Let’s discuss the similarities between Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl and Cassie Howard from Euphoria.

I’m a diehard Gossip Girl fan, and I’ve watched the series, all six seasons, many times through. At least seven or eight times at this point.

I even had my husband sit down and watch the whole series straight through with me a couple years ago. And I’m also a dedicated fan of Euphoria.

Aesthetics (similar appearances)

As an independent pop culture journalist, I’ve done a lot of Euphoria coverage since the first season came out in 2019. So I have a lot of thoughts, ideas, and opinions regarding characters from both shows.

And one thing I find very interesting in both shows is that they feature characters who are very similar in my opinion. I think that Jenny from Gossip Girl and Cassie from Euphoria are cut from the same cloth for a multitude of reasons. So let’s dive in.

Starting with the basics of appearances. Jenny and Cassie are both blonde haired, blue eyed, beautiful teenage girls who are incredibly beautiful to look at, yet don’t have much self-esteem or confidence backing them up.

They both also place a large emphasis on their fashion choices. Jenny is a fashion designer in the making with dreams of becoming more successful than her boss Eleanor Waldorf.

And she dresses the part in pretty much every episode, especially starring in season 3 before she gets exiled from manhattan. Cassie’s outfits are typically always on point in euphoria as well, even though she isn’t on the career track to becoming a fashion designer.

Innocence to rebellion pipelines

The next similarity is that they both start off as seemingly sweet and innocent girls before their downward spirals begin. They both go downward spirals that’s done from their desperation to be loved, chosen, and validated.

Their need for validation comes from the fact that they both have abandonment issues from their parents. Jenny’s mother abandoned her to move to Hudson with her boyfriend in season one of Gossip Girl. Jenny was left behind feeling like she wasn’t worth it enough for her mother to stay.

Because of that situation, Jenny was left to be raised by her father who ended up being super controlling, sexist, and overbearing. It got so bad that Jenny attempted to file for amount of patient to get away from him.

Cassie, on the other hand, was abandoned by her father. He dipped out on her when she was younger, leaving her with a huge void in her heart That she subconsciously always tries to fill with attention from men.

A need for male validation

Let’s talk about the way male attention heavily shapes their self-worth and decision-making processes. Getting male attention is super important for both Jenny and Cassie, which is why they have so much in common in my opinion.

Let’s start with Jenny and the fact that male attention was something she sought out so desperately that she ended up in a relationship with a boy who was using her as a beard because he secretly wanted to date other boys in season one.

Then, she ended up in a toxic relationship with a guy who encouraged her to sell illegal substances.

Cassie, similarly, sought male attention so desperately that she agreed to be part of toxic and unhealthy relationships like the one she was in with McKay and the one she pursued with Nate.

On the surface, seen that McKay was a good boyfriend to her, but he was often dismissive of her needs, and Willing to push her away without letting her in.

And we obviously know that Cassie‘s relationship with Nate is one of the most toxic relationships in television history based on his abusive nature.

A willingness to betray their besties

On that note, let’s talk about the fact that Jenny and Cassie were both willing to betray close to female friends in pursuit of validation, love, and male attention.

Serena always acted like a big sister figure to Jenny and treated her with love and respect. Serena was willing to except Jenny into the popular crowd on the upper east side before Jenny had even started making a name for herself.

However, Jenny was still quick to betray Serena as soon as she had a chance because Jenny desperately wanted a chance with Nate Archibald. She knew Nate was in a committed relationship with Serena, and she still tried to seduce him anyway.

Similarly, Cassie was willing to go behind her best friends back to pursue a romantic connection. Cassie and Maddy were best friends, yet Cassie still started hooking up with Maddy‘s ex-boyfriend, Nate.

And she knew full well that Maddy and Nate were still emotionally involved with each other in the midst of an off and on, super chaotic relationship dynamic.

They both idolize other women

Another similarity between Jenny and Cassie is that they both chase popularity and status as a way of feeling safer in their skin and feeling more valued.

They both idolize women who represent power, beauty, and social dominance. In Jenny‘s case, she idolizes Blair because she knows that Blair is living the lifestyle that she wants to live for herself.

Blair is an extremely powerful, beautiful, and dominating force who inspires Jenny to step up her game. So much so, that Jenny goes out of her way to take over as queen bee on campus when it’s time for Blair to graduate.

In Cassie’s case, she idolizes her best friend Maddy. Maddy is everything Cassie wishes she could be, and we saw evidence of that when Cassie showed up to school dressed in the same exact way Maddy dressed.

Cassie sees Maddy as the blueprint regarding power, beauty, and social dominance. She also knows that Maddy is the one who truly can snag attention from a guy like Nate, which makes Cassie only want to emulate her vibe and copy her swag as much as possible.

They both go through humiliation arcs

Another similarity between Jenny and Cassie is that they both become increasingly unrecognizable from their original character as time progresses.

Their need for approval leads them to ignore obvious red flags in dating, friendships, and other areas of their lives. And because of this, they both experience humiliation arcs that might feel slightly excessive, depending on your overall opinion of them.

Jenny’s humiliation arc consisted of her agreeing to a depressed hook up section with Chuck Bass, where she swiped her V card. Right after that, she was banished from Manhattan by Blair, who was completely pissed off to find out that Jenny and Chuck had gone all the way.

Cassie‘s humiliation arc included the moment Rue Bennett exposed her for secretly hooking up with Nate in front of just about everyone in their social circle.

Maddy was shocked to her core to find out that it had happened. And then her humiliation arc got even worse at this school play directed by her little sister who included scenes that made Cassie look extremely problematic.

Cassie completely lost it and marched onto the stage, leading to more humiliation in front of every single one of her classmates.

They’ve both been labeled annoying… maybe unfairly

Another major similarity between Jenny and Cassie is that fans of both Gossip Girl and Euphoria have labeled them as annoying and weak as a surface level response to their onscreen behaviors instead of diving deeper to recognize the trauma that drives both of their behaviors.

It’s true that both Jen and Cassie do extremely annoying things that make them look like some of the weakest and most frustrating characters in television history. But to completely ignore the trauma that caused them both to end up where they ended up is completely dismissive of what the show writers likely intended.

The fact that Jenny always felt like she could never fit in with her wealthy classmates since she grew up in Brooklyn was her driving factor to doing everything she possibly could so she didn’t feel like an outsider forever.

Couple that with her abandonment issues from her mom leaving, and you have the perfect storm for a problematic character like Jenny to turn out the way she did. Cassie’s trauma from her dad dipping on her family, is only part of the issue because he left her and her sister alone with her mother who seemingly created an unstable home environment.

Although not very much time is explicitly spent on analyzing Cassie‘s mother, it seems that she might be struggling with alcoholism. The trauma to endure in her home life spills out into the way she acts whenever she’s navigating the world on her own.

They both messed with drugs… Yikes

Another similarity is both of their willingness to either consume or dabble with illegal substances. Illegal substances are incredibly serious and often times addictive.

Jenny was willing to sell illegal substances while she was dating Damien Dalgaard.

We saw Cassie actually pop a pill when she was at the carnival, and it led her down the path of bringing herself to climax on one of the carnival rides in front of everybody.

Both have touchy sibling relationships

Another similarity is that they both have siblings who they love and occasionally, but heads with. Jenny obviously loves her brother Dan Humphrey, but there were many instances where they were arguing with each other, and not fully getting along.

And the same thing applies with Cassie and her sister Lexi. For the most part, they got along pretty well, but they also had their fair share of personal issues.

They’re both seen as cautionary tales

Another interesting similarity between Jenny and Cassie is that both characters function as cautionary tales about what happens when a young girl struggles with self-esteem issues and a lack of self-respect.

There are so many red flags with both characters in both shows, but if you can take anything away from watching Jenny and Cassie‘s arc, it’s that they live lives that no one should want to emulate.

If both of them took a time to build themselves up, allow their confidence to grow, and start treating themselves with more dignity, then it would be easier to support them and route for them.

Why are people quicker to judge female characters?

It’s wild to me that audiences are so quick to judge and Jenny and Cassie, but even quicker to forgive characters like Chuck Bass and Nate Jacobs.

If you scroll through any number of Reddit threads or Instagram comment sections, you’ll see that fans are incredibly frustrated with both Jenny and Cassie.

They both make it on two people‘s hate lists for characters whore havoc in TV shows. But Chuck bass from Gossip Girl is easily forgiven because his redemption arc, and I have to question if part of the reason people are so quick to forgive him is due to the fact that he’s a male character.

And Nate Jacobs is so problematic that some of his scenes are terrifying. Yet there are tons of forums filled with people who are completely supportive of the character and excited to see more of him in the third season of the show.

One Reddit thread that was launched about five years ago that I came across it says, “Jenny Humphrey is the worst character ever. I’m re-watching gossip girl and I never hated Jenny so much until now. In season one, she was a Blair Waldorf wannabe who was down to betray anyone just to become one of Blair‘s minions. And then in season two should become some sort of rebel. I finally just finished season three and it’s probably the worst version of Jenny Humphrey.”

A separate thread launched about a year ago that I came across says, “ anyone who downright hates Cassie? TBH at this point I have zero empathy for her. Daddy issues and meal validation and such, there’s nothing that can excuse her behavior. I think many of us has had a friend who is desperate for attention, and you were always there to provide love and support for them. but at this point, I just look forward to Maddy unleashing hell on Cassie.”

And to be honest, there are countless additional Reddit threads that ring similar to those ones. People have a lot of negative things to say about both these characters. I have come across so many list of complaints.

Guy characters getting easily forgiven all the time makes me think there’s a little bit of sexism happening here!

But I also think that is a mark of a truly in-depth and well-written character. One that makes you question things and one that makes you feel super contemplative.

Someone would say that Jenny Humphrey walked so that Cassie Howard could run. Gossip girl was definitely one of the best teen TV shows of its day and it served as a blueprint for future teen dramas that came after it.