— it's all in me.

♬ Full Name: Ariana Jeanne Abrams ♪  FC: Haley Lu Richardson ♫ Alternate FCs: Alexandra Daddario, Margaret Qualley, Emily Rudd  ♪ Age/Birthday: 20 / August 11, 1998 ♫ Occupation: College student, aspiring director, creator and writer, currently working on her own web-series starring a handful of her friends ♪ Hometown: Fort Worth, TX ♫ Personality: creative, driven, eager, go-getter, motivated, self-critical, worrier

The only child of Nancy and Drew (yes, really) Abrams, it would be unfair to say Ariana was spoiled, but it would also be a lie to say she wasn’t. Her parents earned a decent amount of money between them – decent but modest – and while the two enjoyed their fulfilling, individual careers, they craved the laughter of a child echoing from the walls of their Fort Worth home, though it didn’t seem to be on the cards for them. Try as they might (and they really did try, without complaint on either part…) it just wasn’t working. Until one day it was, and their bundle of joy came as a blessing to them, one they’d almost begun to accept wasn’t going to happen.

Ariana truly was her parents pride and joy. She was friendly, helpful, and much like her parents, she was eager. Eager to learn, eager to live, eager to soak up everything life had to offer her. Ariana was an active child, enrolled in dance classes, a key player for the local gymnastics team, and an (albeit not very good, but she tried) member of an out of school soccer league. Every day, she was changing her mind about what she wanted to be when she grew older. She wanted to dance professionally, then she wanted to sing, then she wanted to be a firefighter, then she wanted to swim for the US Olympic team. Ariana’s dreams were endless, and her parents humored and nurtured every one of them.

For some children, losing all hope at reaching their dreams in the blink of an eye at the age of only eight may have come as a shock, and while Ariana didn’t exactly take it lightly, she did handle it better than was to be expected. She and her mom were in the car one evening, driving home from a gymnastics meet. Nancy was doing everything right: eyes on the road, music not too loud, hands at ten and two… It was the oncoming vehicle and its one-drink-too-many driver that caused the fateful collision, and while Nancy’s injuries were for the most part minor, her daughter hadn’t been so lucky. Ariana woke up from a minor coma two days later, the vehicle having slammed directly into the passenger side. Saving all of the medical jargon, the result was a little girl in a wheelchair, and the prospect that she may never use her legs again.

Determined as ever, while Ariana did hope to defy the odds and walk again someday, she also vowed not to let her new way of life define her. No, maybe she couldn’t use her legs, and therefore no, maybe she couldn’t partake in all of her sports and activities anymore, but that didn’t mean she had to stop living. Her recovery period saw Ariana watching movie after movie, television show after television show, and as inquisitive as ever, she had questions for her parents. She wanted to know all about the movies she watched; who came up with the ideas, who made them a reality? By the age of ten, she’d begun her own research, and by twelve, she’d written her very first script.

A career in the behind the scenes of show business had never even crossed her mind, but suddenly she was excited by the prospect of writing her own sketches, bringing joy and entertainment to everyday people like herself. Ariana joined the AV Club in high school, which maybe didn’t make her the most popular of students, but she got to dabble in a little bit of firsthand technical work, and that was something she always enjoyed. While she couldn’t act very well, nor did she have any interest in doing so, she loved being able to direct others, to manage stages and give her two cents for areas of improvement, so she found herself stage manager for all of the school’s plays to take place between her sophomore and senior years of high school.

While Ariana may never have let her disability define her, nor let it get in her way, the same could not be said for her parents. Unfortunately, Drew had made himself absent somewhere in her early teens, and Ariana had comforted her mother through the divorce. This meant, however, that her once work-oriented mother had found herself the single parent to a child with additional needs; couple that with her own guilt despite the accident not being her fault, and she’d become one very involved, helicopter parent. Her life had basically begun to revolve around her daughter, and while Ariana was appreciative of the help, she always kind of hated knowing that she was suddenly all Nancy had.

Leaving her mother behind was a decision that Ariana truly did lose many nights of sleep over. She knew what she wanted to do with her life, she wanted to go to New York, to film school, and to become a big director. What she didn’t want to do was leave Nancy in the lurch, so in the end, she and her mother made the decision to move to the big city together, though despite always being so sure of herself, Ariana found that she was somewhat embarrassed to admit it at first. She refused to have friends over, because she didn’t want them to feel she was a college student reliant on her mother. If it was up to her, she could take care of herself just fine, but with Nancy hovering, how would others know that?

Eventually, good things begun to happen for the two Abrams women. Somewhere before the end of Ariana’s freshman year, with her mother at her new job, she managed to open herself up to dating again, and she met the sweetest, most caring man Ariana could’ve imagined for her mother. As their relationship blossomed and progressed, Ariana was able to focus on herself, and on creating the works she’d always envisioned. Finally, she was able to pluck up the courage to tell Nancy she wanted to move out, to live in an apartment with friends from her sophomore year onwards, and although her mother was wary, she allowed it, and Ariana felt more independent than ever.

New York really has been kind to the two women. Not only is Ariana thriving in college and in a more independent living environment, but her mother also has her job and partner to focus on. Ariana also gets to call herself a director, creator and writer, with her currently working on the Untitled Ariana Abrams Project. She also has an ongoing web-series to add to her credits, starring friends she’s made since her move. It’s her first real taste of the career path she craves, and Ariana has her sights set on much bigger ventures once she has the correct degree under her belt. Until then, however, in spite of any negative hand life may have handed her in the past, Ariana is doing just fine. In fact, no, she’s doing great.

Pets: Ariana has a service dog named Buddy. He’s a golden retriever, and trained to raise the alarm if Ariana has any trouble with, for example, accidents with her wheelchair while home or out alone, and to bring her medication if she needs it and is unable to get to it. Buddy is a great service dog, but he’s also very lazy when he wants to be, too. He loves being pet, and has the puppy eyes thing down to a T. He also gets along well with other dogs, but can be very territorial where Ariana is concerned.

♬ Michelle Chang & Santana Lopez: 

Roommates and good friends. They seemingly have nothing in common, from jobs to hobbies to personality, but somehow, they get along. 

♪ Unique Adams, Tina Cohen-Chang, Mercedes Jones, Robin Meeks, Sugar Motta, Marley Rose, and Kitty Wilde

The cast and crew of her beloved web series. She obviously likes them all, or she wouldn’t be working with them. Aria’s had not-strictly-friendly moments with Tina, Sugar, and Kitty, so things can get somewhat… tense, from time to time. But that’s probably fine, right? Tina was her first girlfriend, and they broke up for no real reason beyond the spark being gone. They’re still very good friends. Aria had a (mutual, she thinks?) crush on Sugar, which peaked when they made out at a party, but they never really talked about it afterwards. And Kitty is… well. Complicated.

♬ Samantha Evans