Wendy Darling

Wendy Moira Angela Darling
Peter Pan character
1907 illustration by Oliver Herford of Wendy and the Lost Boys
First appearance	Peter Pan (1904)
Created by	J. M. Barrie
Portrayed by	Hilda Trevelyan (1904 production) Mary Brian (Peter Pan 1924) Maggie Smith (Hook 1991) Rachel Hurd-Wood (Peter Pan (2003))
Voiced by	Kathryn Beaumont (Peter Pan (1953))
Information
Children	Jane (daughter)
Relatives	John Darling (brother) Michael Darling (brother) Margaret (grandchild)
Nationality	English

Wendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional character and the protagonist of Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, and in most adaptations in other media. Her exact age is not specified in the original play or novel by Barrie, though it is implied she is about 12 or 13 years old, as she is "just Peter's size". Wendy expresses an innocent admiration for Peter as soon as they meet. As a girl on the verge of adulthood, she stands in contrast to Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up, the major theme of the Peter Pan stories. Wendy hesitates at first to fly off to Neverland, but she comes to enjoy her adventures. Ultimately, she chooses to go back to her parents and accepts that she has to grow up.

In the novel Peter Pan, and its cinematic adaptations, she is an Edwardian schoolgirl. The novel states that she attends a "kindergarten school" with her younger brothers, meaning a school for pre-adolescent children. Like Peter, in many adaptations of the story she is shown to be on the brink of adolescence. She belongs to a middle class London household of that era, and is the daughter of George Darling, a short-tempered and pompous bank/office worker, and his wife, Mary. Wendy shares a nursery room with her two brothers, Michael and John. However, in the Disney version, her father decides that "it's high time she had a room of her own" and kicks her out of the nursery for "stuffing the boys' heads with a lot of silly stories", but changes his mind at the end of the film after he returns home with his wife after the party.

Wendy is the most developed character in the story of Peter Pan, and is often considered the central protagonist. She is proud of her own childhood and enjoys telling stories and fantasising. She has a distaste for adulthood, acquired partly by the example of it set by her father, whom she loves but fears due to his somewhat violent fits of anger. Her ambition early in the story is to somehow avoid growing up. She is granted this opportunity by Peter Pan, who takes her and her brothers to Neverland, where they can remain young forever.