Ryan Blanchard

**Arianne Brett Baizen (née Blanchard)**, also known as **Ryan** is a main character of Gossip Girl. Throughout the series, Ryan has an ongoing relationship with Carter Baizen after a rocky start. After Serena and Dan, and Chuck and Blair, they have the third longest relationship in the series. They are married with a kid in the series finale.

## Summary

Ryan is the adoptive daughter of Richard and Kelly Blanchard and the biological daughter of her adoptive mother’s sister, Jenna Berkshire and her high school boyfriend Grayson Donahue.

She grew up the youngest of five siblings. Though she is somewhat close with her oldest brother, Bronson, the rest of the time she is seemingly ignored by the rest of her family. Because of this, Ryan prefers the company of her friends: Blair Waldorf, Serena Van Der Woodsen, Nate Archibald and Chuck Bass.

Ryan’s storylines often surround her struggles with her identity and her fear of abandonment. They also surround her relationships, platonic and romantic with her, always in the middle of her friends’ drama and her constant unluckiness with her relationships with Hayden Frost and Carter Baizen.

## Appearance and Style

Unlike her best friends, Serena and Blair, Ryan’s style is much more laid-back and tomboyish. Though her clothes are mostly high-end brands, they aren’t considered flashy. Blair has commented on Ryan’s penchant for thrift store shopping and sewing her own clothes. She is known as a bargain shopper and has said, “you don’t need a lot of money to have a lot of style.”

Though not dubbed as one of the most beautiful girls on the UES, Ryan still gets a fair amount of attention for her flaming red hair and soft green eyes. She is of the same height as Blair and only seen as taller when wearing heels, which is really rare.

## Relationships

### Family

* Kelly Blanchard (Adoptive Mother / Maternal Aunt)
* Richard Blanchard (Adoptive Father / Maternal Uncle)
* Bronson Blanchard (Adoptive Older Brother/Maternal Cousin)
* Cassandra Blanchard (Adoptive Older Sister/Maternal Cousin)
* Sloan Blanchard (Adoptive Older Sister/Maternal Cousin)
* Camilla Blanchard (Adoptive Older Sister/Maternal Cousin)
* Jenna Berkshire (Adoptive Maternal Aunt/Biological Mother)
* Grayson Donahue (Biological Father)
* Genevieve Donahue (Paternal Half-Sister)
* Gregory Baizen (Father-In-Law)
* Lydia Baizen (Mother-In-Law)
* Carter Baizen (Husband)
* Thomas Baizen (Son)
* Caroline Baizen (Sister-In-Law)

### Romances

* Carter Baizen (Husband)
* Hayden Frost (Ex-Boyfriend)
* Theo Holden (Former Friends-With-Benefits)
* Nate Archibald (First Kiss)

## Hobbies/Skills

* **Fashion**ーRyan makes and sews a lot of her own clothes. With the clothes she buys at thrift stores, she sews them to make them fit better. She also shows a passion with fashion photojournalism. While attending Constance, she was chair of the photojournalism club and likes to dedicate her time to teach others to sew.
* **Charity Work**ーLike Blair, she was a part of the Community Outreach Committee and is shown donating clothes constantly to a variety of shops and other charities.

## Personality

Ryan is okay with playing second and third fiddle to Serena and Blair. Known as a peacemaker and the neutral territory to the rest of her friends, Ryan’s conflicts come from her background. Known as the youngest and most different of her family, she is generally ignored by them. Her insecurities come from feeling unwanted in her family while simultaneously having to be the “sane” one in her group of friends. She is known also to be a bit naive at times, putting her faith into people others don’t — as like Carter Baizen whom she shares history with. She is also shown to be fiercely loyal to her friends and family and is known as the most non-judgmental one of her friends. Romantically speaking, Ryan hasn’t had much luck in the way of romance, so she hasn’t dated as much as the rest of her friends. She is known to give all of herself when it comes to her romantic relationships—thus usually ending up with a broken heart.

## Notes

* While Serena and Blair hold the titles of *Queen* and *Princess* respectively—Gossip Girl titles Ryan as *Duchess*
* Besides Nate, Ryan is one of the only members of the group to not have sent a tip into Gossip Girl
* According to Carter, her favorite flower is Red Tulips

## Tropes

### Friendship Tropes

* **Childhood Friends**: She’s known Blair, Serena, Chuck and Nate her whole life. Blair has dubbed the group of friends as "*The Non-Judging Breakfast Club*". This band of friends also fall into the friends trope of **True Companions**.
* **A Friend in Need**: Ryan is shown to be the friend that everyone in her friend group can go to for help and support. Throughout the series her friends drama has her friends calling her up, only for her to drop whatever she's doing and show up to aid her friends in getting them out of the drama they're in.
* **Limited Social Circle**: In season three the social circles for the members of the *Non-Judging Breakfast Club* seem to have shrunk down to just the five of the members (well, Nate also hangs out with Dan, but that still makes it a limited circle). In the later half of the season this is lampshaded when Blair heads off for a fashion show where she has "thirty friends attending", causing Nate to turn to Serena and ask: "What, what friends?"
* **The Power of Friendship**: Even though they're often at each other's throats for one reason or another, the "non-judging Breakfast Club" always band together when one of them is in trouble. As Gossip Girl herself puts it, "With friends like these, who needs armies?"

### Family Tropes

* **Adoption Angst**: Ryan learns that her parents are actually her adoptive parents and that her Aunt Jenna is actually her biological mother and she doesn't take the news well, even going so far as to temporarily move in with Blair to avoid seeing any of her family.
* **Babies Ever After**: In the flashforward in the final episode, along with Blair and Chuck's son, it is shown that Ryan and Carter have a son.
* **Black Sheep**: Ryan is known as the Black Sheep of her family. This is deeply rooted in her family ignoring her and her adoption angst. Her father has blatantly called her an outsider in her family, a sentiment that she repeats to her friends.
* **A Mistake is Born**: Due to a **Surprise Pregnancy** in Jenna Berkshire's teen years, Richard and Kelly Blanchard reluctantly took in Ryan as a baby. In a fit of anger towards Ryan, her father told her that he never wanted to take her in, but did it to appease his wife.

### Other Tropes

* **Cuddle Bug**: Ryan is the most tactile of her friends. While her friends do give hugs and the occasional french cheek kiss, Ryan is the one most often giving out hugs, shoulder pats, back rubbing and many other forms of platonic affection.
* **Nice Girl**: She made her mistakes too, but out of the main 5, she's the one with the least Jerkass moments. She's always gentle and down to earth, and almost never bitchy like Serena and Blair can be, unless you push her **Berserk Buttons**.
* **Only Known by Their Nickname**: Everyone——besides her mother and father––calls her by her nickname *Ryan*, even though her full name is Arianne (pronounced like *A-Ryan*). She also falls under the trope of **Do Not Call Me Paul** because she always insists on people calling her by her nickname instead of her full name.