Vivian is the protagonist and point of view character throughout the novel. She is 16 and a junior in high school. Vivian is 5’10” and conscious about her height. She is white, with dark hair and brown eyes. She has been raised by her mom, Lisa, and lives next door to her mother’s parents. Vivian doesn’t remember her father, Sam, who died when she was a baby. She is close to her mother and has always known she was the center of her mother’s world. As Vivian begins to develop independence over the course of the novel, as well as a relationship with Seth, her first real boyfriend, she wonders if, by giving up her own dreams, her mother sacrificed too much for Vivian. Vivian’s curiosity about what her mother was like when she was Vivian’s age motivates her to investigate her mother’s shoebox of keepsakes.

Vivian begins the novel as a girl who is too embarrassed to speak up in class and shares her thoughts with only her closest friends. She is wary of getting in trouble or being the focus of attention. When she is a possible target of the principal’s dress code checks, Vivian wears baggy clothes and tries to go unnoticed.