Young Daria's Bedroom in Highland

When watching "Boxing Daria," I am always struck by the very feminine quality of her childhood bedroom. She certainly lacked for nothing: frilly curtains and lampshade, ornate furniture, little ducks along the ceiling, a clown-face light switch, toys and books galore, a doll house, and pink walls to boot. This was the lair of the Daria we know? Granted, she learned to drop her things on the floor early on, as she does in her Lawndale bedroom. And she did learn to hide in a book when real life got too stressful (or too ridiculous) to handle. It still seems like a different kid, though. Beavis and Butt-head couldn't have ruined her that thoroughly.

Looking at this picture, one wonders where the feminine side of Daria went. She wears a skirt in high school, but all the frilly things, the ornate and decorative things, that stuff went away. There was a big change. She stops competing for attention. She blocks out thoughts of boys (until Trent appears, and even then she squashes down her feelings without mercy). She doesn't socialize with other girls or with boys. She keeps to herself, intellectual and introverted and judgmental and increasingly sarcastic.

One wonders what kind of Daria this little girl could have grown up to be, even with her personality style as solemn and standoffish as it was. Interesting fodder for AU stories, starting with this little Daria. Who else might she have become?