Monica (Monica's Gang)

Monica
Monica's Gang's character
First appearance	Removable Newspaper strips of 1963
Created by	Maurício de Sousa
Information
Gender	Female
Family	Mrs. Luísa (Mother), Mr. Souza (Father). And her hyperactive dog, ditto.

Monica is the main character of Monica's Gang (Turma da Mônica) comic strips. She was created in 1963. Mauricio de Sousa based the character on his own daughter, who is also named Monica. Monica's hair is influenced by a haircut his older daughter Mariângela gave her once when she was a kid. In 2007, Monica became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

Monica was based on Mauricio de Sousa's daughter in childhood. The reason for her creation was due to a complaint of the lack of female characters in Mauricio comics. At that time, newspaper strips of Blu and Jimmy Five were produced. When Monica made his first appearance was in a strip of Jimmy Five in 1963, first as a secondary rival of main character. However Monica went on to appear with ever more emphasis over the years later taking the main character position of Jimmy Five.

In the first strips Monica was a younger and little girl, she had an angry face and her hair was different, but Mauricio improved his visual over the years giving to Monica a cute and friendly appearance. Since 1970 she has been considered the main character among all comics created by Mauricio de Sousa, hence the title, "Monica's Gang".

The real life Monica graduated in industrial design at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo and works as executive director at her father's company.

Monica is a 7-year-old, strong and decisive girl, who does not tolerate impertinence, but at the same time, has her moments of femininity. She lives with her parents, has a little dog called Ditto (Monicão), and does not let go of her blue stuffed rabbit called Samson (Sansão). This rabbit, which she loves so dearly, is also a weapon against boys. Especially Jimmy Five (Cebolinha) and Smudge (Cascão), who are always teasing her and calling her roly-poly, toothy, and shorty. She is described as possessing powerful (usually even superhuman) strength, which she uses to beat up boys who tease her, or to defend herself and her friends. She is known by the other characters as the "ruler of the street". She is often at odds with Jimmy Five (Cebolinha), but backs him up whenever he gets into trouble. Monica's best friend is Maggy (Magali). Monica's also very shy to date boys, and she often causes trouble when she tries to talk or impress them. Her buckteeth (more precisely the maxillary central incisor) are her trademark, but also the main reason for people to call her toothy.

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