Frieda - Personality and Characteristics

Personality and Characteristics

Frieda made her debut on March 6, 1961, when Linus introduced her to Charlie Brown. She was the eleventh permanent character to join the cast, and the first since Sally was born in 1959. She was initially presented, in both the advance press release and the first few strips, as Linus' schoolmate. She sat behind him in class, and although he considered her a friend, he also confessed that she was such a chatterbox, he hadn't heard a word their teacher said the whole semester. Her most prominent feature is her "naturally curly hair," which she manages to work into every conversation, to the dismay of those around her. This self-love about her hair leads people to believe that she is rather vain. In turn, Frieda herself believes that the other girls are jealous of her hair (and often becomes disappointed or depressed when the other girls tell her that they're not jealous of her hair), and also that "people expect more of her" because she has it. Nevertheless, enough people in the neighborhood like her that she got thirty valentines one year. Journalist Christopher Caldwell described her as, "A fetching, kind and charming girl, who throws her deeper goodness away because she wants to be admired for such superficialities as 'being a good conversationalist." She admitted that she used to be an avid reader until she started getting too busy.

Frieda Rich, the character's namesake, was once asked whether she bore any character resemblances to her cartoon counterpart. She replied, "I recognize myself," adding as an example that while talking to Schulz once about Universalists and Congregationalists, she had jokingly called herself a "conversationalist," and Schulz borrowed that for the strip.