Lydia is a supporting female character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. Lydia made her first appearance on June 9, 1986, and continued to appeared for many years after that. She usually appears with Linus.
History
In the strip in which she first appears, Linus goes over to Lydia and asks if he can have lunch with her. She asks him how old he is, and finds out that Linus is two months older than she is, making her ask, "Aren't you kind of old for me?" Many of her subsequent appearances in the strip would be based around the same gag, or with her treating Linus like an old man, even once calling him "sir". In one strip Linus tells her that he saw her hanging out with a boy a year older than she is, but Lydia replies, "Well there's older, then there's older." Charlie Brown tries sticking up for Linus in one strip where he says that Linus is not too old for Lydia. He tells her, "He's still young in many ways. You should see him with his blanket" to which Linus replies "AAUGH!"
Another running gag with Lydia is that she often changes her name, for example, saying, "Today my name is Anna." That joke seems to annoy Linus. In one strip he asks her "Isn't this joke getting a little old" to which she replies "Speaking of old, aren't you a little old for me?"
Linus likes Lydia at first but soon begins to find her annoying and treats her the same way that he treats Sally. Ironically, however, some later strips suggest Lydia may have a crush on Linus. In one Sunday strip Lydia convinces Linus to write a love note for a girl he likes. Unfortunately, Linus does not seem to realise she means the note to be for herself, so instead gives it to the girl sitting in the desk in front of him. In another short series of strips Lydia tells Linus to buy her a music box for Valentine's Day. At first Linus appears uninterested in doing so, but eventually complies. He is disappointed however to find that Lydia has already received several other music boxes, presumably from other boys who like her (or who she had talked into giving her one).
Lydia appeared in the "Yuletide Greetings from Linus" segment of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, which features a storyline from the strip involving Linus's attempts to send her a Christmas card, only to find out Lydia had given him the wrong address.
Although Eudora is often considered the last major addition to the Peanuts cast, some may argue that Lydia instead holds this position, considering she continued to appear for over a decade after her debut, albeit sparingly. Her last appearance was March 23, 1999.
She appears in the TV special Snoopy Presents: It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown, voiced by Beatrice Schneider. She appeared again in Snoopy Presents: Lucy's School, Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie and Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin as a cameo.
Trivia
- Lydia is one of the many Peanuts characters to appear in the video game Snoopy's Street Fair, in which she owns a "guess the name" booth.
- She is one of the many characters in the series to have a pointed nose. The others being Frieda, Lila, Peggy Jean, Babette, Jaques, Dolly, Janice Emmons, Melody-Melody, Mimi, Evelyn, Mary Jo, Nell, The Four Princesses, The Cheerleading Squad, Charlotte Braun, C.A.R.A. and Heather.
- She is one of the only main characters to not have a special focusing on her; the others are "Pig-Pen", Violet, Patty, Shermy, Woodstock, Eudora and Frieda.