The Usual Rules Characters

Meet the Cast

Wendy

A Girl in Transition Growing up is notoriously difficult, and few periods are harder than the early teens years. Our leading lady Wendy is thirteen years old, and because of this, she's totally in...

Janet

Mommy Dearest Even though Wendy and her mother are fighting a lot before Janet dies, Janet is still a good mother who always treats her children with love. Wendy remembers so many times when Janet...

Garrett

The Free Spirit Wendy doesn't see a lot of her father, Garrett, growing up, and it's no wonder: Dude's a total free spirit who doesn't like to be tied down by responsibilities or obligations. Even...

Josh

The Other Dad Even though he's not Wendy's "real" father, Wendy has always considered her stepfather, Josh, to be the true father figure in her life: Watching Josh as he took out the jar of raisins...

Louie

Adorable Little Brother From day one, Wendy has always adored Louie, her adorable baby brother. In fact, she's always been there to take care of him and help her parents out, and she never resents...

Carolyn

When Wendy meets Carolyn, Garrett's girlfriend, she sees her as the ultimate Californian cool girl. Carolyn is super laid-back, lives on a cactus farm, and can read palms—how much more of a stere...

Alan

When Wendy moves to Davis and starts skipping out on school altogether, she spends much of her time at Alan's bookstore downtown. At first, Wendy doesn't trust Alan with the details of her real lif...

Violet

Wendy's new friend Violet is a bit of a rough-and-tumble teenager—nothing like the kids Wendy grew up with in New York City. Violet is a young single mother who just had a baby named Walter Charl...

Grandmother

Wendy's grandmother on her father's side isn't exactly the kind of warm and fuzzy granny who knits sweaters and bakes cookies on Christmas. She's a hard woman who is judgmental and eternally disapp...

Todd

While spending Thanksgiving with her grandmother in San Francisco, Wendy meets her very own skater boy, but thankfully he's not a jerk like the one in the Avril Lavigne song. Todd is a runaway kid,...

Amelia

Amelia is Wendy's BFF since the first grade, and she's always there for her, even if she can often be brash and abrasive. After 9/11, Amelia is totally there for her bestie and holds her when she's...

Kate

Kate is Janet's best friend since forever, and Wendy's grown up knowing her as a kind of adopted aunt. She knows she can always rely on Kate to be there to take care of her and her mother; after al...

Minor Characters

Tim After befriending Alan, the bookstore owner, Wendy also gets to know his son Tim. Although Tim is grown-up, he lives in a group home because he's autistic. Through interacting with him, Wendy g...