Lawndale

Lawndale is the suburb in which the events of the Daria TV series take place. Maps of the region may be found in The Daria Diaries ("Welcome to Lawndale") and online at MTV's Virtual Lawndale webpage (see "External Links").

The location of Lawndale is endlessly debated, and even the show's creators tended to keep it loose. Glenn Eichler suggested in an interview that it might be a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, and this is a frequently used location for many fanfics whose authors caught the hint. However, evidence in the series and Eichler's further comments allow for other locations as well, possibly into eastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia.

The not-known-for sure city of which Lawndale is a suburb is only actually seen once in the series. Lawndale lacks tall buildings, but in Is It College Yet? when Mack goes to visit Jodie's father, there are tall buildings seen out of the very high window of Mr. Landon's office. This location must be close to Lawndale because Mack came by to visit him before school.

Even the county in which Lawndale resides is conflicted in canon. For more on the Carter County/Lawndale County debate, see Off-Canon Canon.

Fandom's Views on Lawndale's Location
Debate exists among fans as to other possible locations for the fictional suburb, or at least places that had a curious similarity to it. For example, Richard Lobinske has brought up the Florida Connection. Suggested locations of Lawndale, other than the Baltimore area, include the following, listed with the fan who offered the idea.


 * Bacner: Essex County, Massachusetts
 * Kristen Bealer: American Midwest
 * Lisa Bleujabbe: California
 * Brother Grimace: Lower Midwestern or southwestern United States, especially southern or eastern Texas, away from Dallas and Houston
 * Decelaraptor: Inside a tesseract extradimensionally connected to many places in the United States (he was the first one in the fandom to come up with the idea)
 * Dervish: In a fictitious American state called Vikizan
 * DJPotatoe: Frederick MD or Red Lion PA
 * Michelle Klein-Häss: Connecticut
 * Lawndale Stalker: East-central Washington state (e.g., Richland, Washington), or inside a tesseract or time/space warp
 * Mike N: Texas coast between Corpus Christi and Houston
 * Robert Nowall: Similar to town of Poughkeepsie, New York
 * Ranchoth: The Netherworld or Texas
 * Ranger Thorne: Texas, though he recalls a map putting it in Connecticut; also wrote a story in which Lawndale was between New York, Metropolis (down around Norfolk), and Gotham City (on the Great Lakes)
 * TerraEsperZ: Inside a tesseract (per Decelaraptor)
 * Veldrin: Massachusetts
 * WacoKid: Colorado
 * Mike Yamiolkoski: St. Louis, Missouri, or New England

PPMB threads discussing Lawndale and Its Location

 * Lawndale: A new angle on where it is?
 * Bookish Daria (off-topic section)
 * Reviving the "Where's Lawndale?" question
 * Iron Chef: The world Lawndale is in
 * What's the population size of Lawndale?
 * Lawndale's location
 * Essay topics for the future
 * Where is Lawndale located?
 * Who is the richest person in Lawndale?
 * "Daria" and the Class System
 * Class and Lawndale
 * Where is Lawndale? Does it matter?
 * Where is Lawndale?
 * What is the population of Lawndale?
 * TMI+20: Lawndale after Three Mile Island goes BOOM! (Lawndale as a suburb of Harrisburg PA)