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ABOUT THE CHARACTER ➝

NAME ●●● Alessandra Josephine Karofsky

AGE ●●● 21

PRONOUNS ●●● She/Her

BIRTHDAY ●●● 10/25

ORDER ●●● First (Twin)

FROM ●●● Cotton Plant, Arkansas

SEXUALITY ●●● Pansexual/Homoromantic

FULL TIME JOB ●●● Waitress at Asian Ginger

WRITER ●●● Ostara

↳ A CLOSER LOOK:

(TW for entire bio: depression, allusion to self harm, allusion to body dysmorphic disorder, josie being a hot damn mess)

Alessandra had always been favored, whether it was by her parents, teachers, even her babysitters. It wasn’t something that was obvious to her as it was just the way things had always been. When she did start noticing it, it was a little flattering. Constant praise and attention tended to make a child thrive, even if they could see that they were being treated differently from other people close to them. This was the case with the Karofsky twins, particularly with Alessandra. She was, and always has been, the light of her parents’ eyes and was often the only person’s input that mattered. And while Alessandra loved the attention, she didn’t love the lack of said attention that she got from her twin sister. As babies, they were as close as twins tended to be and Alessandra still viewed them as such; but Antonia didn’t. She didn’t understand why her sister never wanted to hang out with her and would often be found crying in her room over the loneliness she felt. After all, the only people who really treated her well were her parents, which were rarely around. She had an inferiority complex (which is still very alive today) that couldn’t be fixed by her parents constant doting, since every other time she felt as though she wasn’t good enough for her sister.

As she grew up, her complex only became more intense and began manifesting in different ways. The constant appraisal from her parents made her feel as if she needed to be perfect in every way, which made her begin to focus too hard on her body and literally every other aspect of herself, whether it be school work or art or even her role as a daughter. It eventually developed into severe anxiety and depression. When she needed to be around people, she instead chose to withdraw into herself. The only reprieves she had from the obsessive thoughts in her head were art and, quite literally, running away from said thoughts. Her first instinct was always to retreat into her closet, which she had made herself a mini art studio, where she felt safe to let herself relax and didn’t feel the need to hide herself from anybody. When that wasn’t enough to drown out her thoughts, she would go for a run; pushing herself harder and harder, oftentimes until she would collapse and need to call someone to pick her up and, usually, have to take her to the hospital. She didn’t drink enough water or consume enough calories to justify the way she pushed herself but, no matter how much the doctor would stress the importance of it, she would constantly ignore him. Josie kept herself on a strict diet that wouldn’t let her look anything less than perfect, even if it was made for somebody who didn’t push herself the way she did.

Despite the myriad of issues Josie was dealing with mentally, she still pursued college after high school. Her dependence on art was, in many ways, the only thing that her going on most days so it seemed like a no-brainer when she majored in painting. She didn’t change any of her habits and didn’t pursue any sort of psychiatric help; her coping skills were, after all, fantastic. Josie did well the first year. She pushed herself hard enough with her schoolwork that she rarely turned her work in less than three days before the due date and, what with her overall lack of sleep, had all the time in the world to get things done. Unfortunately, her perfectionism was at an all-time high. She went to the gym every single day and didn’t allow herself a single moment’s break from anything–in her mind, the 2-3 hours of sleep she got almost every night was break enough. Towards the end of her sophomore year she just.. Snapped. Her professor called on her to translate a phrase into french despite her obviously haggard appearance and general lack of ability to do so even on a good day, and get prodding even as she grew increasingly frustrated and told him that she just didn’t know. Josie shut down. She stood and threw her books off of her table, sobbing violently as she fled the room to her dorm. Things blacked out after that, but she woke up the next day in a hospital room with two IVs in her arm and a nurse sitting in the corner of her room with a book.

She was forced to see a therapist who heavily suggested that she take a year off from school and go back home, during which she should continue to see someone in order to help her avoid having another “incident.” With a heavy heart she did as told, returning to her parents’ house in Cotton Plant. She picked up a job at Asian Ginger and is finally starting to let people in and help her.

#ourtownalessandra #family: karofsky