Luann Degroot

**Luann Degroot** is the titular character of *Luann*. She is the daughter of Frank and Nancy and sister of Brad. At the beginning of comic strip she is 13 years old, as of July 2019, she is currently somewhere between 18/19 years old, however, this hasn't been officially disclosed. Luann is the only character to appear in the debut strip (March 17, 1985).

## Personality

Luann is a typical teenage girl going through a stressful time in her life. Between puberty, friends, family, personal issues, and, among all else, boys, Luann struggles to remain positive on a daily basis. She clumsy, socially awkward and a huge procrastinator. She often forgets things and loses track of time. Luann states how unhappy she is with her underdeveloped body. Luann occasionally displays selfishness and cockiness at times, especially when she was younger.

## Biography

When the comic strip was first syndicated, Luann was a 13-year old girl attending seventh grade at the Pitts Jr/Sr High School with her best friend Bernice Halper. Luann records all her thoughts in a journal. She had a crush on a boy named Aaron Hill, who, according to Luann, "doesn't even knows she exists". She visits Miss Phelps, the school counselor, to discuss her problems, but she only seems interested in her bad grades (or her own days as a youth).

When Luann got paired with Gunther Berger on their research project, he did all the work, which got them an A+ on their project, Luann's first A+ ever. Feeling guilty, however, she told Mr. Fogarty the truth.

During the summer strip of 1988, Luann and her family go on vacation for two weeks at a beach cottage.

On the April 16, 1989 strip, Luann, along with Bernice, got their ears pierced, something they wanted have done for years. Luann attends the 8th grade pool party alongside her friends, where she felt popular because she was pushed in the water, someone dumped ice on her, and Knute and Gunther threw her off the high dive.

In the October 10, 1989 strip, a nervous Gunther asks Luann out on a date to the movies. As Aaron Hill walks by, Luann accidently says "yes", thinking it was him. She becomes very upset, especially when Brad makes fun of her at the dinner table. Luann, after talking with her parents, decides to stick with the date and ends up having an ok time.

In the April 30, 1990 strip, Luann goes for a checkup with her dentist, and he determines that she needs braces, leaving Luann devastated. She agrees that once she gets her braces, she won't open her mouth for two years. When she shows them off to her friends, Aaron Hill walks by and says they look cool.

In the May 21, 1990, Knute asks Aaron who he's going to invite to the spring dance. He isn't sure of the name, but it starts with an "L" and she sits in the fourth row, third seat of his English class. Bernice recognizes that as Luann's seat and hurries off to tell her. Luann is very excited, and word quickly spreads to her circle of friends (and Tiffany) that Aaron is planning on asking her. Tiffany plans to ask him to the dance herself, but Aaron turns her down, further pushing Luann's hopes. Eventually, Knute talks to Aaron about who he was taking to the dance, and Aaron mentions that he was planning on asking the new girl, not Luann (a miscommunication about the seating arrange - fourth from the wall, not the window). Bernice calls Luann to inform her, which causes her to drop the phone and cry uncontrollably in her room.

In the August 30, 1990 strip, Gunther calls and asks Luann if she'd like to go play miniature golf on Saturday, which she accidently agrees to. As they're playing, two kids from their school come over and insult them, causing Gunther to get extremely angry, wishing he was macho so he could beat them up. He, instead, decides to walk away with Luann. Luann, impressed by his control, kisses him on the cheek and admits to her personal diary that he's "cute, sweet and kind of endearing".

In the January 17, 1991 strip, Luann has a "study" slumber party, and invites Bernice, Delta, and Tiffany. Even though Luann attempts to get them to study, the other girls just want to hang around, reading magazines and listening to music. Tiffany leaves the room to make a phone call to one of her junior friends and invites him and three other guys over. When the boys arrive, all the other girls have a good time, except Luann, who kicks the boys out, and the rest of her friends leave. Although the party fizzled out, she had an enjoyed the excitement of it all.

In the May 06, 1991, Luann has her first period, which officially marks her transition into adulthood - although she's initially scared and has a lot of questions for her mother, her parents decide to celebrate the occasion to make her feel better.

In the September 19, 1991 strip, Luann attempts to tryout for cheerleading, but gets into an argument with Tiffany. The argument gets heated to the point where they physically fight and both girls get sent to Miss Phelps for counseling.

During the October 1991 storyline, Luann attends the Halloween carnival hosted by the school. While her and Bernice are going through Knute and Gunther's House of Horrors, they get terrified so badly that Luann accidently grabbed Aaron Hill's arm instead of Bernice's. After they leave the House of Horrors, Aaron introduces himself to Luann, who he doesn't recognize because she is still in her costume, but she's in too much of a shock to answer her. When she finally gets home, her mom grounds her for wearing a provocative outfit.

In the November 1991 strip, Gunther decides to write Luann a love letter and hand-deliver it to her. When he visits his house, Luann initially tries to avoid him, but ends up having to come out and physically tell them. When the door opens up, Puddles sees the cat in the front yard and runs out of the house, chasing it towards the road as a speeding car come by. Luckily, Gunther quick grabs Puddles by the legs, preventing him from getting out to the road. Luann calls Gunther a hero because of his actions. She bandages up his knee, which was scraped up when he fell on the lawn. Just as Gunther is about to leave, he turns around and gives a speech about how he's not good enough for Luann, but is surprised when she leans in and kisses him on the lips. Brad manages to take several pictures of the kiss as it happens, and he develops the photos, much to Luann's annoyance. As the two fight over the pictures, Bernice exchanges the photos for the magazine she found under Brad's bed.

In the January 1992 strips, Delta throws a party at her house. As an icebreaker, she posts names of other guests on the back of everyone's shirt so they have to find someone to talk to. Delta sets it up so Luann and Aaron get to talk and the first the first time, the conversation goes smoothly, until Tiffany pulls Aaron away to plan a game to liven up the party. Aaron isn't interested, he's enjoy the party as is, but Tiffany announces that every girl will put a name out of a hat and spend three minutes with that boy in a closet. Tiffany puts a slip with Aaron's name on it in her sleeve, but when it's Luann's turn to pick, she is able to grab the slip from her arm. Tiffany and Luann proceed to get in a huge argument. Luann arrives home from the party, upset about how the party was ruined for her, but she at least got to talk to Aaron for a few minutes.

In the April 13, 1992 strip, Luann mentions to Bernice that she's taking a CPR class in order to charge extra money for babysitting. When she goes arrives in the classroom, she finds out Gunther took the class also. After she completes the class, she goes home and tells her family all about it. In the May 13, 1992 strip, Bernice suffers a serious injury in gym class and Luann successfully gives her CPR. Luann's story is featured in the newspaper.

In the July 13, 1992 strip, Luann and Bernice discover Luke Perry is making an appearance at the mall, so they force Frank into taking them. Unfortunately, they arrive late, and the line to meet him seems never-ending, his manager announces that Luke Perry will be leaving. As the crowd disperses, Luke and his manager attempt to sneak out through the ice cream shop by putting an employee hat on, but are stopped by Luann and Bernice because they think he's a real employee. Luke serves them and talks to them for a few minutes, although Bernice and Luann insult him and acted rude. An article about Luke Perry's appearance is in the newspaper, and Brad reads about how Luke served two girls at the ice cream shop after signing autographs, and they didn't know who he was, leaving Luann and Bernice in shock.

After Christmas of 1992, Luann as an appointment with her dentist Dr. Zarno, who tells her it's time for her braces to come off. Luann is extremely excited, because now she can show off her "perfect" teeth to Aaron Hill. When he notices her smiling at her, he smiles back, showing off his own braces. During lunch they sit next to each other and discuss how their teeth were imperfect. Bernice becomes jealous of Luann spending her lunch time with Aaron instead of her best friend, resulting in the two getting into a huge argument. The argument continues into their next class and the following week. In order to get back at her, Bernice and Gunther pretend to be a couple to make her jealous, but she only supports the fake relationship. Eventually, Gunther and Bernice decide to stop being mad and apologize for their behavior, prompting Luann to hug her "best friends in the whole world". Four months after having that conversation with Aaron, she decides it's time to talk to him again. As they're talking, Aaron calls Tiffany over to come join them.

In the August 25, 1993 strip, Luann and Bernice decide to visit the bookmobile, something that Luann finds very lame. As she's complaining to Bernice about it, Bernice notices Aaron Hill walking inside the bookmobile, so they decide to head in after him. After seeing him in the bookstore, Luann cheers in excitement saying it was the best day of her summer, only to have the clerk tell her to be quiet.

In the January 24, 1994 strip, Luann overhears that Aaron Hill is moving, which she believes in the end of the world. She decides to write him a goodbye letter and shove it in locker. Luann tells Delta the news and she tries to make light the situation by suggesting that he could be moving to another house in town. Luann finally asks him, but he tells her that he was only moving to a different study group in his English class. Luann remembers the note she left and attempts to get his locker combination from the office so she can get it out. She makes up a lie that he has a bazooka in his locker, so Miss Phelps goes to investigate but slams the door shut when she realizes Luann is lying. As Aaron goes to open his locker during class change, Luann quickly swipes the letter from his locker. Tiffany notices the letter and the two get into argument. During their argument, Aaron takes the letter and mentions he'll read it later. During class, Luann attempts to get the letter back from Aaron by telling him the truth, and he hands it back to her without reading it, causing Luann to yell "AREN'T YOU EVEN CURIOUS?!" She tells Delta what happened and Luann proceeds to yell at Aaron again, "WHY DIDN'T YOU READ MY LETTER?!"

In the June 06, 1994 strip, Luann tells her family she signed up for Flag team. She'll be preforming in the 4th of July parade. Luann learns the routine quickly, impressing Miss Allison, who promotes her to co-captain alongside Tiffany.

In the November 28, 1994 strip, Tiffany and T.J. discover that someone defaced the school wall and wrote "Tiffany loves T.J." on it. Miss Phelps sees the graffiti and brings both Tiffany and T.J. to her office, where Miss Phelps accuses Tiffany of doing it. Tiffany discovers a note written to Aaron, that was signed by an anonymous person, who she believes is Luann. She shows the note to Aaron Hill and explains why Luann would write a note, and it just ends up confusing him. Tiffany decides to retaliate by writing "Luann loves Gunther" on the blackboard of their classroom. Luann sees this and begins erasing it as Miss Phelps comes into the classroom to bring her to the office. At the office, Luann admits that she was the one who put the graffiti on the wall, although Miss Phelps cares more about the fact the entire situation started over "a boy".

While playing Truth or Dare with her friends during a slumber party, Luann is dared to run to the corner mailbox in nothing in her bikini in the middle of a rain storm. As she reaches the mailbox, a car pulls up, which has Aaron Hill in the passenger seat. Luann hides behind the mailbox as Aaron comes to see her. Aaron's dad offers to drive her home. Aaron chuckles and wonders why is she out in the rain. Her father suggests it may of been a dare, like the time Aaron had to strip, but he yells at him before he could finish. She returns to her house, in a state of euphoria, much to the surprise of her friends. She also got to keep Aaron's jacket (accidently).

In the December 01, 1995 strip, Gunther and Luann go on a date to the movies. The date goes well, but as Luann leans in to kiss him on her doorstep, he leaves really quickly. The following day they meet up in school and Gunther tells Luann that they're perfect for each other and he wants to do it again, but she dismisses that idea, saying she's made for Aaron Hill and Gunther is made for someone else. Gunther writes a letter and puts it in Luann's locker. When she opens the door and reads it, she mistakes the signature as an "A" for Aaron Hill, but Bernice thinks it's a "G" for Gunther. She shows Delta the letter, who believes it's a "Q", and her brother thinks it might be "#6" on the football team. Luann asks T.J. to see if he can find out if Aaron Hill wrote the letter. Tiffany walks by and sees him looking at the note, and tells him that's not Aaron's handwriting, but her own. Tiffany mentions to him that she is sick of competing with Luann for Aaron's attention. Luann brings Gunther to T.J. eliminating him as a suspect. Gunther mentions the poem is nice, to which Tiffany accidently thanks him. Luann and Tiffany get into an argument and than another fistfight.

In the February 12, 1996, Luann has finished her Valentine's Day card for Aaron Hill. When she brings it into school, Tiffany has already given Aaron a "humungous fruit float", causing Luann to second guess her own card. Delta forces her to give him the card, which causes Tiffany and Luann to get into an argument, destroying each other's gifts. Aaron walks away, as the girls continue to argue. Luann tells her family what happened, and she believes Aaron liked her handmade card better. Nancy agrees, stating that it was a heartfelt gift that took time and consideration to make. Brad asks her if she can make one for him to give to Diane.

In the May 13, 1996 strip, Gunther arranges a study "date" with Luann. While studying at their house, Luann begins to understand the math concepts and thanks Gunther for his help. She asks what she can do to repay him. He fumbles around, mentioning that he really likes her. Luann mentions she likes Gunther, too, as a friend. She gives him a tip - instead of being brainy, be a man of action. He immediately takes her advice and leans in for a kiss on the lips. When Gunther lets go, Luann sits there in shock, and Gunther quickly apologizes, but before he can finish, Luann retaliates with a kiss of her own. As they're kissing, Nancy comes in with a snack, noting that it looks like they were working hard at it. The following strips depict Luann explaining the situation to Delta, and Gunther explaining it to Knute, twisting the story in their favor. Both duos meet unexpectedly in the hallway, and immediately hide from each other, leaving Delta and Knute confused. Luann explains the situation to Nancy, who is at a loss of words. Nancy asks Luann how she feels about the kiss, and that she would rank it slightly above "a good friend" kiss. In the May 29, 1996, Gunther and Luann meet to discuss the kiss. Luann believes that they should wait to see what their feelings are. Luann mentions that she "loved" the way he helped her study and wanted to show her appreciation. Gunther uses selective hearing to misinterpret what she says into a love confession. He then grabs her and kisses her on the lips. When confessing her thoughts in her diary, Luann mentions that the most surprising thing about the whole situation was not that she kissed one of the biggest "dorks" in the school, but that he was a great kisser. She then worries if she was a good kisser herself, causing her to practice on Puddles, her hand, a pillow (which she imagined was Aaron Hill), and her mirror (with Brad catching her in the act).

In the July 29, 1996 strip, Diane invites Luann and a date of her choice, Gunther, to see an Alanis Morisette concert with Brad. Diane and Luann go to the bathroom and agree that they only date Brad and Gunther because they're filling the spot until "Mr. Right" comes along. Diane and Luann bond really well and even start planning a day out by themselves. During the car ride home, Diane and Luann gossip and talk in the back seat, ignoring the guys. While at a gas station, Gunther and Brad plan goodnight kisses for the girls. While the guys say goodbye, the girls quickly leave. As Brad and Luann enter the house, a knock on the door is heard. Luann's opens it and Gunther quickly kisses her on the lips before leaving. She tells Brad "How can that boy be both boring and interesting at the same time?".

Luann starts a new school year on September 10, 1996, immediately trying to get Aaron Hill's attention. During class, Tiffany mentions a pool party Aaron had, that Luann wasn't invited to. Tiffany flaunts about the great time she had and how much attention Aaron paid her, but Luann doesn't believe it. An offended Tiffany tells her to ask him herself if she doesn't her. Luann asks Aaron if he had a pool party, but gets overwhelmed with a bunch of a thoughts and begins to tear up, telling him "never mind". Aaron came over to Luann's desk and asked her how Iceland was, much to her confusion. Apparently, Tiffany told him to cross her off the list because she was taking a vacation to Iceland. Luann confronts Tiffany in locker room, who says that perhaps what Aaron told her is a lie, and he just didn't want her at the party. Luann doesn't know who to believe. Aaron takes out the list of people he invited to his party, and Luann tries to plan how she can get it to see if she was really on his list. She convinces Gunther to get the list from him, and Luann sees that her name was on the list and she parades around happily, to an annoyed Gunther. Gunther points out that the party was on August 7th, which turns out to be the day they went to see Alanis Morisette. Luann explains that she is glad she went to the concert with Gunther instead of the pool party, pointing out that she would be constantly worrying about how she looked, whereas with Gunther, she can just relax and be herself.

In the January 07, 1997 strip, Luann's final report goes missing and she initially believes Mr. Fogarty was throwing reports away to get the upcoming school dance cancelled for his students. While eating dinner with her family she remembers passing her book report up the row of students in class, ending with Tiffany. Luann confronts Tiffany about it, who denies having anything to do with it. As Luann walks away, Tiffany is later seen taking the report from her locker and throwing it in the garbage, as Aaron Hill catches her in the act. Aaron returns the report to Luann and berates Tiffany. Luann gives him a large hug. She drops a subtle hint that she's still available for the dance, but Aaron seemingly didn't hear her.

On the January 20, 1997, Luann reveals to Bernice a handrawn scroll of a timeline she has been working on for the past three years of her and Aaron's encounters. There are several callbacks to earlier strips such as where they met in the bookmobile and the time where she accidently held his hand during a haunted mansion. Bernice teases Luann about her obsession, ending with Luann saying she'll give it to him as a Valentine's Day present. She leaves the scroll on the counter, which Brad accidently uses as a cloth as he changes the oil in his car. Brad panics when he realizes he used Luann's scroll, and receives some poor advice from TJ to lie about the situation to make himself look like a hero. Luann is devastated - she screams at Brad and runs off crying. Bernice offers a suggestion on how to fix it, but Luann's poor attitude causes them to get into a fight. As Luann lies on her bed, sighing heavily, Nancy overhears and comes in to console her. Luann explains what happened with the scroll and her fight with Bernice. Her mom convinces her to give him the scroll, and on the February 10, 1997 strip, she nervously hands him the scroll. Aaron appreciates the gestures, and is astonished on how often the two were together, but never talked or interacted and it felt to him like they were strangers. Luann is embarrassed, but Aaron kisses her on the forehead, saying they are "no longer strangers".

On February 20, 1997, Gunther asks Luann to the Sweetheart's Dance, but declines thinking she still has a chance to go with Aaron. Readers of the comic strip were asked to write in their votes of who Luann should go to the Sweetheart's Dance with: Aaron or Gunther. The results would be posted April 19. Gunther is upset by Luann's mixed signals since he doesn't know where he stands with her, so he asks her to a make decision: him, or Aaron. Luann ponders what life would be like if she picked either boy - both the good and the bad. She asks all her friends for their advice: Bernice, Delta, and Tiffany, although the latter was not invited to give her opinion. Aaron approaches Luann in the hallway, thanking her again for the scroll. She accidently tells him it was just a "friendly" Valentine's gift, even though it was supposed to be romantic. Gunther asks her what her final decision is, but pleads for a time extension to think about it. He reluctantly agrees. Gunther provides Luann an ultimatum that he already has a potential date who "also wears glasses" (Bernice). Luann is shocked by this, but is even more shocked when Tiffany walks by, announcing that Aaron had already asked her to the dance, although *technically* he didn't ask her, giving Luann a sliver of hope.

On April 19, 1997, results of the Gunther vs. Aaron poll were revealed. Over 40,000 votes were casted, but ultimately Aaron won by a margin of over 4,000 votes (23,836) vs. Gunther's 19,701. Luann arrives at the dance with her friends and has a great time. Sometime after the dance (the strips are missing) Luann decided to ask Aaron on an official date.

In the June-July 1997 strips, Luann and Aaron went on a date to see a Romeo and Juliet stage performance. At the end of the date, Aaron thanked Luann for inviting him, but went home without kissing her, much to Luann's disappointment. When the new school year began in September-October, Aaron finally admits to Luann that he appreciates her and her feelings towards him, but he has "someone special" in his life and would rather just remain friends. This news devastates Luann, but is relieved to find out his "special someone" is not Tiffany.

## Interests and Hobbies

Luann spends a lot of time on the phone, watching television, reading her Teen magazine, or hanging out with Bernice and Delta. Luann occasionally babysits for the Killian and Lewis families. She loves pizza, Eddie Murphy, and Madonna and is also knowledgeable about clothes and video games. One of her favorite bands is Wham!. She also likes to write poetry. Some of her favorite TV shows include *Magnum P.I.* and *I Love Lucy*. She has various posters in her room, including Bon Jovi and Tiffany. She tells Miss Phelps she wants to marry Tom Cruise.

## Relationships

### Brad Degroot

Luann and Brad are four years apart in age. They originally had a common brother/sister rivalry going. They would crack jokes, insult, and try to get each other in trouble. Luann and Brad occasionally have serious conversations, when their rooms were next to each other, and often talk at night.

### Bernice Halper

One of Luann's best friends since third grade. They get along very well and can always be seen hanging out in school and at their homes. Luann uses Bernice's intelligence to help with school work. In the December 4, 1987 strip, Bernice gets Aaron Hill as an assigned partner for the research project, which causes Luann to get upset with her.

### Aaron Hill

Luann's crush since first grade, who seemingly doesn't know she exists. His seat gets moved next to hers in Social Studies and then again in Mr. Fogarty's English class. She always daydreams and fantasizes all sorts of scenarios about him, and all her friends and family know about her crush. She pretends her pillow is Aaron Hill, and practices kissing it.

### Delta James

Another of Luann's best friends whom she also met in third grade. In the April 16, 1985 strip, Bernice mentions that Luann and Delta have opposite personalities. She would always accidently find a way to embarrass or get Luann in trouble. Delta taught Luann how to dance, although she wasn't good at it.

### Gunther Berger

In earlier strips, Gunther had an obsession with Luann. She would refuse to let him sit next to her at lunch time. She accidently accepted two "dates" with him: one to the movies, and one to play miniature golf.

## Trivia

* Luann is a Virgo.
* Luann has held a number of prestigious school titles:
	+ In first grade, she was the "Paper Monitor".
	+ In second grade, she was the "Scissor Passer-Outer".
	+ In third grade, she was the "Chalkboard Custodian"