Sixteen-year-old Stargirl is open-hearted and open-minded. She accepts people for who they are and finds joy in making their lives happier. Though her birth name is Susan, she named herself Stargirl, a name that embodies her free-spirited, unique personality. She does not care about makeup or labels and thinks outside the box.

Homeschooled after the disastrous high school experience in her old town, Stargirl happily studies things like Principles of Swooning alongside math and science. She has a writer’s vision of the world, finding wonder and ideas in everyday people and places, capturing those observations in her writing, and seeing herself and others as characters in life’s narrative.

Archie, the elderly paleontologist, knows that Stargirl is unusually mature for her age, a “star person,” who understands humanity’s connection to nature and the stars. Stargirl delights in the first spring crocus, the mockingbird’s song, and finds peace in meditation: losing herself to become one with the natural universe.

Unfortunately, peace is hard to find since the love of her life, Leo, rejected her. Stargirl is lonely, emotionally vulnerable, and her self-confidence is low after her first public high school experience.