After a month-long hiatus due to the Appellate Brief From Hell, I am back with more fandom awesomeness for all of you nerds. This week, we’re looking at Quinn Fabray, played by the adorably gorgeous Diana Agron (@alittlelamb, if you want to follow her on Twitter), on FOX’s Glee.

I have my issues with Glee – several issues. (First and foremost, the ableism. Ugh. And it’s so goddamn preachy about being inclusive and all that crap, only it’s really not, and I don’t buy the ‘caricature’ argument.) But it’s fun (translation: cheap, regurgitated pop culture we can all consume with plastic forks), and the kids are all cute (Mike Chang needs to be shirtless way more often), so I keep watching it.

Quinn is awesome – one of my favorite characters on the show. She’s not as one-note as the others: she’s wicked, she’s innocent, she’s sweet and loving, she’s callous and bitter, she’s confident but also has her painfully insecure moments, she’s a complicated kid and Diana Agron plays her beautifully. (Plus, she’s gorgeous.)

So here’s a soundtrack I put together for Quinn. Normally I’d make awesome fan-art for it, but due to the way text wraps around pictures at this site, it’d just mess everything up, so I’m keeping the images small and icon-like. The links will send you straight to YouTube, and you can download the songs on your own time and dime.

Click the images to get to YouTube to hear the song.

.: Meredith Brooks – b.i.t.c.h. :.

I’m a bitch, I’m a lover
I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed.

Yeah, yeah, I know, so totally predictable. But still. This is a good song for Quinn: full of contradictions and opposites, just like she is. “I’m a child, I’m a mother” – come on. That’s perfect right there because, as you know if you watch the show, she’s a teen mom. (She gave the baby up for adoption, I think.) I do kind of hate that I used this song, though, because it’s what EVERYONE uses when the character is a strong, independent, snarky female. Or, that type, really. It’s everyone’s go-to song and I kind of dislike that. Just because a female character is ballsy and independent and sexual doesn’t mean she’s a bitch. But whatever, I wrote enough critical theory essays frequently citing Judith Butler in college already.

.: Beatles – I Wanna Hold Your Hand :.

And when I touch you I feel happy inside
It’s such a feeling that, my love,
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Aw, Quinn and Finn, the archetypal high school Homecoming King and Queen couple. I mean, come on, she’s the head cheerleader, he’s the quarterback. Plus, they rhyme and everything! The biggest high school cliche, and the show did a spectacular job of derailing it. Quinn was supposed to be a virgin and instead she and Puck knocked boots and he knocked her up. Fabulous and soapy. This song speaks perfectly to the sweet, innocent puppy and love Finn and Quinn shared by all appearances until everything went to Hell in a handbasket because Puck didn’t wrap it up.

.: Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady :.

Foxy
Ah, baby, listen now
I’ve made up my mind
I’m tired of wasting all my precious time
You’ve got to be all mine, all mine
Foxy lady
Here I come

Remember how I said Puck, Finn’s best friend, totally knocked Quinn up? Yeah, that totally happened, and Puck was wayyyy into Quinn, because, obviously, she’s gorgeous and snarky and popular, and also happened to be caring his spawn. They had some cute scenes together where he was all pining away for her and she was like, whatever, and Puck tried dating Rachel for appearances to see if it made Quinn jealous, but it didn’t. And he’s still kind of hung up on Quinn, as we learned in the S2 premiere, but is still playing the field because he’s a dude and he wants to get laid.

.: (Glee Version) – Papa Don’t Preach :.

Papa, I know you’re going to be upset
‘Cause I was always your little girl
You should know by now
I’m not a baby

Yeah, I had to pick the Glee version of this song because Diana is singing it and she sounds fantastic. It was a really cute little scene, too, and I loved how well the song fit with her story. This was before, in the olden days, when Glee actually managed to do great music numbers and weave them into the narrative, rather than just having the narrative barely exist between big, high-energy music numbers that play like music videos meant to go viral. Sigh. But yeah, such a great song for Quinn.

.: John Lennon – Nobody Told Me :.

Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days, indeed
Most peculiar, Mama!

One of my favorite little John Lennon ditties. Just so weird and disjointed and discordant in its own way. I just love this song, and I imagine it channels a lot of what Quinn feels and thinks as a pregnant cheerleader in high school: like everything is fragmented and stilted and screechy and coming at her from all directions and just spinning out of control.

.: Smoosh – We Are Our Own Lies :.

I’ve been holding on for a while
You’ve been trying hard but you know it
I know, you know, I know, we know
We are so afraid to be ourselves
We are our own lies
We are our own lies

For all her confidence, we still saw Quinn’s moments of deep-seated insecurity on the show. For so long, she defined herself as the head cheerleader, thin and hot and popular, and then she found herself no longer a cheerleader, pregnant, and, God forbid, worst of all, fat. Most teenage girls would have wanted to roll over and die from the last one alone, and Quinn definitely had some problems dealing with it. We saw it in her decision to post that list ranking the Glee club members in terms of hotness, which Mr. Shue eventually busted her for.

.: You Say Party! We Say Die! – There is XXXX (Within My Heart) :.

Now I’ve cried
My share of tears in the night
And felt the pain
And emptiness inside
Then a beautiful bird
Soared into my life
And with wings outstretched
It flew straight into my heart
There is love within my heart
There is love within my heart

Quinn gave birth to one of my favorite songs – Bohemian Rhapsody. I really should have used a picture from the birth, but I just loved this one because they both look hilarious in it. Anyway, it’s really weird thinking that out of all the kids, Quinn is the one that’s a mother. One good reason for having her put the baby up for adoption – while the viewers know that Quinn’s a mom, we don’t get to dwell on it the same way we would if her parents were raising it, or if she had kept it, or even if she’d aborted it.

Also, how hilarious is it that her uber-conservative father was dicking around on her mom? Hahaha.

.: Dean Martin – The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane :.

Our town was peaceful and quiet
Before she came on the scene
The lady has started a riot
Disturbing the suburban routine
The naught lady of Shady Lane
Has the town in a whirl
The naughty lady of Shady Lane
My-oh-my what a girl

Because Quinn Fabray is back, bitches. She’s the head cheerleader again, after ratting on Santana for getting her boobs done over the summer, and she’s back to her fighting weight and ready to regain her spot on top of the totem pole. Or, pyramid, as it were. Sure, the last line of this song totally ruins it, but it’s Dean Martin, and I’ve loved him since I was a kid, so he gets the last word on our favorite gal.

Now let’s get to the outfit, shall we? I picked this maternity look she had going on in the Sectionals episode (that is, halfway through the first season, right before the show took its extended hiatus).

It’s an adorable little outfit and I love that her clothes aren’t always super matchy-matchy. She sticks to the same color, but works with different hues, and balances out the look with something more neutral. Here, she’s playing with the pink hues (some pink-reds and her top is salmon, her shoes more berry), and the delicate short-sleeved white sweater ties it all together.

Haha, I love how her shirt looks so long compared to Santana’s Cheerio skirt. And though I cropped her out, Rachel’s in this still, too, and her skirt is several inches shorter than Diana’s, even though we’re supposed to think of Rachel as modest and covered up and blah blah blah.

…Of course, this is a maternity outfit for Quinn, so yeah. She’s not going to be wearing minis.

I put together an outfit similar to this one, and though I couldn’t find a skirt/dress exactly like Quinn’s, I found a skirt from Brooks Brothers that passes muster.

Let’s have a look.

Country Club Skirt ………. $49
Caslon Ruffled Tank in Chiffon ………. $15.90
Perforated Flat ………. $19.95
Lightweight Pointelle Cardigan in White ………. $10

This skirt is totally work-appropriate: it’s knee length and fitted, but not too tight. I paired it with a ruffled tank in a slightly lighter hue, and went with a darker pink shoe. As a finishing touch, I tossed on that delicate little short sleeve cardigan in white.

If you’re not feeling the skirt, I also really liked this one from Talbot’s for about $15 less.

$33.99 - click to purchase

Isn’t that a fabulous color?! I saw it and just loved it! I’d totally pair it with the same Caslon ruffled tier tank in Guava this time, rather than chiffon, and find a pair of cute red flats to finish off the look. (And keep the white sweater, obviously.) Just looooove this skirt. I really could have gone either way here, I think, and now that I’ve got everything up and posted (of course) I feel like I should have ditched the BB skirt for this one. Whatever, it’s done, it’s up, I’m not redoing it. You people with your demands.

And there we have a cute little outfit inspired by Diana Agron’s Quinn Fabray from FOX’s hit show, Glee.