With her innate empathy, acts of kindness, and ability to reach out and sense others’ needs, Stargirl exemplifies a giving heart. Archie told Stargirl once that, “Star people do not shed tears, but light,” and Stargirl spreads light in her new Pennsylvania community (44). Stargirl shows the powerful effect that giving in all its forms has on others: Giving not only helps people feel connected to others but increases the giver’s self-worth and happiness. Stargirl’s altruism helps others—and herself—reconnect with society and free themselves from isolation.

Mired in her loneliness, it takes time before Stargirl recognizes that she has been uncharacteristically self-absorbed: She has been withholding her light from others. She left many of her old habits of kindness, along with her heart, behind in Arizona. She stops tossing away her loose change for others to find, and no longer puts anonymous affirmations in the paper. Instead, Stargirl longs for someone to refill her happy wagon: to give her affection and pull her out of her unhappiness. Stargirl is selfish in her unhappiness.

When Dootsie gives away everything she and Stargirl has, Stargirl realizes, maturely, that she has been untrue to herself: She has been shedding tears, not light.