Amy Raudenfeld

• Ambiguously Bi: She shows a passing attraction to a Brazilian male visitor and does sleep with Liam, although that was firmly with beer goggles in place and with an intent to hurt Karma, although she mostly shows signs of being romantically drawn to women.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In the season one finale, she tells Karma she loves her in a desperate move to pry out some reciprocation for her feelings. It doesn't go well.
• Butch Lesbian: Subverted. She is easily labeled this by others in her "relationship" with Karma, though in reality she's just somewhat Tomboy-ish and less concerned with overall appearance, falling more into the 'Chapstick' category.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Leads to an extremely regrettable hookup at the end of season one. But then, this one's justified as canonically she's fifteen at the time...
• Chick Magnet: Although she sometimes gets the Hollywood Homely treatment at Hester, when she and Shane go to the lesbian bar the girls are very easily drawn to her advances (though she always shoots herself in the foot before any connection is made) and Reagan wastes no time checking her out during their first meeting in "Lying Kings and Drama Queens".
• Deadpan Snarker: She can be this at times, especially towards her mother and stepsister. She even refers to herself as "Princess Sarcasm" in season 2.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After Karma rejects her feelings in the season 1 finale, she gets drunk off her ass. This unfortunately leads to a one-night stand with Liam.
• Erotic Dream: She has one about Karma during the second episode.
• Et Tu, Brute?: When she learns that Sabrina started dating her under false pretenses and even has a boyfriend.
• First Kiss: With Karma.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic.
• Friendly Enemies: In the second season her relationship with Lauren develops into this.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has her What the Hell, Hero? moments and can be quite the snark queen, but when all's said and done she is a caring individual that can see the nuances and positives in everyone's character.
• Gayngst: Despite being more stoic about her Karma dilemma than most this definitely comes out at times, especially during the season one finale where she deserves her sympathetic Woobie status.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She gives Karma her blessing to see Liam.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Amy zigzags with this trope, as her entire plotline revolves around her discovering her sexual orientation and experimenting with gender performance. She starts out with long hair and also often favors feminine attire. Upon realizing she's into her friend Karma though and after dating another girl (who's a Butch Lesbian), Amy gets a bit more tomboyish in her dress style, getting into chapstick territory.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Karma drunkenly kisses her, Amy falls right back down the rabbit hole of her feelings for Karma. In the season 2 finale, she decides she's had enough and leaves on a tour for the summer in order to truly get over her.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Through season one, which is even lampshaded by Shane when discussing her sexuality by declaring that she's firmly "Karma-sexual". That changes in season two as she shows signs of attraction to different people and gets her first actual girlfriend.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Her relationship with her mother has been shaky, but then Lauren came along and started taking up all her mother's attention, which led to the relationship getting even worse. Turning out to be into girls definitely didn't help.
• Wham Shot: When she shares her first kiss with Karma, realizing her feelings for Karma are much more than just-friends...

Karma Ashcroft

• Ambiguously Bi: During season 1 and the first part of 2, she has repeated Ship Tease moments with Amy that could suggest she isn't as straight as she seems. In the season 2A finale, she dreams of herself and Amy making out, in their underwear. It's a very neat parallel to Amy's reaction when the two kissed in the first ever episode when the camera focuses on her shocked reaction when she wakes up from the dream. There is a reason for this: Karma would've gotten with Amy in the 4th season, but she show was cut short.
• Attention Whore: The whole story arc is driven by he scheming to become popular.
• The Cast Showoff: She has sung in a couple of episodes, demonstrating, to quote Faking It Fridays "the voice of an angel."
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: It leads to a very regrettable kiss with Amy in the next-to-last episode of Season 2.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Despite not feeling anything for Amy, she's shown repeatedly to be possessive of her, like when Reagan or Sabrina enters the picture.
• Closet Key: Unknowingly this to Amy, with what she thought was just a fake kiss to "prove" their fake romantic relationship to the rest of the school.
• Coming Straight Story: She has this during drama auditions when she reveals she isn't a lesbian and just went along with the ruse in an effort to gain popularity. She has to do the same thing a season later at her mother's PFLAG group, because her mother neglected to tell them her daughter was straight.
• Fiery Redhead: Averted. More a mild case of Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
• Flanderization: By season two her drama queen tendancies and It's All About Me traits tend to get exaggerated to their extremes.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine.
• Generation Xerox: Subverted to an extent. She definitely seems to have her parents sunny optimism but little interest in their mother-earth hippie routine, instead more concerned about the prosaic dilemmas of being a teenager (i.e, climbing the school's social ladder).
• Hidden Depths: Shown to be quite the singer and multi-lingual (perhaps an obvious Actor Allusion).
• Incompatible Orientation: She bittersweetly invokes this trope, when she says she wishes she felt the same way about Amy as Amy feels about her... but just doesn't.
• It's All About Me: She's quite self-absorbed, especially in season two when it involves Amy's new love and relationship drama with Liam.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After weeks of staggering obliviousness, she finally figures out in the season 1 finale that Amy is in love with her, causing her to feel guilty over everything she's put her through up until then. In the conversation that follows, she's forced to reject Amy's feelings and feels even worse for having to break her best friend's heart.
• Oblivious to Love: She seems unaware of Amy's attraction to her, until Amy's not so subtle speech at her mother's wedding rehearsal which leads to Amy's Anguished Declaration of Love.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: When Amy is about to leave for the summer at the end of season 2, Karma swoops in and begs her not to leave. Amy tells her that the only way she would agree to stay is if Karma could tell her that their kiss meant something,which Karma can't.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Her pursuit of Liam certainly qualifies.
• This Is Gonna Suck: A non-humorous example; in the season 1 finale, she realizes Amy's feelings for her and is forced to break her heart by revealing that she doesn't share those feelings.
• Three-Way Sex: She coaxes Liam into a planned threesome with her and Amy so he won't feel like they're cheating... it doesn't end well. And then she does the same thing to Wade, hoping to win him over Shane. That one also doesn't end well.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly-girl to Amy's tomboy, as reflected in their effeminate-vs-androgynous wardrobe.
• The Un-Favorite: She thinks her parents prefer her adopted brother Zen over her.

Shane Harvey

• All Gays are Promiscuous: Definitely promiscuous, and even Lampshaded when telling Amy that while most gay men just wanna hook up, lesbians prefer to grow bonds and nest.
• Camp Gay
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Constantly giving and breaking his "Gay Scouts Honor" promises.
• The Casanova: A queer inversion of the classic Casanova type.
• Deadpan Snarker: His specialty.
• Forced Out of the Closet: Invoked... many times. He is so terrible at not outing queer people that his friends have to get on him about it in season 2. While in detention, Lauren requests a show of hands on who has been outed by Shane. Of the 5 people in the room besides him, only 2 people don't raise their hand: Felix, who hasn't revealed anything to be outed about, and Liam, who hasn't been outed but still agrees that Shane has a serious problem.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic.
• Friendly Enemies: With Lauren
• Gay Best Friend: To Liam and Amy, respectively. And after the summer Time Skip between Seasons 2 and 3, to Karma as well.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being extremely manipulative, breaking his "Gay Scouts Honor" almost constantly and often using others to his own ends, he does prove to be very loyal to his best friends and even willing to help the not-so-great friends with their various dilemmas.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He thinks he knows everything there is to know about queer people and the queer community, but he really doesn't and his antics usually blow up in his face. Standout examples include Amy, Karma, and Shane's threesome, Wade's sexuality, and pretty much everything to do with Duke. There's even an episode in season 3 wherein a small girl schools him hard with people who are queer in ways he never even realized could exist, forcing him to face the reality that he's really ignorant on his own community.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Duke breaks up with him for outing him. He apologizes to Duke just before he leaves for a big match and begs him to stay, but Duke barely accepts his apology and refuses, no longer wanting anything to do with him. This is the first time his selfish antics truly bit him in the ass.
• Moral Myopia: He doesn't like the idea of outing someone for being queer unless he's the one outing them. Lauren also points out that he only cares about issues that directly affect him.
• No Bisexuals: He has a big biphobia problem. Not only does he think bi women are untrustworthy, he thinks men can't even be bi.
• Weaponized Allergy: When he learns that Karma still carries Amy's epi-pen in the beginning of season 3, he decides to try mending their fences by giving Amy a treat. However, Lauren eats it and calls out that it has nuts in it. His idea was that Karma would rush over to save her from dying and they'd become close again, but that doesn't change that he tried to gamble with her life.
• Younger Than They Look: Always seems to be mistaken for a college student. This also lampshades Dawson Casting.

Liam Booker

• Cannot Keep a Secret: So. Much. Just like Shane. In his defense, though, unlike Shane, it's because he hates lying.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Eclectic.
• Guilt Complex: Seems to show it frequently, especially relating to Karma and his hook-up with Amy.
• No Bisexuals: Even when Karma is blatantly flirting and seducing him, he still refers to her as a lesbian, when clearly she wouldn't strictly be a lesbian if she wanted to hook up with him.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sulkin's English accent is very noticeable in many of his lines, though he gets better at this as the show goes on.
• Satellite Character: Early on, but grew a bigger role and became a more multidimensional character as he got greater focus.
• White Sheep: Wants as little to do with his family (especially his father) as possible.

Lauren Cooper

• Aloof Big Sister: She becomes this after the first season, starting to actually enjoy being sisters with Amy, though you'd be hard-pressed to get her to admit it out loud half the time.
• Alpha Bitch: Subverted. She has all the personality traits associated with the trope but doesn't get a chance to flaunt it as the school looks down on traditional popularity tropes and social order. More hidden depths than most characters of this trope, too.
• Big Sister Bully: She starts out as a thorn in Amy's side, even blackmailing her just to get her room and $50 for homecoming tickets.
• Big Sister Instinct: Develops a rather protective instinct over Amy especially in season 3. Best shown when Shane offers Amy a seemingly innocuous snack during a party: Lauren snatches it and eats it herself, discovering that it has nuts in it, which Amy is dangerously allergic to.
• Blond Republican Sex Kitten
• Character Development: Who she is by the end of season 2 is very different from the beginning of the series. This is highlighted by how in the first few episodes she can hardly stand how accepting Hester High is of queer and disabled people compared to most other schools, but in the season 2 finale she finds it impossible to reconnect with her old friends because of how bigoted they are.
• Expy: Seems to be a teenage one of Amy's mother, which is probably why she gets along with her much better than Amy does.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric.
• Foreshadowing: In season 1, when Tommy says that Liam has hooked up with all the hot girls at Hester, Lauren corrects him by saying he hasn't hooked up with all the hot girls, the implication being that he hasn't hooked up with her. Guess what happens at the very end of season 3?
• Friendly Enemies: With Shane and, in the second season, with Amy.
• Gay Best Friend: Sort-of with Pablo though their relationship beyond their dance partnership is unclear.
• Genre Blind: Her Alpha Bitch tactics are a dismal failure at Hester and does not realize that her intersexness would be her doorway to popularity. When it is revealed she is elected student body president.
• Heteronormative Crusader: She can't stand how queerness is considered the norm at Hester and seeks to turn the student body into something more traditional. She ends up becoming largely immersed in the wackiness by the end of season 2.
• Hidden Depths: Revealed she's intersexed and can be surprisingly comforting to Amy during her angst over Karma.
• Intersex Tribulations: She's intersex, a secret she's been holding since age 5. She takes pills that Shane outs her for at school, which turn out to be hormones. She comes out to Tommy in the season 1 finale and he breaks up with her because he now thinks of her as a "dude". When he mentions it in the following season, Amy, Liam, Karma, and Shane are all present, leading her to correct the record by revealing that she's intersex. At a beauty pageant, she figures out that her father has been ashamed of her since they found out, much to her disappointment.
• Manipulative Bastard: Despite being quite deft in this area it rarely works in her favor at the end.
• Morality Pet: Surprisingly protective of Pablo.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: Her speech to the school board:
  "When I first came to Hester, I thought, 'What the f*ck is wrong with this place?' Drama club is cooler than football? The most popular kid in school is an obnoxious gay guy and his best friend is a straight man-whore and it's not even a little weird. Two girls pretended to be lesbians. Why? Because at Hester, being different makes you cool. I had a hard time with that. The one thing that makes me different is the one thing I've always tried to hide. I'm intersex. I never said that out loud before I came here. Turner wants Hester to be more like other schools, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think more schools should be like Hester. Because this is a school that accepts you. Even if you don't accept yourself."
• "Not So Different" Remark: In "Three to Tango", she tells Shane that they're very much alike in that they're both arrogant, controlling, and self-centered.
• Pet the Dog: Has a couple, mostly in regard to Amy. Most notably is when she sympathizes with Amy's failed coming out to Karma.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Gives one to a seemingly meek Theo at the gym, leading to him awkwardly rushing out the door.
• Town Girls: the Neither to Karma's Femme and Amy's Butch.
• With Friends Like These......: To everyone...
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Pretty much her entire interpretation of Hester High's values.

• Beta Couple: Becomes this briefly with Lauren.
• I Lied: Was actually an undercover narcotics officer rather than a new transfer student...though he didn't lie about his feelings for Lauren.
• Only Sane Man: Tends to be very level-headed and even-tempered when compared to the many neuroses and hang-ups of the rest of the main clique.

• The Noodle Incident: What led to his tearful breakdown at the drama auditions?
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Gets one from Amy, unaware it has some ulterior motives.

Felix Turner

• The Alcoholic: Revealed in the 2B finale.
• New Transfer Student: For the back half of Season 2. He transferred with his father, Principal Turner.

• Three-Way Sex: Goes on a "thruple date" with Shane and Karma...and then participates in a threesome with them. But he bails out because he realizes he's just using them to try and get over his ex-girlfriend...whom he hooks back up with next episode.

• Childhood Friend: To Amy and Karma. Well, Amy, anyway.
• Driven by Envy: Her reason for icing Karma out in the past and for becoming Amy's girlfriend in the present-day was due to her jealousy towards Karma.
• Enemy Mine: She does whatever it takes to rekindle her relationship with Amy, which necessitates her working with Karma.
• Heartfelt Apology: Delivers one to Amy in front of the whole New Year's party. She says that even though what they had started on a lie, it became very real after she figured out she's always had feelings for Amy. Amy accepts the apology and agrees to give her another chance.
• Oh, Crap!: When her boyfriend shows up and calls her out in front of everyone, including Amy.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Bringing the show full circle, Sabrina faked feelings for Amy only to learn that she actually likes her.

Reagan

• Amicable Exes: Even after their breakup, she is friendly with Amy and givers advice on how to get over Karma. She's the one who recommends that she take a personal vacation for the summer.
• Broken Bird: She was seriously in love with her past girlfriend, but got her heart broken when said girlfriend told her that their whole relationship was "a phase" and dumped her for her ex-boyfriend. This pain caused her to become very distrustful of future girlfriends, especially bisexual ones.

Principal Penelope

• First-Name Basis: Her last name isn't even revealed until Turner calls her "Vice Principal Beaver". It's actually Bevier.
• Granola Girl: This might be what happens when one of these grows up and is given a position of power.
• Quirky Curls: Lauren even threw a hair-straightening joke her way.

Pablo

Duke Lewis, Jr.

• Manly Gay: Doesn't get much manlier than an MMA fighter.

Farrah Raudenfeld-Cooper and Bruce Cooper

Karma's Parents

The Booker Family

Principal George Turner

• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Brought in to clean up Hester after the drug bust. Anybody runs a tighter ship than Penelope, but he runs with an iron fist and zero tolerance.