Karina J. Brandman

* TV Series (2022)
* Comics

**Karina "KJ" J. Brandman** is a 12-year-old lesbian girl and one of the protagonists in *Paper Girls*. She appears in every issue of the comic series. In the 2022 Amazon Prime series, she is portrayed by Fina Strazza.(young/current version) and Delia Cunningham (young adult version)

## Biography

### Overview

KJ is the tallest girl in the group. Her family is wealthy, her parents care a lot about how they are perceived and there "perfect" imagine, her mom dreams of KJ to be the daughter who loves to dress up and wear lots of pink- however, KJ is quite the opposite. She's a sporty girl who loves field hockey.

### Storyline

KJ is a paper girl who gets attacked by some local kids, including Wally Becker. Fellow paper girls Mac, Tiffany, and Erin come to the rescue. The girls decide to band together for protection to finish their routes.

When the sky turns pink and the power goes out, KJ and the others believe they are being attacked. Mac grabs her dad's gun and KJ fights with her to put it away- but Mac accidentally shoots the gun and shoots Erin. KJ and the girls rush her to the hospital, but en route gets intercepted by two guys- Heck and Naldo- who tell them to hide for their safety. They warn the girls they are farther away from home than they think.

A group of people, including Marcus and Prioress, start shooting at the girls who run for their lives. The girls run to Erin's house and find another Erin- but one who is all grown up. This Erin tries to help the girls solve the mystery of how to get back to 1988. Eventually, Larry finds them and helps the girls time travel again. Instead of bringing them back to 1988, he tricks them and leads them to 1999. There, KJ, Larry, and the girls get in a fight with the Old Watch. The girls run away as Larry and adult Erin fight and die.

KJ and the girls look for help and another way to time-travel back to 1988. She and the girls visit adult Tiff and adult KJ, looking for answers. At adult KJ's house, she sees her life. She went to NYU for film school and started dating a girl - Lauren. KJ seems confused about this at first but slowly starts to understand more.

KJ and the others hang out at adult Tiffany's apartment and eventually go to 1999 Larry's farm, where he is still alive. A time rip occurs at Larry's farm. The Old Watch tracks the girls back to the farm and shows up, insisting that they don't want to hurt the girls but they just want to bring them back to 1988. Erin and the girls agree to go on the time machine but Prioress changes the plan and wants to send them to talk to Dr. Quilkin in the future. She summons a time machine for them but the girls get separated - with KJ and Mac taking off on one ship and Tiff and Erin on another.

## Personality

KJ is intelligent and articulate. Toward the other girls, she is kind and loyal. She likes sports and finds field hockey is a good place to work out all the frustrations she can't fully express. She's guarded and hides her more sensitive side.

## Trivia

* While not initially known, KJ discovers she is lesbian later in the series after developing romantic feelings toward Mac.
* KJ has pet sea monkeys, as well as a dog names Patty
* In the TV adaptation, she is shown to strongly enjoy movies, specifically films directed by Stanley Kubrick
* She attends Buttonwood Academy
* On the Halloween during the year in which the movie Annie released, KJ dressed up as Annie.
* She is a fan of the band "The Smiths" as shown by the poster for the album "Louder Than Bombs", which was displayed on the wall of her room, as shown in the last issue of the comics