Today we’d like to wish a happy birthday to two characters who couldn’t be any more different: Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls and Mona Vanderwaal from Pretty Little Liars!
According to the Gilmore Girls online wiki, Lorelai “Rory” Leigh Gilmore was born on October 8, 1984 which would make her 37-years-old. Although Rory was born in Hartford, Connecticut, she grew up in the sleepy town of Stars Hollow with her single mom Lorelai Gilmore. Although Rory is very loving to those she cares about, at times, she can be quiet, awkward, and shy.
In the show, it became clear early on that besides her mother, Rory loved three things in her life: books, coffee, and Harvard (not in that particular order). When she isn’t reading, looking around the local bookstore, or studying, Rory can be found at Luke’s coffee shop with her mom, caffeinated drink in hand.
Gilmore Girls aired from 2000 to 2007 then later returned to Netflix in 2016 for a four-episode TV mini series. That said, we literally got to watch Rory (and the actress who played her, Alexis Bledel) grow up. Throughout the main show and TV mini series, we saw Rory graduate high school, then college, and see her return to Stars Hallow to work for the local newspaper, the Stars Hollow Gazette.
Gilmore Girls is a big comfort show for many people who watch it. It wouldn’t be that if not for its plot, music, and of course, its characters. For us book readers and dreamers, Rory Gilmore is someone many of us can relate to.
Mona Vanderwaal, on the other hand, is a different story.
According to the Pretty Little Liars online wiki, Mona Vanderwaal was born on October 8, 1994, making her 27-years-old. She was raised by her single mom Leona Vanderwaal in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. Throughout middle school and part of high school, Mona was incessantly bullied by Alison DiLaurentis and her clique. This put pressure on Mona’s friendship with Hanna since Hanna was friends with both Mona and Alison.
Hoping to get revenge or instill fear in Alison and her friends herself, Mona took on the alias of “A” and sent threatening text messages to the group. The bullying still persisted. After Alison’s disappearance, “Loser Mona” reinvented herself and quickly climbed the social ladder to replace Alison as one of the most popular girls at Rosewood High.
Mona is wickedly intelligent as well as a sneaky shoplifter. While she isn’t exactly a high school role model, we gotta give her brownie points for her desire to leave her past behind when she moves to Beacon Heights, Oregon to take a job as an admissions and recruitment advisor for the university.
