Characters Ginny
Ginny Miller is a guarded, anxious fifteen-year-old navigating a transient childhood, biracial identity crisis, and a toxic relationship with her magnetic but dangerous mother, Georgia. In Season 1, she seeks stability in Wellsbury through new friends and romance, but her deep emotional trauma leads to self-harm and a final, desperate flight from home.
Max
Maxine "Max" Baker is a hyper-energetic, fast-talking fifteen-year-old lesbian navigating her first major romance and heartbreak in Season 1. As the intense, dramatic anchor of the "MANG" friend group, she eagerly welcomes Ginny to Wellsbury but demands absolute loyalty. Her deep vulnerability is masked by loud "main character energy," leaving her blindsided and isolated by a double betrayal from Ginny and Marcus at the season's climax.
Hunter
Hunter Chen is a sweet, popular high school overachiever who becomes Ginny’s first boyfriend in Season 1. He is a supportive, "perfect" partner who writes her songs, but their relationship strains due to his emotional blindness toward her biracial struggles and microaggressions. Despite his good intentions, their bond shatters completely when Max exposes Ginny's secret betrayal with Marcus.
Abby
Abigail "Abby" Littman is an avoidant, deeply insecure fifteen-year-old in Season 1 who internalizes her intense personal pain to preserve her social standing. While she initially acts hostile toward Ginny to protect the "MANG" dynamic, she hides severe body dysmorphia, an eating disorder, and the trauma of her parents' volatile divorce. Constantly overlooked by her self-absorbed friends, Abby suffers in silence, uses duct tape to alter her body shape, and resorts to a defensive, cynical shell. Her isolation peaks at the climax when Max shuns her for keeping Ginny and Marcus’s secret, leaving Abby completely abandoned by her friend group.
Norah
Norah Sullivan is the passive, people-pleasing member of the "MANG" friend group who constantly avoids conflict to maintain social harmony. In Season 1, she struggles with intense anxiety, frequently worrying about school and following rules, while leaning heavily on her sweet relationship with her boyfriend, Jordan. Often caught in the middle of her friends' explosive drama, Norah prefers to stay in the background and go along with the crowd rather than take a stand. When the group implodes at the season's climax, she follows Max's lead, distancing herself from Ginny and Abby to protect her own comfort zone.
Georgia
Georgia Miller is a magnetic, fiercely protective, and deeply dangerous thirty-year-old mother who manipulates her way into Wellsbury's elite after a lifetime of survival and trauma. Having had Ginny at age fifteen, Georgia views her children as her entire world and will lie, steal, or murder to ensure their safety and financial security. Beneath her bubbly southern charm, glamorous facade, and sharp wit lies a brilliant, calculating criminal mind. In Season 1, she climbs the town's social ladder by securing a job with—and proposing to—Mayor Paul Randolph, all while desperately burying a dark past filled with abusive exes, a private investigator on her trail, and a body count that eventually drives her terrified children to flee.
Austin
Austin Miller is a sweet, anxious, and deeply sensitive nine-year-old who is frequently caught in the crossfire of his family's chaotic, nomadic lifestyle. He worships his mother, Georgia, blindly believing her magical lies and wearing a Harry Potter glasses-and-cape outfit as a comforting security blanket against reality. In Season 1, he struggles to fit into his new school in Wellsbury, facing severe bullying that drives him to stab his bully with a pencil. His innocence shatters when he discovers Georgia has been forging letters from his abusive, incarcerated father, prompting Austin to burn his father's actual letters and ultimately flee Wellsbury with Ginny on a motorcycle at the season's climax.
Marcus
Marcus Baker is a broody, artistic, and deeply sensitive fifteen-year-old who uses a cynical, slacker facade to mask profound grief and mental health struggles. Still reeling from the cancer death of his best friend, he forms an intense, raw connection with Ginny, sneaking through her window and seeing past her defensive shell. Though he acts detached and pushes people away to avoid pain, he falls genuinely in love with her. In Season 1, his reckless behavior leads to a severe motorcycle crash, and his secret sexual relationship with Ginny ultimately shatters his close bond with his twin sister, Max.
Joe
the sarcastic, sweet, and deeply observant owner of Blue Farm Café, serving as the moral compass and emotional grounding wire of Wellsbury. He quickly becomes a close friend and trusted confidant to Georgia, harboring a quiet, unrequited crush on her that traces back to a brief, meaningful encounter they shared as teenagers at a rest stop. Despite his cynical jokes and down-to-earth demeanor, Joe is fiercely protective of the Miller family, frequently offering Ginny advice and a safe space to work, while keeping a watchful eye on Georgia's increasingly chaotic life.
