Melanie Brodie

Melanie Brodie (played by Sara Ballingall) is a character in the original Playing With Time series Degrassi Junior High. Melanie was a friendly girl who seemed to have a wide circle of friends at Degrassi. Her most notable friend was Kathleen Mead (played by Rebecca Haines) to whom she seemed fairly close. Her character went through typical teen issues, including insecurity over her braces and small breast, and crushing on older guys, including Snake and her long term substitute teacher, Mr. Colby. Despite this, she was viewed as more rebellious than Kathleen, being the one to persuade her into taking drugs (that later turned out to be fake).

Despite their friendship, most episodes that heavily featured Melanie did not feature Kathleen much at all. The first time we see Melanie's character step out of the background is in the DJH season 1 episode "The Great Race".^[1] Melanie buys a training bra and incurs nasty comments from Joey Jeremiah (played by Pat Mastroianni). Joey accuses her of stuffing her bra and makes her too embarrassed to participate in the big swim race in her bathing suit.

We learn in the same episode that Melanie has a crush on Archie "Snake" Simpson (played by Stefan Brogren). Melanie and Snake try to go out several times throughout the series, but it becomes obvious to both of them that they were not meant to be a couple.

In the season 3 episode, "Food For Thought",^[2] Melanie reads Kathleen's diary and learns that she has been starving herself for several months. Melanie confronts Kathleen, but is given the cold shoulder for the rest of the season. Despite Kathleen's bad attitude and bossy tendencies, Melanie does seem to have a genuine affection for her. The two become friends again in Degrassi High,^[3] but Melanie gets in trouble with Kathleen again for blurting out her secrets at a slumber party for Diana Economopoulos (played by Chrissa Erodotou) after the two got high off marijuana.

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