History Main / GirlNextDoor

Just for me

Just for me\\

-->-- '''Kitty Kallen''', ''Series/MyBabysittersAVampire''

-->-- '''Copperpot''', ''Series/MyBabysittersAVampire''

Then kiss me once again\\
It's been a long, long time''

->''Never thought that you would be\\
Standing here so close to me\\
There's so much I feel that I should say\\
But words can wait until some other day\\
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice\\

-->-- '''Kitty Kallen''', "It's Been a Long, Long Time"

->'''Mrs. Doyle:''' Ladies! It's after seven o'clock. I think your husbands might be wondering where their breakfasts are!
->'''Father Ted:''' Mrs. Doyle's right! Remember last year, Mrs. Dunn, when your husband tried to wash a cup, and burned the house down. And Mrs. Collins, when Mr. Collins tried to make the bed on his own... [dramatic pause] ...and lost a leg.
-->-- ''Series/FatherTed''

>''Never thought that you would be\\
Standing here so close to me\\
There's so much I feel that I should say\\
But words can wait until some other day\\
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice\\
Then kiss me once again\\
It's been a long, long time''
-->-- '''Kitty Kallen''', "It's Been a Long, Long Time"

%%

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E138BlackLeatherJackets Black Leather Jackets]]", Ellen Tillman is a nice, sweet girl who lives next door to the house that the aliens have rented. Scott soon falls in love with her.

** The series as a whole has a few, though they can be ''[[FanDumb HEAVILY]]'' disputed. Counting by appearance, there's [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Caeda/Sheeda]], [[TokenMiniMoe Lilina]], and Tana. Note that all three of these girls are ''royalty'' (more or less; Lycia's not a monarchy but Lilina's father is nevertheless the head of a country). Then again, the same is true of their love interests, so it's all relative.

* Casey Carlyle from ''Film/IcePrincess'' is a CoolLoser and physics geek.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats'': Riff-Raff's girlfriend, Cleo, is a humanoid feline with a blonde 80's hairdo, hourglass figure, and leg warmers. Yet, despite her looks and living [[UptownGirl in a music store]], she's dating an alley cat who's the leader of his own street gang and accepts Riff-Raff for [[CoolLoser who he is.]] Aside from wanting excitement now and then, she keeps her expectations simple. All she asks is that Riff-Raff stay faithful to her and treat her well, which ''he does''.

* {{Betty|AndVeronica}} Cooper in the ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'', as opposed to her UptownGirl rival for Archie's affections, Veronica. For his part, humble everyteen Archie is this in comparison to the wealthier and [[JerkJock more athletic]] Reggie Mantle or the [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} goofy comic relief]] Jughead.
* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', the Silver Agent explicitly describes his first girlfriend as this. He broke off with her because he was sterile, but told her ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies because she would have tried to stifle her dreams for him.
* Shellie from ''ComicBook/SinCity'' is sassy but meek enough to qualify.
* Played with in regard to Gwen Stacy of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. As portrayed in the comics, Gwen was more of an exotic flower whom Peter only met after he left Forest Hills and "went out into the world", i.e. Manhattan and college. She came from an upper-class background, her first boyfriend, Harry, was the son of a millionaire and in her first appearance she was introduced as a high-school beauty queen. However, as she became the Betty to Mary Jane's Veronica, she moved into this category. MJ herself became literally this Trope in the Ultimate universe, having lived next door to the Parkers since she was a little girl and, before their RelationshipUpgrade, was the geeky best friend of an equally-as-geeky Peter.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyAdventuresWithSuperman'' re-designs leading lady, Lois Lane, as a shorthaired tanned tomboy, who typically wears T-shirts with either gym shorts, ''[[MaleGaze yoga pants]]'', or sweat pants. Her personality was also remodified to go along with her new image by poraying her as Clark and Jimmy's playfully snarky best friend. All of which makes her a stark contrast to her previous incarnations from the comics and movies, which usually made Lois look more like [[UptownGirl a fashion model]].

The SpearCounterpart, Boy Next Door, is the same, only -- you know -- male. Often overlaps with OneOfTheBoys. Contrast with HeadTurningBeauty and PeerlessLoveInterest. Also compare TheAllAmericanBoy, who might well be her {{High School Sweetheart|s}}. When the Girl Next Door actually lives next door, then that's LiterallyLovingThyNeighbor.

* ''Manga/SchoolRumble'': [[TheLadette Mikoto's]] a looker, but she's basically [[OneOfTheBoys one of the guys]]. So her attractiveness stems more [[BoobsOfSteel from her chest]], since most guys are intimidated by [[HugeSchoolgirl her height]] and [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon athleticism]]. Asou was one of the few to not be put-off by it and briefly dated her.[[note]]However, it's rumored that he broke up with her after she [[SoreLoser repeatedly outscored him at an arcade game]].[[/note]] And, in ''[[DistantFinale School Rumble Z]]'', it's revealed that she eventually [[spoiler:married Hanai]].

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' has Ilia who, despite being the Mayor's daughter, has the look and personality of [[FarmersDaughter a farm girl]] instead - from her short blonde hair, to her love of nature and [[DoesNotLikeShoes her habit of going barefoot]].

* In ''Anime/{{Endride}}'', Alicia is Emilio's [[ChildhoodFriends childhood friend]] who was always sneaking into the palace to play while they were growing up. She's the nice, wholesome sort, always ready to listen, and has some romantic interest in Emilio, but holds off on pursuing it since she's not sure it's reciprocated.

* Mary Jane Watson from the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' movies is an example due to her being a CompositeCharacter with Liz Allan, who in the comics attended Midtown High together with Peter Parker and Flash Thompson, and Gwen Stacy who was (or rather, [[CharacterizationMarchesOn became]]) the girl-next-door type girlfriend to Peter.
* ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDorks'' has Rebecca, who lives next door to Philip, and has an unrequited crush on him. They become an OfficialCouple by the end.
%%* This was played with like many other tropes in ''Film/NotAnotherTeenMovie''

%%* Layla from ''Film/SkyHigh2005'' is Will's GranolaGirl best friend.
%%* Jamie Sullivan in ''Film/AWalkToRemember'' is a believer in God who doesn't care what anyone else thinks.
%%* Lori Laughlin plays one in ''SecretAdmirer''
%%* Music/SelenaGomez's character, Mary Santiago, in ''Film/AnotherCinderellaStory''.
* Andy from ''Literature/TheDevilWearsPrada'' was meant to be the kind of girl you could run into on the subway.
* From ''Film/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants'', Shy and beautiful Lena and Carmen, the writer.

%%* Boof from ''Film/TeenWolf''
* Stéphanie is the girl across the hall in ''Film/TheScienceOfSleep''. Zoé lives there as well but she isn't one of these.

* Julie from ''Film/{{Flipped}}'' is such a friendly neighbor that she regularly gives Bryce her chicken's eggs for his family.
* Maggie (Creator/MarlaSokoloff) from the movie ''Film/WhateverItTakes2000''. She eventually ends up with her boy next door.
%%* Rosie from ''Theatre/BranNueDae''

%%* Denise in ''Film/HotRod''.

%%* Maria Posada from ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', to her childhood friends, Manolo and Joaquin.
%%* Julia from the movie Wedding Singer would qualify as this.

* Gender-flipped in ''Film/MeetMeInStLouis'' where Esther Smith has a massive crush on John Truitt who recently moved in next door. Her first solo is a song titled "The Boy Next Door" about how much she adores him even though he doesn't appear to have noticed her. John is a kind and polite guy who has a habit of [[NoSocialSkills putting his foot in his mouth when trying to talk to Esther]].

* OlderThanRadio: Rebecca "Becky" Thatcher from ''Literature/TomSawyer''.

%%* Bella's hometown acquaintance Jacob from ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''.

%%* Kristy and Mary Anne from ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub''.
* For Cassie from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', high fashion is socks that actually match for once. She's also gentle in being the team's moral center and doing what she must but hating the need to fight.
* Creator/JackWeyland's 1990 book tells the story of teenage best friends ''Michelle & Debra'' where Michelle chooses to be the good, obedient, religious girl while Debra strays.
* In ''Literature/VanishingActs'' by Jodi Picoult, Delia is this to Eric, the [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Victorious Childhood Friend]], and Fitz, the Unlucky Childhood Friend. [[spoiler: by the end of the book the tables have turned and Eric is the unlucky one.]]

* Julie Sims in ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' is a Girl Next Door [[FriendlySniper with a rifle]]. She's described as being pretty, but not much more, and aside from occasional bouts of angst is fairly level-headed.

* Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito in the ''Literature/LeaphornAndChee'' series by Creator/TonyHillerman is the rare Native American version. She is a pretty, cheerful, down-to-earth fellow Navajo cop who is contrasted to Chee's previous love interest, the beautiful, sophisticated, half-white lawyer Janet Pete from Washington, D.C.
* Subverted along with most of the wholesome ideas of TheFifties in Jack Ketchum's ''Literature/TheGirlNextDoor''.
%% * Simon Lewis from ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments''.
%%* Sophie Prentice and Grella from ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles''.
* A golden years example occurs between Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse in Creator/StephenKing's ''Insomnia''. He's a retired widower; she's been a widow for a while now, and they've been good friends and neighbors for some years. Eventually they tie the knot.
* A GenderInverted example can be seen in Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote, a girl's MiddleGradeLiterature series with very thick ReverseHarem subtext. Among the boys, Kozuka practically plays this role: he looks slightly more plain than the rest of the boys, and to Aya, the protagonist, he's the most approachable of all of them, being the only one that she actually small-talks with.
* Amy from ''Literature/SpaceGlass'' is very sweet and kind. She's soft with every member of the group, even Nicora who is her romantic rival, and both Bob and Ratroe find it easy to talk to her.

She'll usually embody a "[[MadonnaWhoreComplex wholesome]]" sort of femininity and she's rarely the promiscuous sort, though she might play the {{foil}} [[LightFeminineDarkFeminine to a woman who is]]. Since her characterization is built on her accessible, down-to-earth personality, she's often cute but never to the point that her looks are her defining feature: she might be the prettiest girl at church, or the [[FanserviceWithASmile coffee shop's best-tipped waitress]], but she'll be never surrounded by guys eager to do FavorsForTheSexy. And if she does attract attention with her appearance, she's more likely to be annoyed or embarrassed than flattered.

* ''LightNovel/SoICantPlayH'': Applies to Mina in both the figurative and literal sense. She's been neighbors and schoolmates with Ryosuke since childhood. And, while she's undeniably attractive, [[ImNotPretty she feels plain]] compared to other girls; especially if it's Lisara.

* There is an unusual example in ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK''. Misaki Nakahara is a literal Girl Next Door whose innocence and rather plain beauty is, at first, an integral part of her relationship with Satou, combining this trope with ManicPixieDreamGirl. However, ''both'' tropes become {{subverted|Trope}} when she is slowly revealed to exhibit [[spoiler: nearly every symptom of a textbook case of Borderline Personality Disorder, including extreme self-esteem issues, self-harm, skewed social perspective, and an unhealthy (suicidally so) obsession with Satou.]]

She'll usually embody a "[[MadonnaWhoreComplex wholesome]]" sort of femininity and she's rarely the promiscuous sort, though she might play the {{foil}} [[LightFeminineDarkFeminine to a woman who is]]. Since her characterization is built on her accessible, down-to-earth personality, she's often cute but never to the point that her looks are her defining feature: she'll be the prettiest girl at church or the [[FanserviceWithASmile coffee shop's best-tipped waitress]] but she's never surrounded by a cloud of boys eager to do FavorsForTheSexy. And if she does attract attention with her appearance, she's more likely to be annoyed or embarrassed than flattered.