Jenna is the narrator and protagonist of the story. She is 16 years old and 5’11” with brown eyes and red hair, and just finished her sophomore year at high school. She is the oldest daughter of a salesman father addicted to alcohol and an emergency room nurse mother, who are divorced. When Jenna feels comfortable and in charge of a situation, such as when she is selling shoes at Gladstone’s, she is supremely confident, but at school, where her grades have slipped and she is self-conscious about her weight gain, she feels “big, awkward and lost” (6).

Jenna allows her situation at home with an absent, alcohol-addicted father and hardworking but also mostly absent mother to define her. Until she gains a more mature perspective on life during the trip to Texas, she sees herself as the unattractive, well behaved, upbeat, problem-solving family member, and she draws clear lines between herself and her sister by making statements like “[m]y sister got the beauty in the family. I got the personality” (8). Jenna feels she must protect and help her sister, mother, and grandmother, which doesn’t leave much time for her to develop her own sense of self.