The Baby Sitters Club/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: The girls are very cult-like.
  • Creator's Pet: Kristy's stepsister, Karen, is loved by everyone except the fandom. They encourage Karen's rude behaviour, including one time they purposely got her to harass a little girl for no reason.
  • Designated Villain: Janine is demonized by Claudia for... it's hard to say, her motives change randomly.
    • Alan Gray for Kristy, Cokie Mason for the whole BSC on occasion.
    • Jessi's Aunt Cecilia qualifies. She is definitely right about how an eleven-year-old, regardless of how responsible she is, should not be left in charge of an eight-year-old and a toddler for a whole weekend. (She's wrong, however, in that she seems determined to blame Jessi for the matter, rather than Jessi's parents who left her in charge.)
    • Pamela Harding in the Little Sister spin-off series is meant to be a pint-sized Alpha Bitch, but ends up coming across as this. While she does have some genuinely snotty moments, the main reason Karen started demonizing her was because in her first appearence, at Karen's sleepover party, she didn't want to eat pizza, didn't like The Wizard of Oz, and preferred to sleep in a bed over sleeping on the floor.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Shannon is very popular among members of some snark communities. Amusingly, so is background character Pete Black. Janine also has a following.
    • Andrew in the Little Sister series.
  • Fad Dissonance: It's pretty hilarious to read about Claudia's totally weird new friend who wears long dresses and flared jeans, both of which have come back into style since the books were published.
  • Ho Yay/Les Yay: Lesbian subtext is a popular topic of discussion among fans. Some would also argue that Jeff Schafer has quite a bit of "chemistry" with Mallory's triplet brothers, particularly Byron.
  • Memetic Outfit: Many of Claudia's.
  • Periphery Demographic
  • Rooting for the Empire: Quite a few readers of the Little Sister series cheer Pamela on whenever she gives Karen a bad time.
  • The Scrappy: Dawn has garnered a rather large Hatedom in recent years.
    • It's probably easier to catch the Loch Ness Monster than it is to find fans of Karen Brewer.
  • Snark Bait: Several blogs and online communities are devoted to snarking these books.
  • Tear Jerker: The death of Louie, Mimi's stroke, deteriorating health and eventual death, and a lot of Abby's autobiography.
    • Jessi's baby brother, Squirt, getting hurt in a car wreck.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Every description of Mallory and Jessi includes their similarities and differences. The problem? One of the girls' "differences" is that Mallory is white and Jessi is black. No matter who is narrating, they use this comparison EVERY SINGLE BOOK.
  • The Woobie: Mary Anne in the early books was shy, prone to tears and severely overprotected by her dad. Also Mallory, if you believed her misfortunes were entirely undeserved. And Jessi, due to the racism she suffered early on. In the Little Sister series, Andrew Brewer and Natalie Springer.
    • Jerkass Woobie: Karen Brewer if you really consider what she's had to live with. Her parents divorced and remarried within a year and she was apparently expected to adjust pronto despite being six years old at the time. Then Watson and Elizabeth dropped a "surprise! We adopted a baby!" bomb on the whole family. Her behavior may be inexcusable at times, but it's hardly surprising.
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