Jen Masterson

Jennifer Ann "Jen" Masterson is the deuteragonist in the 2004 Canadian series *6teen*. She is voiced by Megan Fahlenbock.

## Appearance

Jen is introduced in the pilot episode as the most responsible of the group of friends and the only one with a job. Her introduction has her remark on her plans to work at the Penalty Box, where she reveals that she took a job at the Big Squeeze both to get the experience necessary to be hired and to pay off debt she incurred from a (casualty-free) automobile accident she caused. She also shows that she plans ahead quite a lot, as she is ready for her interview and encourages her friends to prepare for theirs.

She ends up hiring Caitlin to man the lemonade stand after rejecting all the other applicants (mainly on appearance), and spends her time training Caitlin to work hard. She and Caitlin originally clashed quite a bit during training, as Caitlin had no work ethic while Jen has a very strong work ethic. Jen's work ethic is one of her defining characteristics; "The Big Sickie" focuses on how hard it is to get Jen to take a day off from work, and one of the frequent issues in Jen's relationship with her boss is that she feels she is underappreciated at work.

Jen's work ethic is the strongest among her friends. She frequently sets or breaks sale records at work, and she considers her job one of the most important parts of her life. Despite this, Jen has occasionally goofed off at work, such as in "Career Day" when she started goofing off due to getting results she liked on her aptitude test. She can also be very short-sighted, as she stole a jacket from work in "The Five Finger Discount" in an attempt to attract a boy she had a crush on.

Jen is very goal-oriented and considers herself a leader. However, as a consequence of this, she is often pushy and bossy, something her friends complained about in "One Quiet Day." She also has a tendency to take charge, as was observed by Briana in "Spring Fling," and as she noted in "Sweet 6teen," she's always been involved in planning stages of every event she goes to. Jen is also very scheduled, as she keeps a "life schedule" (as seen in "The Journal"), a cop shows schedule (as seen in "Bye Bye Nikki? Part 1")knows to the day how long her friends have worked in the mall (as seen in "Going Underground") and how long until they'll be applying to colleges (as seen in "J is For Genius"), and is so agenda-focused that she'll even planned a night at the Amusement Park in "Silent Butt Deadly." Despite this sometimes being a drawback, her focus on strict responsibility has helped at times, such as when she assigned everyone jobs to make sure her mother's delivery went off as smoothly as possible in "Labour Day - Part 1." Her sister even points out that Jen was always the responsible one of the family in "It's Always Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!" and Jonesy and Courtney both acknowledge that Jen is far more responsible than both of them put together in "Labour Day - Part 2."

Jen is sometimes prone to envy. In "It's Always Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!" much of the plot is focused on how Jen feels like she's always in her sister's shadow, and in "2-4-1" she spends much of the episode complaining about Caitlin's ability to attract guys while she can't attract a single one. In "Bring It On," she becomes annoyed when Jonesy appears to be a better salesperson than her, and at the end of "The Fake Date" she wonders what Charlie Dobbs' girlfriend has that she doesn't.

Jen's goals in life are to either be an Olympic snowboarder or start her own snowboarding gear company (preferably both). She is apparently an accomplished skier and snowboarder, and is on her school's snowboarding team (as was mentioned in "Welcome to the Darth Side"). She also plays basketball, as Courtney mentioned in "It's Always Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!" Her interest in sports and desire to start her own snowboarding gear company are what led her to get a job at the Penalty Box.

Despite frequently complaining about being dateless, Jen dated twelve boys over the course of the series (Jude was a fake date). Despite this, only two of these relationships lasted any length of time; Jen dated Charlie Dobbs in two (nonconsecutive) episodes, and dated Travis Gibson from "Blast From The Past" until "Great Expectations." However, when compared with her two closest female friends, Jen has neither had a high quantity of relationships, like Caitlin, nor a long-lasting relationship like Nikki.

## TRIVIA

◾Jen has apparently been friends with the rest of the group since kindergarten.

◾Jen is the tallest female in the group.

◾Jen is the only member of the group who has been constantly employed and who has never been fired.

◾Jen is a fan of the popular boy band DawgToy, and her favorite member is Jason, who she claims "even feels cute".

◾Jen is highly allergic to mushrooms; eating them results in her becoming violently gassy and suffering from diarrhea.

◾Jen, as a child, liked to run around naked in her backyard (which is why Courtney nicknamed her "Flash").

◾Jen has unintentionally flashed her breasts in front of her entire group of friends ("It's Always Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!") and has been seen mostly or completely naked on two other occasions by Jonesy ("The Wedding Destroyers" and "Over Exposed").
◾Jen has the highest sales rate of all of the Penalty Box employees.

◾Jen's family moves into Jonesy's house after Jonesy's dad and Jen's mom get married.

◾Jen's ethnicity is Irish Canadian.

◾Jen was taught yoga by Starr.

◾In "The Journal," Jen loses her journal and is made deeply unhappy when the whole mall finds out about her private thoughts. Ironically, she is always the first one to pry into others lives; for instance, in "One Quiet Day" she spends a lot of time trying to find out why Jude isn't stressing over finals, and in "Deadbeat Poets Society", she looks into why Wyatt has relaxed. In the latter case, she doesn't even ask what's going on with Wyatt, and doesn't respect his wishes that she'll leave him alone when she finds out.

◾Jen harbored a crush on Jonesy Garcia in the seventh grade, but has stated that she is completely over it. This was proven in "The New Jonesy."

◾Although it has not been explained what happened to her biological father, in "The Wedding Destroyers," Jen specifically says he's not around. While she does not say why he is gone, the subtext heavily suggests her father is deceased, but during the episode "Deck the Mall," Jude points out that its Jen's first Christmas since her parents got divorced. Also, in "It's Always Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!" Courtney mentions that her and Jen's parents want Courtney to be more mature and responsible, like Jen is. It's possible that Jen's father passed away after he and Emma got divorced, assuming that he is deceased.

◾Jen's name was mentioned on Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race by MacArthur, during which it's revealed that she used to babysit MacArthur.

◾Jen is the only girl in the group who doesn't wear eye makeup, specifically eyeshadow--Caitlin wears blue eyeshadow that matches her skirt while Nikki wears purple eyeshadow that accentuates her hair.

 **TV Show** | 6Teen