| ! | This article contains spoilers. Read at your own risk! | ! |
| “ | I'M SUCH A DORK! | ” |
– Nikki, at the end of every book | ||
Nicole Jullianne Maxwell is the main protagonist and narrator of all the Dork Diaries books, and was briefly mentioned in The Misadventures of Max Crumbly as "Brandon's friend."
Nikki is a self-proclaimed dork and goes to Westchester Country Day on a scholarship, because her father is the school's exterminator. One of her biggest fears is that someone will find out that she attends Westchester Country Day on her dad's bug extermination scholarship. She lives in Westchester, New York.
Nikki becomes very close friends with Chloe Garcia and Zoey Franklin, and develops a crush on Brandon Roberts. Her enemies are Mackenzie Hollister, Jessica Hunter and Tiffany Davenport. We get to learn that in the twelfth book of Dork Diaries Nikki's full name is Nicole, but she prefers being called by her nickname Nikki.
Description
Nikki is portrayed as an unpopular girl towards the CCP (cute, cool, popular) clique who, in the first installment, is new to Westchester Country Day Middle School.
She is the 9th most unpopular person at WCD, according to her self-written list. She writes in her diary almost every day about the events in her life, hence the name of her series - Dork Diaries. She despises her locker neighbor (and enemy), MacKenzie Hollister, for being mean and quote "a shark in lip gloss."
She also dislikes MacKenzie's friend, Jessica Hunter, who is as nasty to Nikki as Mackenzie is. Nikki and MacKenzie both have a crush on Brandon Roberts and compete for him, and it's shown that Brandon return Nikki's feelings.
Nikki is told to the best artist in Westchester Country Day saying she wants to be a professional illustrator or an art teacher when she grows up. Although her success in the music industry and having her own TV series in the seventh book may deter that.
She is described as an amazing singer, dancer and artist. Throughout the books, Nikki seems to grow more confident in herself and does refer to herself as a dork, not only in her diary but also in public.
Personality
Nikki is a thoughtful and kind girl who is sometimes a bit over-dramatic and she truly describes herself as a dork.
Nikki loves her family and friends, but can be harsh towards her younger sister and describes her as "a category five hurricane in pigtails."
Nikki also thinks that her parents can be "brain dead" sometimes and don't seem to understand her.
When Nikki gets excited or elated, she shouts, "SQUEEEEE!" like a little mouse and dances a victory dance copied from a cartoon. She despises MacKenzie Hollister for always trying to make her life miserable. But nevertheless, Nikki is a caring and outgoing person and is said to have a wacky sense of humor, she does however says things before thinking it through.
When Nikki is angry or just annoyed she remarks nasty replies in her mind to the person she despises, but is too kind to say it out loud so she either ignore them or says something else that isn't as ignorant or mean.
Appearance
Physical Traits
Nikki has shoulder-length hair that is usually put in pigtails and wavy bangs parted to the sides. She also wears her hair down, in braids, pigtails or up into a ponytail. In some foreign editions, she is shown to have brown hair and green eyes on the cover. However, in the English version, this is not shown, as none of the drawings have color. However, on the website, it is revealed that she has darker hair than Brianna's, and brown eyes.
Furthermore, Nikki's hair and eye color have never actually been mentioned in any of the books. But, the fandom thinks she's a brunette. She reveals that she wears lip gloss and light makeup (mascara and lip-gloss). Nikki has a slim figure and weighs 105 pounds (approx. 48 kilograms).
Style
Her outfits change throughout the books. According to her, she shops at discount department stores such as Target and Wal-Mart, meaning her clothes aren't as stylish as she would like them to be.
She occasionally wears plain make-up and doesn't wear full on make-up like Mackenzie. Throughout the books, it is shown that Nikki is embracing her dorky side and wears pigtails more often than before. However, her style with clothes improves.
Family Tree
Tree
= Male
= Female
= Gender Unknown
Notes
- Nikki's family includes her Dad and mom, her sister Brianna, Grandma Maxwell, her great-grandmother Gertrude, her Aunt Mabel, her Uncle Augustus, her cousin Sydney, and her third cousin Billy Bob.
- In a blog post, it is learned that she has an Aunt Janet, possibly the wife of Nikki's paternal uncle, and five misbehaving cousins.
- She loves her parents despite her belief that they are brain-dead. Nikki and Brianna get into fights sometimes (as siblings typically do), but Nikki is shown to have a genuine love for her sister.
Pets
In Book 10, she took care of 8 dogs, Holly, and her puppies, for a day. At the end of the book, they kept the smallest one and named her Daisy.
Love Life
Brandon Roberts
Nikki and MacKenzie Hollister both have a crush on Brandon Roberts, but Brandon is not impressed by MacKenzie as everyone else. He has strong romantic feelings towards Nikki. In the debut of the book series, Brandon makes his first interaction with Nikki when Jessica Hunter trips Nikki in the lunch room and he helps her up.
In Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl, Brandon and Nikki go to the Halloween dance together. This is the first school dance that they attend together.
In the third book,Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star, Brandon joins Nikki's band for the talent show. At the end of the third book, Brandon and Nikki almost kiss, but Brianna interrupts them before any further action was taken.
In Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess, Nikki finds out Brandon works at an animal shelter (Fuzzy Friends.) Nikki also discovers that Brandon lost his parents several years ago and is in his grandparents custody.
It is insinuated that Brandon's grandparents are not related to him by blood, rather good friends of his parents when they were alive (this fact was confirmed in a personal interview with Rachel Renee Russell). She enters an ice-skating competition with Chloe and Zoey to help Brandon raise money for the shelter.
He hugs her when she wins, hinting that his grandparents own the shelter and without her help, he would've moved to Florida, never seeing Nikki again. Nikki questions in her diary if it's a "friend hug", a "really good friend hug", a "more than a friend hug", or "you're my girlfriend hug".
In Tales from a Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker, Nikki asks Brandon to the Sweetheart dance in which he immediately agrees hinting that he does like her more than just a friend. They did not kiss at the dance because of MacKenzie's interruption.
Brandon kissing Nikki
But at the charity kissing booth in Tales From A Not-So-Glam TV Star, Brandon gives Nikki $5.00 dollars and kisses her on the lips.
Afterwards, in later books, blatant attempts at love are made between Nikki and Brandon but many situations created by MacKenzie force them to have an on-again, off-again friendship. This halts the romance from advancing to a boyfriend-girlfriend status.
However, in Tales from a Not-So-Secret Crush Catastrophe, Nikki starts to develop feelings for exchange students, André. She says that she feels super nervous around him and finds him very cute and charming. She starts to have a hard time focusing on her relationship with Brandon and spends more time with André which makes Brandon jealous.
Brandon and Nikki's relationship starts to crumble when photos of her and André circulate online, stating that the two are a cute couple. Brandon starts to get depressed and starts falling behind in school and other work. Nikki notices that she was being selfish and arranges to meet him at Queasy Cheesy to talk via letter, but MacKenzie messes with her letters which makes Brandon think that Nikki wants to be just friends, upsetting him more.
Towards the end of the book, it's discovered that MacKenzie was behind it all and Brandon apologizes to Nikki for acting distant and non compliant with her. Still, in the book, he does not confess any feelings other than saying "I really like you a lot, Nikki,".
For more information about Nikki and Brandon, visit Branikki.
André
André is Nikki's second love interest. In the first parts of the book,Nikki considers him a charming person and hangs out a lot with him while showing interest and feelings for him. However in book 13, Nikki states that he's "just-a-friend" and he understood that at the end.
Trivia
- The name Nikki means "victory of the people" in Greek.
- Nikki's surname Maxwell means "Mack's stream" in Scottish
- Her zodiac sign is Cancer since her birthday is in June 28.
- She is pretty religious, as she goes to church and once called MacKenzie "Satan's little sister"
- Nikki's favorite color is periwinkle (because it's a fun thing to say)
- In OMG! All About Me Diary!, Nikki hates cleaning her room
- She describes SpongeBob SquarePants as fun, friendly and dorky.
- She hates the song from the Princess Sugar Plum commercial, but sings it in the shower because it's catchy.
- She talks in her sleep.
- If she could make a holiday, it would be National Dork Day.
- She thinks that her diary is like a BFF to her.
- She has a "wacky" sense of humor.
- Her favorite ice cream flavor is birthday cake.
- She loves the smell of cookies baking in the oven because it means she gets to eat them.
- She's always a nervous wreck whenever she has to take a geometry test.
- She is confirmed to be left handed by Rachel Renee Russell in the book, Dork Diaries: Top 50 Countdown. Despite this, she is still shown doing some certain things with her right hand also..[1]
- Dork Diaries 3 is the only book so far to feature her with her hair in upward pigtails like her sister.
- She is a big fan of Selena Gomez.
- She collects McDonald's Happy Meal toys.[2]
- In Dork Diaries: Tales From A Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker, it is revealed that Nikki can't swim.
- Her favorite movie of 2013 is Teen Beach Movie.
- Her favorite movie as of 2014 is Frozen.
- She always laughs at Brandon's jokes, which according to himself are 'lame jokes'
- Her favorite Disney movie before "Frozen" came out was "Lady and the Tramp" because of the romantic spaghetti dinner. She wanted to have a spaghetti dinner with Brandon, but they had gourmet burgers instead at Crazy Burger.
- She suspects Brandon for liking her, but she tells herself that Brandon likes Mackenzie.
- She loves Mexican food.
- Her favorite song is "Baby Baby".
- She makes "mean" pancakes.
- She is afraid of snakes
- It had always been indirectly said that Nikki's city of Westchester resides in New York. In a recent blog post, Nikki's cousins always take a road trip from Florida to New York where they stop by to meet up with her family.
- Her cousins live in Florida.
- She is a fan of Tyra Banks that she copies her style of words in front of the mirror.
| For Nikki Maxwell's image gallery, click here. |
| For Nikki Maxwell's appearances gallery, click here. |
| For Nikki Maxwell's fanon gallery, click here. |
Quotes
| “ | Am I not BRILLIANT?! | ” |
| “ | But I only said that in my head, so no one heard it but me. | ” |
| “ | Calling MacKenzie a mean girl is an understatement. She's a (insert vicious animal here) in (insert fashion item 1) and (insert fashion item 2). | ” |
| “ | I HATE it when she sashays! | ” |
| “ | Zoey and Chloe are the best friends ever! | ” |
| “ | AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! (That was me screaming!) | ” |
| “ | JUST GREAT!! | ” |
| “ | I was so angry I could just...SPIT! | ” |
| “ | I was so happy I did my Snoopy "happy dance". | ” |
| “ | I just LOVE that girl! | ” |
– When something related to Tyra Banks is shown | ||
References
| Characters | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|