Jessica Day from New Girl is the perfect sitcom heroine for millennials and Gen-Z. She’s a free-spirit who doesn’t take herself too seriously and is the best ally and confidante one can have. Jess spend a lot of energy lifting others, however when it came to her own life she was often underappreciated and misunderstood. She had some great friends but in spite of their best efforts they have often failed to understand Jess’ perspective.
Jess was pretty Zen in her own way and was a great support system for her friends, and she also never let her personal trauma or hang-ups affect her sunny positivity, but that doesn't mean she was lacking in personal struggles.
10 Her Long-Term Boyfriend Cheated On Her
In New Girl's pilot episode Jess is still coping with a broken heart after her boyfriend of six years, Spencer cheated on her. She also consequently learns a lot of untoward information about how Spencer has been treating her which comes as a shock to her, since they lived together and Jess wanted a future with him. Though her relationship with Spencer was never really given much room in the show, it was obvious that the trauma from the breakup had a strong impact on her and made Jess a lot self-conscious and fidgety about romantic alliances in general.
9 She Was Pigeon-Holed As Ms Goody Two Shoes
Jess is a free-spirit who is quite adventurous but the fact that she’s so sunny, friendly and warm often misleads people into thinking that she’s a traditionalist who doesn’t know how to have fun. The boys tell her that she doesn’t have what it takes to be a cigarette girl at a party, and that she can’t sustain a non-committal fling with someone without getting too invested.
Throughout the show she gets boxed quite unfairly as the nice girl who’s not a risk-taker. But when one looks back at some of her decisions in life it becomes very evident that Jess was quite audacious.
8 She’s Made To Feel Inadequate By Cece’s Model Friends
In one of the most interesting episodes in New Girl, Jess gets anxiety when she’s invited to Cece’s birthday night outing, because she didn't get along with Cece’s model friends. The episode looks at how the two steadfast BFFs who have known each other since they were kids, have to make an effort to fit into each other’s adult social lives. And though Jess makes a lot of effort to gel with Cece’s friends and roommates, she is simply made to feel like an outsider who doesn’t belong at their table and it leads to her feeling like a loser. Cece, too, downplayed this issue which made Jess feel worse.
7 She Was Made To Feel Guilty About Being Unemployed
When Jess loses her job she doesn’t cope well with the change. However she decides to take some time off to unwind and think about her next move instead jumping right onto the next opportunity that comes along. As a result she faces a cash crunch and can’t contribute equally to the house share, and can't pay the rent or pay for the utilities.
As a result, she is made to feel bad about not being having a job. Schmidt especially uses a tough love approach to teach Jess a lesson and turns off the hot water, which was quite cruel considering that she was already going through a tough time.
6 Still Not Over Her Parents' Divorce
It’s not funny how New Girl uses Jess’ trauma over her parents’ divorce as a comedic device; just because someone is an adult or almost thirty years old doesn’t mean they should be over the pain over their parents splitting up. Jess’ parents split up when she was very young but she has always hoped that they would get back together, and during a Thanksgiving weekend she even uses some tricks to trap them with each other, but her plans fall flat. It’s sad that Jess couldn’t talk to someone about it and neither her parents nor her friends took the problem seriously.
5 She Was Shamed For Her Positivity
Jess was not unaware of how she was perceived for her love of polka dots and feeling sticks and she was comfortable with being viewed as someone fun, adorkable and whimsical. But the fact that she was boundlessly optimistic didn’t disqualify her as a responsible adult who is also very resourceful. When Nick’s girlfriend Julia actually criticizes Jess for her fashion choices and her approach to life, it was a big shock to her, especially because Jess has only been nice to Julia.
Moreover, Julia admitted that if she dressed like Jess at her job she would never be taken seriously, so it’s possible that Julia was just too wound-up or insecure about Jess and Nick’s relationship. Nevertheless Jess wasn’t prepared for an attack this personal.
4 Was Accused Of Leading Nick On
This was a classic example of how toxic male friendships can get if one doesn’t think for himself. When Jess asks Nick to help her out with some errands the other roommates simply tell Nick that she’s using him as a ‘fluffer’ and had not intention of ‘rewarding’ him, especially because she had asked him to help her build some furniture and a bed. This is outrageous because she and Nick are friends and Nick didn't mind helping her out. So just because she’s dating someone doesn't mean she can’t have male friends, and Jess was actually made to question her behavior when she had done nothing wrong.
3 She’s Attracted To Someone Who’s Too Emotionally Guarded
Jess and Nick have a solid foundation as friends but things get tricky when they embark on a romantic relationship because they both were very familiar with each other’s drawbacks and yet chose to go down this road. Jess knew that Nick is not someone who’s in touch with his own feelings or even addresses his emotions or talks about them to anyone else.
But Jess believes in transparency and honesty in a relationship. This made it very hard for Jess because she was super aware of how she could never change Nick or even ask him to open up to her, considering she already knew the kind of person he was.
2 When Nick Threw Her Purses Away
Jess’ collection of vintage purses may not have been very expensive but they were obviously important to her. Fans were quite outraged when Nick threw the purses out of a window one-by-one. This may look like a small hiccup, but it actually unraveled a larger pattern in Jess and Nick’s relationship. Nick was angry at Jess because she had been through his stuff to help him with his finances, but he was not okay with it. Nick chose to throw her purses to teach her a lesson about invading one’s boundaries. This may make sense on paper, but Nick is famously bad with his money and doesn't even have a bank account and Jess was only trying to help him find some financial stability.
1 She Questioned Her Friendship With Cece
Jess and Cece’s friendship on the show actually brings up a lot of crucial points about sustaining an adult friendship in this day and age. Though the friendship grounded Jess on many levels, it became obvious that Jess had very little in common with Cece, be it in terms of career, or social interests, and they didn’t even hang out in the same circles. So Jess has often wondered if they’d still be friends today if they met as grown-ups and not as kids. Since they were so invested in each other's lives Jess has often questioned if they would be better off as distant friends, now that they have such different lives.
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