Jill

Jill
First appearance	585: Outreach
Appearances	36

For a list of comics, see Comics featuring Science Girl.

Science Girl is a stick figure character in xkcd. She is usually distinguished by being clearly a child, both in terms of her behavior or in comparison to the size of the adults around her.

Appearance

Her hair is typically set in a hair bun, but compared to Hairbun it is looser, she may have curlier hair, and typically there is a string of hair hanging down her back from the hair bun. Her hair styles vary, since she can also have two buns or no buns but a ponytail. As she is usually also clearly a child, she usually cannot be confused with Hairbun in most contexts.

History

Science Girl is a minor character in xkcd, but there are several comics where she is the main protagonist. She has a marked interest in science and is typically more knowledgeable about the subject at hand than the adults around her, which may lead to embarrassment, enlightenment or in some cases dangerous situations, depending on how obtuse or condescending the adults around her behave.

She is not necessarily the same character from comic to comic, but she does represent the general kid interested in science and intellectual rigor. In 1860: Communicating, she appears as Alice in Wonderland and takes advantage of Humpty Dumpty's famously illogical dicta on linguistic pragmatics. In this and other examples, her attitude often makes people uncomfortable, especially adults. These personality features distinguish her from an everywoman character like Hairbun, but although Science Girl often causes consternation, she not generically evil like Black Hat, and thus in no way would she represent a young version of Danish.

One of her largest parts is in 1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar (see her character image), which is one of those that becomes dangerous for the obtuse adults. She is also ready to commit crime, even though she knows about environmental issues in 1659: Tire Swing (the only comic with her so far where there are no adults, but it is clear that she is a girl), where she, along with another girl, steal the tires off a man's car, and then fight him. But she may also just induce new interest for science in Megan as in 1104: Feathers, or just display general interest in science as in 1352: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing or the first comic (found so far) with her 585: Outreach (where she only had a ponytail). It was also in this first appearance we learn why she wants to become a scientist.

In three cases she is depicted as a young adult woman. These are in 1520: Degree-Off, where the hair and behavior fit perfectly with a grown up Science Girl, 1737: Datacenter Scale, where she appears to be running a data center, and 2344: 26-Second Pulse, where she is giving a lecture on an unexplained seismological signal.