child of one of the wealthiest men in the world, she definitely fit the definition of a child who grew up with New York being their playground. From a young age, she was taught that rules didn't apply to you if you had money. If you life dealt you good hands when you were born, and you ended up popping out of the right womb, you were set for life, or at least given a head start that most of the world didn't get. Although her life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, there's no denying that Sydney has had a lot handed to her. Her kindergarten tuition was equal to the cost of some college tuition, and her nannies had her fluent in Swedish by the time that she was five. She had vacation homes scattered across the globe and traveled to more countries by the time she hit puberty, than most people would see in an entire lifetime.
The opportunities that Sydney was granted, just because of who she was born to, were endless. Many people living on the other end of the financial spectrum would imagine that that alone would be enough to give anyone a perfect life, with no complaints, and yes, Sydney is very aware that she's lucky. At the same time, things were never perfect for her, and she became aware of that at a younger age than she would have liked. She was only around eight years old when she became aware of her mother's drinking problem. A lot of people will turn to the bottle after a traumatic event, and while Liza didn't grow into an alcoholic because she lost a parent or a child, or anything that dramatic, finding out that her husband had been cheating on her with various women was enough to kick start her bad habit. It didn't help that her family history also included a few alcoholics of its own, but Stefan's infidelity was definitely what started the nasty habit that would quickly grow into an uncontrollable illness. Sometimes, at dinner parties with close friends, guests might notice that Liza would drink a few more glasses of wine than she should, but for someone with such a big problem, she did do a good job at keeping it hidden from the public. Her reasoning behind it was that she had already failed enough, by being cheated on.
While Stefan was a businessman, the CEO and founder of H&M, Liza had left behind her journalism career when she decided to get married and become a mother. Her career and purpose, in her mind, was now to be a perfect upper class housewife and to her, being cheated on signified that she had failed at that. The last thing she needed was for the rest of the world to think of her as a drunk too, and so she did a pretty good job at maintaining her composure at social events, and only getting blackout drunk at home, or after those parties. While it saved the family's public image, Sydney often felt the wrath of her mother's intoxication at home. Liza never became physically abusive but she certainly wasn't kind when she was drunk. It was often then, during those late night drinking binges when she would criticize Sydney for any and every thing. Her hair wasn't brushed straight enough, or the answer to a trivial question she had given an acquaintance at the dinner party hours earlier wasn't polite enough. She wasn't befriending the right people at school, or she wasn't a grateful daughter. Even at such a young age, Sydney had a level of self assurance and confidence, to a point where if these insults came from a classmate or stranger, she wouldn't have been bothered. However, hearing it from her own mother, and one who had particularly always been very kind and doting before the alcohol kicked in, made it different. It forced Sydney to become more insecure of herself, at least when it came to criticism being given to her by people she actually valued. It shaped her personality, and being very sensitive or at least attentive to criticism that her friends and family give her is something that still affects her today.
Her parents are still married to this day, and though Stefan swears that he hasn't cheated since Liza uncovered the affairs years ago, Sydney isn't quite as convinced that this is true. Still, she maintains a better relationship with her father than she does her mother, but that also might be because her father frequently travels for work, so they just have less time to butt heads. Her relationship with her mother is far more rocky, and that's one of the major reasons why Sydney values her social life, and the praise she gets socially, so much.
Academic Career:
Sydney isn't just a pretty face, and that's something that she has always prided herself in. She isn't naturally a genius, but she's just someone who won't settle for being second best. She's not going to be the school's valedictorian, but she's not too far from those ranking at the top of the class, and she's never received less than an A in any of her classes. She studies harder than a lot of people, and she's willing to admit that certain things don't come to her instantly, but her dedication to her academics is admirable. Additionally, Sydney participates in the school's Student Government Association, though she does not hold any leadership positions there.
Seeking vengeance | Holding grudges | Spreading rumors | Overreacting and acting ruthless | Disregarding other people's feelings
Hobbies:
Shopping | Reorganizing her closet | Going for runs | Traveling | Yoga | Studying | Modeling
Likes:
Hot chocolate ❤ Disney World ❤ Fashion ❤ Traveling ❤ Australia ❤ Money ❤ Her family's Hamptons home ❤ Shopping ❤ Black tie events ❤ Her friends ❤ Constance Billard ❤ Brown University ❤ Paris ❤ White chocolate ❤ Baking ❤ Margaritas ❤ Vanilla scented things ❤ Pearl necklaces ❤ Lilly Pulitzer ❤ Power ❤ Praise ❤ Achievements
Dislikes:
Spray tans ✘ Pigeons ✘ Subways ✘ Cigarettes ✘ Power outages ✘ Traffic ✘ Clingy guys ✘ Gaining weight ✘ Fast food unless she's drunk ✘ Watching sports on TV ✘ Cats ✘ Beggars ✘ Being dismissed ✘ Milk ✘ The Midwest ✘ Orange juice with pulp ✘ Black coffee ✘ Valentine's Day
Sydney exerts a level of confidence that has always made it difficult for her to not do well socially. She believes that it's easy to convince people that you're better than them if you truly believe that yourself, and it's a motto that's proven to be pretty successful for her. She isn't afraid of speaking her mind or voicing her opinion, even if it is an unpopular one. She doesn't mind public speaking, confrontations, or publicly humiliating or ruining someone who has done her wrong. She has a reputation of being heartless and cold, and it's not exactly a lie. In order to maintain her spot at the top, Sydney has learned that she has to set an example for people who think that they can steal her crown. Cross her, and you're going to die... at least socially. She doesn't like to be tested, and though she thrives on competition, she thrives on it in a sense where she likes competition that she knows she's going to win. It can be a tight race, but she has to win at the end of the day, if it's a competition that she's actually invested in. If she wants the crown, she's going to get it, and playing dirty isn't above her.
While she has a reputation of being a bitch, and she honestly doesn't mind that, she is protective of her friends and will stand by them. She's fairly controlling of those in her inner circle, but a lot of this is a result of her living by the "you're judged by the company you keep" saying. She feels like the people that she associates with represent her, and even if she knows that they're amazing people, they have to look and act the part of the elite when they're with her. This definitely allows her to look superficial, and it is superficial, but that doesn't take away from the genuineness of the friendships. Sydney is loyal to her friends and will protect them with every ounce of energy she has. Growing up in The Upper East Side, she knows that it's hard to find true, genuine friends who can be trusted with everything. There are tons of social climbers, opportunists, back stabbers and fakes among the bunches of girls who attend prep schools and even though Sydney is at the top of the social charts right now, she is still somewhat cautious around some of the girls around her. That only means that those who she are close with, are basically family to her. She never had any siblings growing up, so her close friends are the closest things to sisters and brothers that she has ever had, and she treats them like family.
Her rise to the top of the social ladder probably seemed like an easy climb, and Sydney likes to act like it has been, in order to assert her dominance over people, as if there was no question that she was cut out for the position. Realistically, though, she's a human, and being involved in the rumors and drama has always been draining to her, too. She stands by her claim that that she's too classy to ever physically fight anyone, but that doesn't mean that her claws don't come out in a verbal sense. Her calm and collected front seems to disappear when she's pissed off and she's known to insult people below the belt. It's not uncommon for her to start vicious rumors about girls and guys who she feels like have wronged her. The violation can even be slight, something that the person thought was a playful joke, but if you catch her on the wrong day or in the wrong mood, she has the capability to take it very personally and react ten times more offensively than the offense warranted. Although her position at the top does give her a lot of power, it has also caused her to be somewhat paranoid. When everyone knows your name, there's always someone talking about you and Sydney always fears that someone's going to spread something about her that will cause her to lose all of her friends. She knows that it's a silly fear, especially now that she's a senior and she's maintained her power for this long, but especially coupled with the insecurities that she feels over her mother's growing verbal abuse at home, it's hard for her to not worry sometimes. With this in mind, Sydney's actions always seem to be calculated. Whether it's something as simple as inviting a weird kid to one of her parties or purposely talking to someone else's boyfriend, her actions usually serve a bigger purpose than what they seem on the surface.
5'10
Weight
130 lbs
Hair Colour:
Blonde
Eye Colour:
Blue/green
Other:
Her ears are pierced once each, and she has no tattoos.
