Claudia Kishi

From the Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin

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"Oh my lord!"

"I think clothes make a statement about the person inside them. Also, since you have to get dressed every day, why not at least make it fun? Traditional clothes look boring and are boring to put on...I like bright colors and big patterns and funny touches, such as earrings made from feathers. Maybe this is because I'm an artist. I don't know."

"I love everything about art. And I'm good at it. I can sculpt, paint, make collages and jewelry, you name it. I'm not bragging. This is just the way things are."

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If you read the Baby-Sitters Club books, your favorite was either Claudia (stylish artist girl) or Stacey (popular girl from NYC). For me, Claudia wins hands down.

Claudia Kishi is in 7th grade at the beginning of the series, and is the Vice President of the club, mainly because she has her own phone with its own line in her room, so that they can hold club meetings there and people can call to hire sitters. She's cool enough to have her own line! She makes her own earrings and jewelry, and is forever described as putting crazy outfits together that would never work on anyone but her (even by 1990's standards) because she's so artistic and cool, she can pull it off. But the best thing about her is that she's so unapologetically her own person. She has to hide her beloved junk food and Nancy Drew mysteries because her parents don't think they're good for her and she does it anyway. I loved her relationship with her grandmother and how she's a good friend to other members of the club and all of the children she sits for. In one book a fellow art student tries to convince her that if she was serious about her art, she'd give up everything else, including the BSC, to make time for it. Claudia tries it and decides that she can still love art without having to sacrifice everything else in her life for it, and it won't make her less of an artist. THANK YOU, CLAUDIA.

My girls adore this series and we pick up BSC books whenever we see them at book sales. They are forever borrowing books from their Aunt Mary's old room to read. I'm actually a little disappointed that this series hasn't really taken off as a reboot because so many situations just wouldn't work anymore - the BSCers would just take out their phones, and either call for backup or google what they needed to know. But that's another story.