Penny Lane

Disambiguation: The fanfic author nicknamed Penny Lane is described here.

Penny Lane is a daughter of Vicent and Amanda Lane and one of Jane's older sisters.

Penny is in her late 20s. Her precise age is unknown; Jane says she's been out of the country for a decade, indicating she's at least 28 unless she dropped out of school (which is quite possible).

Character Overview


Penny is the middle-born child of the five Lane family siblings, the offspring of Vicent and Amanda Lane. Trent and Jane Lane are younger, and Summer and Wind are older. Penny is seen in only one episode, “Lane Miserables”, which gives a good introduction to her wayfarer appearance, abrasive personality and self-serving nature. She openly dislikes Wind and Summer, and Summer views her work abroad with contempt.

She is portrayed as living in various Latin American countries, and is described by other characters of thinking that her selling native-made goods can save the economies of the Third World. However, "Lane Miserables" makes it painfully obvious that she neither speaks Spanish nor particularly cares about the Third World, as she talks to the Costa Rican Finance Minister in English with random (bad) Spanish dropped in to punctuate while demanding compensation for a lost crafts stall during a volcanic disaster. In "The Daria Diaries", she says "I hear they [Honduras] have a government" in comparison to Nicaragua, making her either ignorant of the region she's moved to or talking contemptuously about Nicaragua because it hasn't gone the way she wanted.

She's first mentioned in "The Teachings of Don Jake": Jane says "I think she's a little disappointed in the Mexican job market. She may try Nicaragua next". A postcard from Penny in "The Daria Diaries" says she's the market is worse there and she's thinking of trying Honduras. She grouses "I COULD get a position if I were willing to work for the World Bank or become a lackey of the urban elite".

Penny is mentioned again by Ms. Morris in "See Jane Run", when she describes Penny as not wanting to participate in PE class and that she had (sic) "taught her a thing or two about the American competitive spirit". Jane retorts that this was the reason that Penny had spent the last ten years outside the country.

In "Lane Miserables", Penny has been working in Costa Rica making hand-crafted tin picture frames and gained a possessive pet parrot named Chiquito. After a volcano wiped out her stock, she returned to Lawndale. Despite Wind being glad to see she was okay, she showed contempt for him and was amused that Chiquito had tried to attack him. An irate Summer would later imply Penny has been unable to find a romantic partner.

Penny still has a room at La Casa Lane, which she apparently inhabits on the infrequent occasions she comes home. Her room is depicted in detail in the episode “Fire!”.

The old MTV Daria website has Penny refer to some of her work abroad: "my time setting up a coconut-husk sandal cooperative was fruitful, although I didn't want to impose my imperialist idea of proper foot measurement and now I'm stuck with a whole lot of size twos". She also imported Central American crafts and sold them on LaneBay.

Penny Lane on Daria

 * “The Lane Family” on Outpost Daria (via Wayback Machine)
 * “Lane Miserables” (transcript) on Outpost Daria (via Wayback Machine)
 * “Lane Miserables” (summary) on Outpost Daria (via Wayback Machine)
 * Penny Lane has her say on MTV’s ‘’Daria’’ website

Essays and Commentary on Penny Lane

 * "Jane and the Lanes", an essay by The Angst Guy, which includes much information on Penny

Penny Lane in Fanfic
Only major appearances are listed here.
 * "African Queen" by The Angst Guy
 * "Like Angels’ Visits, Short and Bright" by The Angst Guy
 * "Smoking Mirror" by The Angst Guy
 * "There Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies" by The Angst Guy
 * “Penny for Your Virus” scriptfic by Bingo Hanis
 * “Penny for Your Thoughts” scriptfic by Canadibrit, an episode in The Look-Alike Series
 * “Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies” scriptfic by Jill Friedman
 * "Don't Look Back" Part I, II and III by thatLONERchick (a Long Story Challenge)

Penny Lane in Fan art and comics

 * Penny appears in several artworks by Liliane Grenier where she's depicted as a main influence on Jane's behavior showing them running together and Penny looking bemused as Jane unsuccessfully tries her hand at putting on lipstick. Penny also appears alongside her brother Wind as they play mother and Father with Penny filing for divorce Penny is also seen on The Lane Sisters and the Lane Family portrait by Grenier.
 * Penny and Summer appear in page 4 of Wouter Jaegers' Dariarotica comic Growing pains where the two of them refused the hand-me-down clothing offered by their mother on different occasions. She's also mentioned in Wouter's I trust you when Trent advices Daria to debunk in Penny's room. Creating a reason why she's still at the Lane Household.