NAME: Bernadette Louise Hummel.
FACECLAIM: Mae Whitman.
AGE: Twenty-four.
BIRTH ORDER: Youngest sibling.
HOMETOWN: Beverly Hills, California.
WHY ARE THEY FAMOUS: Her father is United States senator for California and her late mother was a world famous designer. Since her passing, the Hummel children were left to take over the company.
GENDER IDENTITY & PRONOUNS: Cis-female & she/her.
SEXUAL/ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Bisexual/biromantic
Katherine Bishop was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her father was a well-respected defense attorney and her mother was a doctor who worked closely with celebrities in Los Angeles. The two were both successful in their own right and lived a comfortable life in Hidden Hills. While they worked closely with people in the industry, they looked down on the celebrities and artists. They valued school and hard work, stating a pretty face can only get you so far. Beauty fades, knowledge is forever, her father would always say. While Katherine respected her father’s opinion, she didn’t agree. She loved everything about L.A. culture, the movies, celebrities, and their clothes. Oh, she loved their clothes. She was obsessed with the latest styles and would constantly draw out fashion designs in her notebooks that turned into her sewing up mock-ups, then full garments. She did this all hidden from her parents, knowing they wouldn’t understand.
Her parents tried to pressure her to an Ivy League school through their own connections but Katherine wanted to get into a school she was actually interested – and major in something she was actually passionate about. So she applied to UCLA without her parent’s knowledge and got in with praise on her art portfolio. She was ecstatic and while her parents were initially upset, they decided they would humor her daughter and let her have her fun for a year or so before she realized how childish this all was and pursue a career in medicine or law. She actually excelled in all her design classes and loved school. She was well liked and always hung out at the quad and that’s when she met Burt Hummel. Burt came from a working class family and was paying his own way through college. He was very popular on campus despite being a man of few words. It’s about how you make the words count that matter, he told her. It was a slow burn love, they got along great and were friends that slowly fell in love. She never felt this way before and knew he was the one.
Unfortunately, her family didn’t agree. They believed he wasn’t good enough, a man with no future and could not possibly provide for their daughter. In the end, Katherine had to decide between what was expected of her or her passion. She chose her passion, she was going to live her life for herself for once in her life and see how far this took her. Burt encouraged her to continue school and the two would find a way to make money work, except his one condition was she needed to purse what made her happy. So she took to design, had it not been for his push then she wouldn’t have been standing behind the scenes of New York Fashion Week 5 years later with clothes she designed being applauded. Katherine Hummel had become a rising star in the fashion world and it was all on her own.
Fast forward 4 years and 1 kid later, Bernadette Louise Hummel was born. The two were so excited to welcome their little girl into the world. From the start, Bernadette was a rebellious child. She was constantly putting her hand in the cookie jar and breaking expensive vases from running around and bumping into things. However, Bernadette was raised on being aware of public perception. With her father running for public offices and her mother becoming one of the hottest designers in the industry, it was important for the youngest Hummel to always keep in mind that their actions reflected all their family. Despite this, Bernadette marched to the beat of her own drum and while her mother didn’t always approve of her daughters actions, she never shamed her. She didn’t have to sit prim and proper, she was a child and as long as she wasn’t being offensive or hurting anyone, it was fine. Bernadette, or Bert as Katherine lovingly called her, marched to the beat of her own drum. And Katherine was glad she was able to raise her children who were perfectly comfortable being themselves.
Bernadette doesn’t really remember much of what happened when her mom died. She was 6 going on 7 and the couple days after her passing where a bit of a blur. However, she does remember how it hit everyone. She remembers all the crying, anger, and devastation… But mostly she remembers how much food people brought over; she never understood why people felt the need to make someone a casserole like “Hey, your mom’s dead? Have some lasagna!” Granted, lasagna was her favorite and having a bunch of food was helpful when her father could hardly move from the sofa. Everyone handled her mother’s passing differently; Bernadette isolated herself and acted out in response.
Trouble always seemed to follow Bertie after that. Or more so that the word trouble always seemed to be directly correlated to the girl. Even when she was younger, it was like Bertie couldn’t help but do what she knew she wasn’t supposed to. Whether it was just talking out of turn in school or egging houses with neighborhood kids then graffiting local shops – which earned her a ticket that Burt Hummel was not happy to learn about and then have to pay. As high school went on, Bernadette was starting to miss more and more classes Opting to go out and shoplift at the mall or smoke pot in her friend’s car. Sometimes driving to Vegas to party. Often staying out of town for days at a time and worrying her father to death. Bernadette had spent most of her time fucking around and wasting her days away that when she did go to school, the faculty hardly recognized her. She had to be take to the principles office to explain the situation to which she responded with telling Hummel that she had been running up her absences and that one more skip would result in a truancy. Which wasn’t going to work for the girl since she had plans already set to drive to Louisiana for Mardi Gras. Burt was losing his little girl and he had to think fast, he need to get her to behave…how would people think he was fit to be senator if he couldn’t even control his own kid. So he called a family meeting.
When all the Hummel’s came together, the family’s estate attorney was waiting for them. While they already were aware of what their mother had left her children, there was something they all needed to be reminded of. While Hummel Designs was cut into equal parts, if anyone proved to unfit to run by breaking the brand’s morality clause, they would lose their stakes and shares in the company and would go to the remaining family. Bernadette felt called out and stormed out of the room, however she knew that she had to make a change if she didn’t want to get pushed out of the legacy her mom had created. So she bought a new wardrobe, took out the dye from her hair, and bought a subscription to Vogue and Vanity Fair magazine. If they wanted Anna Wintour, then Anna Wintour they would get.
It wasn’t an overnight transformation, which sucked because all the movies Bernadette watched made it seem like it would be that way. She had to study fashion, who knew there was so much to learn about clothes? It was honestly exhausting the most studying Bernadette had ever done but all it was really was learning words like couture and what a hem is. Well, old habits die hard. While she took over as co-president of Hummel Designs at age 18, she’s still the same girl she was before. She goes to all the meetings and formalities throughout the weekday but as soon as Friday hits, she tears off her tailored dress and kicks off the heels and runs toward a t-shirt and jeans and despite it being risky, she goes out and paints the town red. She’s been able to keep a low profile compared to her siblings who make a biggest presence in the fashion world. With Hummel’s Designs doing better than ever (with not much thanks to her), how much longer can Bernadette play this game of Hannah Montana before the press starts to notice?
NAME: Ana.
AGE: Twenty.
TIMEZONE: CST/EST.
SHIPS & ANTI-SHIPS: /Chemistry & /No Chemistry.
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