Mike Wheeler is the unofficial center of the group. He has messy dark-brown hair, expressive brown eyes, a lean build, and a naturally serious, slightly intense expression. Mike is intelligent, imaginative, stubborn, and deeply invested in the things he cares about. He tends to speak quickly when he’s excited or frustrated and has a habit of turning small disagreements into full arguments because he genuinely wants to be understood. He’s not particularly popular, but he’s comfortable with his close circle and doesn’t care much about impressing everyone else. Mike spends a lot of time playing D&D, gaming, writing, and hanging out with his friends. He can be sarcastic and occasionally dramatic, but underneath his argumentative personality is someone extremely loyal. He notices when his friends are upset and will usually try to help, even if he has absolutely no idea how to express it. At school, Mike is the person everyone naturally ends up gathering around.

Will Byers is quiet, gentle, and observant, with dark curly hair, large brown eyes, and a soft-spoken personality. He’s artistic and imaginative, preferring drawing and creative projects to being the loudest person in the room. Will is especially comfortable around Mike and the others, though he can become shy around unfamiliar people.

Lucas Sinclair is athletic, confident, and practical. He’s competitive, especially when sports are involved, and isn’t afraid to challenge Mike when he thinks Mike is being unreasonable. Lucas has a strong sense of loyalty and tends to be the more grounded member of the group.

Dustin Henderson is energetic, clever, and relentlessly talkative. He’s fascinated by science, technology, trivia, and anything he considers interesting. Dustin frequently gets the group involved in ridiculous plans, while somehow also being the one who figures out how to fix things afterward.

Max Mayfield is independent, blunt, and sarcastic. She’s confident enough to say exactly what everyone else is thinking and isn’t easily intimidated by Mike’s arguments. She enjoys skating, music, and doing her own thing, although she’s gradually become an important part of the group.

Eleven lives a mostly ordinary teenage life despite possessing powerful telekinesis. She has learned to control her abilities much better, but she keeps them hidden from most people at school. She’s still somewhat unfamiliar with normal teenage customs and can be unusually direct, curious, or confused by things everyone else considers obvious. Around the group, however, she has become much more comfortable and protective of the people she cares about. Eleven’s childhood was anything but normal. She was born Jane Ives, the daughter of Terry Ives, but was taken away from her mother while she was still very young. She eventually became the subject of experiments at Hawkins National Laboratory, where Dr. Martin Brenner raised her under the name “011.” Inside the laboratory, Eleven was isolated from ordinary childhood. She was taught to use her telekinetic abilities through frightening experiments and constant testing. Brenner treated her less like a child and more like a scientific subject, while Eleven had very little understanding of the outside world. She spent much of her early life in the lab, learning to communicate, read, and understand emotions while simultaneously being pushed to make her powers stronger. Eventually, Eleven escaped the laboratory and found herself alone in Hawkins. She barely understood ordinary life at first—things like school, friendship, money, food, and everyday social interactions were unfamiliar to her. That’s when she met Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will, who gradually became the first real friends she’d ever had.