This is my analysis comparing Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl and Rue Bennett from Euphoria.

I’m an independent culture journalist, and I’ve written iHeartRadio, RapTV, and I’ve done official Netflix synopses.

I am a dedicated fan of both shows. These are two of my favorite shows to analyze because the characters are very layered, intricate, and thought provoking.

So here are my reasons for why I think Jenny and Rue are cut from the same cloth.

They’re both seen as troublemakers to their families

The first similarity between Jenny and Rue is that they are both viewed as extreme troublemakers who cause pain, stress, and anxiety to their family members.

For Jenny, it’s like her family can never catch a break when trying to wrangle her in and deal with her.

She is super rebellious, but it’s because she has goals. She wants to achieve, and she envisioned herself living a big life.

Jenny’s most rebellious moments left her father feeling absolutely sick to his stomach trying to wrap his head around how he could possibly keep her safe.

But his tactics ended up coming across as more sexist and controlling than anything else.

All in all, Jenny is seen as a rebellious troublemaker who brings endless stress to both her father and her brother.

In Rue’s case, she does the same thing to her mother and sister. She’s constantly stressing them out and making them worry about her health and well-being.

The fact that her little sister Gia is the one who discovered her body when she almost passed away of an OD already sheds light on the trauma Gia lives with as Rue’s little sister.

And her mother often feels like she’s had a loss because she seemingly cares about the longevity of her life more than who cares about it for herself.

Rue’s mother understands that Rue is trying to escape the grief of losing her father by numbing her pain with drugs, but she doesn’t see that as acceptable or excusable.

She still goes out of her way to fight for the betterment of her daughter‘s future.

Sadly, regardless of how hard Rue’s mother fights for her, are you still continually brings her stress and sadness.

So Jenny and Rue share this detail in common when it comes to the way their families perceive them.

Both dabble with illegal substances

A huge similarity between Jenny and Rue comes down to their willingness to dabble with illegal substances.

The main difference here though is that Jenny never actually consumed any illegal substances for herself.

She was willing to sell them while she was dating Damien Dalgaard, which means she was fully aware that dangerous drugs and pills were passing through her hands in exchange for cash, and she didn’t really care.

She was living life on the edge for a couple of reasons. She wanted enough money to fit in with her wealthy classmates at Constance while she was taking on the Queen Bee role and she wanted to be impressive enough to Damien, so he wouldn’t see her as an immature little girl.

In Rue’s case, she was actually willing to consume the illegal substances for herself.

Funny enough, when Rue was given the opportunity to sell off an entire suitcase of illegal substances to get into the drug dealer game similar to Jenny, she actually failed at it and took all the drugs for herself.

Since Rue is an addict, that was to be expected of her character. Based on the trailer we’ve seen for Euphoria season 3, we know that decision to take $5000 worth of drugs all on her own is coming back to haunt her.

Both have toxic romantic relationships

Romance in the lives of both Jenny and Rue are pretty damn toxic in my opinion.

The reality is that both of these characters seek out love with the pure intention they can possibly provide, but that doesn’t mean solid and healthy love actually ever comes their way.

Both of these characters are examples of the fact that you might dream of being loved by your soulmate all day long, but that doesn’t mean your dreams will ever come true.

In Jenny‘s case, every relationship she had on Gossip Girl was problematic.

Her first boyfriend was Asher Hornsby, and he was secretly gay, only dating her to use her as a cover-up.

Her second relationship was with Damian Dalgaard, who convinced her to sell illegal substances with him, which could’ve gotten her locked up in prison.

She also had an off and on relationship with Nate Archibald, who kind of always treated her like she was disposable whenever other girls would under the picture like Vanessa Abrams or Serena van der Woodsen.

Jenny really wanted things to work out with Nate, but that simply wasn’t in the cards for her.

And lastly, she swiped her V card with Chuck Bass, and we all know how horrendously that plot line turned out with Jenny getting vanished from Manhattan by Blair Waldorf.

In Rue’s case the only love interest we’ve seen her involved with has been Jules Vaughn so far.

Based on social media responses I’ve seen from viewers of the show, most people are in agreement that their relationship is not a good one.

The toxicity between them goes beyond the fact that Rue lies to Jules face about her sobriety journey and the fact that Jules cheated on Rue with Elliot.

There’s also a lot of codependency, a lack of trust, and unnecessary pressure on both of them at such a young ages in their relationship.

Some fans of the show have labeled their connection as a trauma bond, which we all know isn’t exactly a strong foundation for any relationship to be built on.

They understand both sides of betrayal

A big similarity between Jenny and Rue is the depth of understanding they both have regarding betrayal.

They’ve both been on both sides of betrayal with people they trusted and people they once spelt close to.

For Jenny, she understands the pain of being betrayed because Agnes Andrews did it to her after they agreed to go into business together as a fashion designer and model duo.

Their business quite literally went up in flames when Agnes set Jenny‘s hand-sewn dresses on fire.

And then Jenny found herself on the other side of betrayal when she tried to seduce Nate Archibald while he was with Serena van der Woodsen and when she slept with Chuck Bass knowing that Blair Waldorf was going to get hurt if she ever found out about it.

For Rue, she was betrayed when Jules decided to cheat on her with Elliot. She felt blindsided by that betrayal because she was so deeply in love with Jules.

But she found herself on the other side of betrayal when she exposed Cassie for hooking up with Nate Jacobs in front of their entire social circle, including Maddy, who had half of mind to physically start beating up Cassie on the spot.

The pain of betrayal runs deep and takes a long time to heal from, and this is something Jenny and Rue both understand in their own complex ways.

They’re both trying to grow up way too fast

I can easily say that the majority of high school characters in both Gossip Girl and Euphoria are trying to grow up way too fast.

They’re living adult lifestyles before they turned 18, and this is a common theme across both shows.

But for the sake of this article, I’m only shining a light on Jenny and Rue.

With Jenny specifically, she was so ready to grow up and get away from the rules of her father that she wanted to file emancipation.

Filing for emancipation means that she would legally become an adult before the age of 18 so she would no longer need her dad‘s permission for anything.

Jenny was ready to live the life of a full grown woman at 15 and 16 years old.

Rue is similar in that sense. Messing with substances that no one should ever touch at ANY age became her obsession and her addiction.

The legal age to smoke recreational Mary Jane and drink alcohol is 21 years old. In Euphoria, Rue was only 16 or 17 years old.

And we obviously know that Mary Jane and alcohol were just base level substances she was messing with.

She was going hard trying to numb her pain by getting high on anything and everything she could get her hands on.

Rue lives a lifestyle that indicates that she doesn’t care about her childhood.

She’s ready to grow up right away and have enough freedom to do whatever she wants with her life.

For her specifically, it’s because she doesn’t really value her life in the first place.

It’s easy to pity & hate both

One major similarity I’ve noticed between Jenny and Rue is how easy it is to have such mixed emotions about them as a viewer.

I literally pity them both at times and hate them both at times. And I’m not alone in my thoughts about this. Other fans feel the same.

Both of these characters were written to be flawed, which means rooting for them at times and hoping they get what they deserve at other times is the actual intention behind the way they’re written as characters.

With Jenny, I despised her when she stole that red dress from Hazel‘s mother‘s closet. It was dumb and embarrassing of her to do that.

I was annoyed at her when she dated Asher as a status symbol just to make herself look better and gain more popularity.

I was pissed at her once you set up Vanessa to wear a see-through dress to the snowflake ball.

I hated her when she tried to seduce Nate while he was dating Serena.

I thought she was so idiotic when she thought photographer almost take nude photos of her.

She was the absolute worst when she bullied Eric van der Woodsen just to look more powerful in front of her minions.

And I thought she was unforgivable when she teamed up with Juliet Sharp and Vanessa Abrams to sabotage Serena, even though she didn’t know that Juliet was going to take their plan to such an extreme place.

It was easy to hate her during all of those scenes and more.

But it was also easy to pity her and empathize with her when I watched the way her controlling an overbearing father constantly cock blocked her dreams.

It was easy to feel sorry for her, knowing that she wanted true love, but continually got screwed over by boys.

My heart broke for her when she saw her dreams of becoming a fashion designer constantly fall apart in front of her eyes like when Agnes lit her dresses up or when Eleanor Waldorf initially tried to fire her from Waldorf designs.

My emotions toward Jenny have bounced back-and-forth between hatred and pity.

And that is also the case with Rue. I’ve hated watching scenes of her while she seeks out drugs without a care in the world or any concern for the fact that her family is so worried about her.

Every time she lied straight to Jules’s face about her sobriety, it made me feel more frustrated and more annoyed by her as a character.

Knowing that she had no intention of even trying to get sober, made her even worse and more difficult to root for.

But by that same token, I also felt pity in my heart for Rue when I thought about her desperation to numb her pain because of her father‘s death.

I can’t even imagine how painful it would be to lose a parent as a teenager, but that is the pain she was battling, and because of that, I found myself having sympathy for her.

They navigate the world with abandonment wounds

These characters both actively navigate abandonment wounds in their respective shows.

Jenny spent the majority of her time on Gossip Girl feeling left behind and unwanted by her own mother.

Alison Humphrey was too self-involved to stick around for her family so she relocated to Hudson to be with her boyfriend.

There’s no way that abandonment didn’t negatively impact Jenny and contribute to her rebellious nature and poor decisions as a teenager.

And in Rue’s case, as I previously mention, her father passed away of cancer when she was 13, which was a trigger point for her that sent her spiraling down the path of addiction.

Her father didn’t abandon her by choice, but he abandoned her through death, which also creates an abandonment wound in her, especially at a formative age like 13.

I did a little further research to find out how other viewers of these shows heal about these characters and other people sympathize with them just as much.

I found a Reddit thread from a Gossip Girl who wrote, “Jenny Humphrey deserves so much better. She had so much potential in season one and season two. She was insanely talented and actually making a name for herself in fashion, but instead of letting her go, everyone around her, held her back.”

They had a lot more to say, but I really do agree with their opinion. And I also found a Reddit thread from people discussing Rue’s most positive traits as they sympathize with her as a character.

One person wrote, “I think Rue is someone who can keep a secret. She’s nurturing for the most part. She’s made mistakes and she’s able to reflect on them to be more empathetic towards others. She generally gives off good vibes when she’s not a complete wreck.”

They had more to say about rue as well and I also agree with their opinion.

All in all, I do see some undeniable parallels, similarities, and connections between Jenny Humphrey and Rue Bennett.