Lara Morelli-Strauss

**Lara Morelli-Strauss** was marketed as being born in Paris, France, but she has lived in Milan, Italy and Munich, Germany for some time as well, both the home cities and countries of her parents. She was born while her father was teaching at the Sorbonne in Paris.

She eventually traveled to the United States with her German father, a professor at NYU, and Italian mother, a fashion designer. Shortly after moving to New York, her parents filed for a "marital separation". They now live in individual apartments in the funky area of Soho, and Lara divided her time between them. While her father lives on his campus, her mother decided to keep their factory-inspired apartment. Lara has a cozy loft built for her in the apartment.

* Read the Media page for a detailed map of Lara's location in New York City.

According to the final online conversation in the *Gen Beat* chatroom, Lara moved to Italy as an exchange student to study Italian art forms and her heritage.

## Appearance

Lara has been described as "well-dressed" and "attractive" by her friends. Like Barbie Roberts, she appears "well-put-together".

The book series described her as having long brunette hair that touches the middle of her back. However, the doll and the books' photos depict her with medium-length brunette hair. Her dolls appear to have gray/grey to pale blue eyes. The books depict her eyes to be green.

She considers her fashion style to be trendy with her own touch. Lara's mother is a fashion designer, so her closet is filled with the latest cutting-edge fashion. Being an artist, she appreciates individual style.

## Personality

Lara is described as creative. Her friends say she is artistic and expressive. Although she can be impatient with others' weaknesses, she is generous, caring, and adored by her friends.

Lara is generally admired for her knowledge and many experiences in life. Living in three different European countries before moving to the USA has taught her how to adapt to different languages rather easily, and it has allowed her to explore different cultures and situations.

She is graceful, poised, urbane, and has "wide-ranging intelligence". Lara has refined tastes and tends to merge well with other refined people.

Lara is generally considered calm, cool, centered, level-headed, and collected. She doesn't stress out too much over anything and is considered the "strong one" among her group of friends. Her reputation is very important to her, and she doesn't like to lose her "cool". Her secret fear is embarrassing herself or being made to look "like a fool".

Despite her normally calm and cool persona, she jumps to conclusions rather easily and has quite a temper. Lara can be quite intense.

Like her mother, Lara can be rather emotional and loves to socialize and have fun. But like her father, Lara likes her own personal space.

Lara is an independent thinker and tends to follow her own path, no matter what anybody else thinks.

Lara is sensible and smart. She tries to be prepared and on top of things. However, Lara does have a secret reckless side.

## Hobbies and Interests

Lara's hobbies include painting and sculpting. Her favorite thing to do is paint. The beauty in nature inspires Lara's creativity and she expresses it in many different ways. Her favorite place to hang out is the Metropolitan Art Museum. She enjoys chilling with friends while she sketches them.

Her passions also include traveling and working at a homeless shelter for families. She volunteers at the homeless shelter, Rainbow House, weekly.

One of her favorite things to do is share her unique ideas with other unique thinkers.

Her favorite movies are European films. She does also enjoy the movie *Meet the Parents*.

She likes Pop, Pop/Rock, and Classical music.

Generationgirl.com's Printable Items Listed Lara's Dance Party Favorites (from the 2000s):

* I Wanna Love You Forever (Jessica Simpson)
* Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely (Backstreet Boys)
* I Do (Blaque)
* You Drive Me Crazy (Britney Spears)

Her favorite food is Curly-Q fries with "mayo". Lara also generally loves sweets. Cheesecake and chocolate candies are specific favorites of hers.

Her favorite color is green.

Her room is a work of art. She loves her beautiful bed for dreaming up ideas. She learned how to make custom-made doorknob signs from an Italian hotel while visiting Italy with her parents.

Her Quote for the day is "Explore Your Creative Side!" Her favorite saying is "Whats Happening!"

Her favorite classes are Art and Photography 101.

While at International High, Lara contributed to the school's *Generation Beat* (also once called *Generation Girl,* according to the First Edition magazine included in the box) newspaper/magazine. Lara was not initially interested in joining, but the gorgeous teacher Mr. Harris convinced her to contribute her artistic talents. Her *Generation Beat* duty was Art Director, writing about art for the paper. She was Contributing Editor on Art and Photography. She created the columns "Express Yourself!", "Open Your Door To Creativity!", and "Dance Decor" for the First Edition, Dance Party, and My Room magazine issues. When her friend Chelsie Peterson moved to Hong Kong, Lara replaced her as Senior Editor.

Lara was head of the Spring Jam decorating committee.

## Other Talents, Skills, and Traits

Lara is a gifted artist and designer with a sophisticated flair.

She appears to be good at everything. She's excellent in school and a great cook.

When something is going wrong in her life, she tends to get headaches.

Lara is very strong in math.

## Goals, Aspirations, and Accomplishments

Lara's aspiration is to be a trend-setting artist. She wants to be the talk of the town with her art show.

At her old school in Paris, Lara won many prizes for her artwork.

Lara competed against some of the best young-adult artists in New York City in the New Artists' Competition and won first place. Two of Lara's paintings, one of the Rainbow House Homeless Shelter and the Statue of Liberty, appeared in a special exhibition gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also won $5,000, donating all of it to Rainbow House.

On the *Gotta Groove* CD-Rom, Lara appeared as an art director.

She attended a New Year's Party held in honor of Tori Susie Burns's aunt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the singer and entertainer Madonna was present.

## Friendship

Lara appears difficult to impress, but she enjoys having a diverse group of friends. Back in Paris, all of her friends only liked art. Since being at International High, she has had more experiences through her new friends.

She took a liking to Barbie and Nichelle right away. Barbie Roberts had been friendly and helpful Lara's first day of school when she was lost, tackled to the ground by Tori blazing by on skates, and didn't understand the "New-York-American" form of speaking.

She greatly admires Nichelle Williams Watson, finding her to be smart and interesting. She's fascinated by Nichelle's interest in African art and Jazz music. She also admires Nichelle's ability to take on many things at once, like student government and modeling while maintaining excellent grades, and her eye for detail.

She and Tori Susie Burns are described in completely opposite ways. Initially, they had a disagreement and misunderstanding between them. Eventually, they became close friends. Tori has expressed that it took awhile for her to like Lara, but she found they had a lot more in common than she initially thought.

Lara has made a few other friends from her classes and through her Generation Girl friends. However, she sticks closer to the Generation Girls and Blaine Gordon than anyone else. See Media and Miscellaneous Gen Girl Stuff for more information about her friends and associates.

## Romantic Interests

Lara's ideal guy is romantic, charming, respectful and polite, intelligent, witty, artistic, and refined or cultured. Being an artist, she appreciates an attractive figure, but she prefers to have something in common with her love interests. She is interested in guys who challenge her and create excitement in her life. Despite her demands for a romantic partner, she isn't very romantic herself and doesn't trust love, possibly due to watching her parents' arguments and eventual separation. She has high standards as a result.

She was first crushing on her art history teacher, Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris is a good-looking dark-haired man who Lara described as having a "beautiful mind" and someone who listens to "everything someone says".

Her last crush in the book series was a boy named Max Berger, a friend of hers and someone she considered to have a "sophistication to match her own". Though he had a handicap, he spoke several languages, played the violin, and didn't say goofy things like most 15-year-old boys. He had a crush on Lara, but she didn't know it.

Initially, Lara had seen Max as only a friend, and she had been more interested in Junior Upperclassman and Varsity wrestler Chris Newville. Eventually though, Lara found that he only had good looks and nothing else in common with her. Worse, he had used Max to impress Lara by pretending the emails and poems Max wrote for her were his own. When she discovered the beautiful emails and poems were from Max, she began to recognize who her real crush was.