Bows of a feather flock together.
Look like a sweet little angel in a pair of matching silk ribbons.
— Description of Small Ribbons, Tomodachi Life (2013)
When you picture things that cute little girls wear, what comes to mind? Pink dresses? Flowers? Or maybe a big bow on her head? That last one is what this trope is all about.
Ribbons and bows are used as shorthand for several character traits, primarily:
- Youth: Most often, the character wearing a bow is a child, or at least a Kawaiiko.
- Innocence: To go along with the previous point, a character wearing a bow will often be innocent and sweet.
- Femininity: As mentioned previously, bows are most commonly associated with girls. As such, the chances of seeing a male character wearing a ribbon are next to none, and a bow will often be used to show that a character is a Girly Girl.
- Cuteness: Bows are considered innocent and cutesy. A character wearing one will often be The Cutie, and/or like cute things.
A female character wearing a bow is not enough. To properly qualify for this trope, the presence of the bow has to represent one of the above qualities.
Related to Tertiary Sexual Characteristics. Can often appear on a female Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal. Compare Flowers of Femininity, Girlish Pigtails.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In CLANNAD: After Story, 5 year old Ushio Okazaki wears her hair in a bow on a regular basis, this helps to differentiate her from her mother Nagisa.
- Ellen Shiratori from The Daichis - Earth's Defense Family wears a large Yellow Ribbon on the back of her head, which adds to the already cute expressions that Ellen shows off especially in the times when she's smiling. In addition, she's a third grade student, innocent and her femininity is displayed in her pink coat and the extremely long hair that's tied back from the aforementioned ribbon. However in the case of her youthful look this is just a transformation and is actually looks like a young adult.
- Used as a plot point in Hime-chan's Ribbon; Himeko wants to be the most feminine girl in the world, so she is granted a magical ribbon from a princess in order to do so.
- Fujiwara from Kaguya-sama: Love is War is almost always seen with her "super black" hair ribbon, even when wearing other things on her head like a towel or bald cap and even continues to wear it as an adult. It helps to emphasize her role as The Cutie of the initial cast.
- Naruto: Before she graduated from the Ninja Academy, Sakura wore a red bow. Sakura used to be bullied because of her large forehead and decided to hide it with her bangs. When she befriended Ino, the latter told her that, rather than hiding her otherwise pretty face, she should wear something cute that drew people's attention away from her forehead. After she graduated from the Academy, she switched the bow with a Konoha headband, but still wears it around her hair as if it's a bow.
- Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun: In contrast to the other female leads Seo and Kashima, who are more tomboyish, Sakura is fairly feminine. She is stated to look younger than her age because she is short and wears two distinctive polka-dotted hair ribbons.
- Pretty Cure: It's extremely common for the Pretty Cures, who are all female (except one), to wear bows on the front of their school uniforms and Pretty Cure outfits.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Cure Bloom and Cure Egret, two innocent girls on the younger end of Cure ages, both have a bow with a heart charm on their fronts.
- Fresh Pretty Cure!: Cure Pine, the most gentle and wholesome of the Cures on her team, sports a giant orange bow on her hair, which the other Cures lack.
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Cure Blossom, Cure Marine, and Cure Sunshine, who all like fashion and cute things, wear bows on the front of their Cure dresses. The only one who doesn't is the eldest and most mature Cure, Cure Moonlight.
- HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Cure Honey, the sweetest and most loving of the Cures, wears a gold bow in her hair.
- Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Cure Flora, the most innocent of the Cures, wears a huge bow as a belt.
- Maho Girls PreCure!: Cure Miracle and Cure Magical, best friends and innocent young girls, wear matching bows in their hair.
- KiraKira★Precure à la Mode: Cure Whip, the youngest, and Cure Custard, the most innocent, both wear bows on their front.
- HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Cure Yell, the Genki Girl leader, has a giant bow attached to the back of her skirt, while Cure Macherie and Cure Amour, who are themed around cute Idol Singers, wear bows on their heads.
- Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Cure Selene, the most elegant and beautiful Cure, wears bows on her head.
- Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Cure Sparkle, the most innocent of the Cures, wears an orange bow on her front.
- Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: Cure Coral, the Cure who likes cute things the most, has bows in her pigtails.
- Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: All four Cures, who are sweet girls and all represent Feminine Women Can Cook, wear a bow; Cure Precious and Cure Spicy wear giant bows on their heads, while Cure Yum-Yum and Cure Finale wear smaller bows on other parts of their outfits.
- Soaring Sky! PreCure: Cure Prism, the most innocent and cutesy of the Cures, wears bows all over her head and dress.
- Wonderful Pretty Cure!: As a representation of friendship, each Cure wears a bow on their front in their partner's signature colour; Cure Wonderful has a purple bow and Cure Friendy has a pink bow, while Cure Nyammy has a teal bow and Cure Lillian has a blue bow.
- You and Idol Pretty Cure♪: All three Cures are girly girls, and wear a bow somewhere on their uniform; Cure Idol has a bow on the side of her head and two on her boots, Cure Wink just has the boot bows, and Cure Kyun-Kyun has bows on her skirt.
- Star Detective Pretty Cure!: Cure Answer, an honest and kindhearted girl, wears a bow on her front that resembles a standard tie. Cure Mystique has one as well, and a bow on top of her head.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: At the start of the anime, the innocent young Madoka considers whether to wear red or yellow ribbons in her hair, settling on red and wearing them in bows around her pigtails. In her magical girl outfit, they're exaggerated to the more cartoony look typical of this trope. They are also the only thing left of her once she becomes the goddess of hope. The sequel movie Rebellion ends with almost the exact same scene after Homura rewrites the universe, only this time Madoka picks the yellow ribbons.
- Sailor Moon: Each Sailor Guardian, who are all female and called "Pretty Guardians", wears a bow on her outfit, with each one in a different colour.
- Minako Aino, being a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak and an avatar of the Goddess of Love, wears a big red bow in her hair which is part of her normal wardrobe and sailor fuku.
Comic Books
- Diddl: The titular mouse's girlfriend Diddlina always wears a bow on her head - she owns several in various colors and patterns.
- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: In her introduction picture, Beth, the sweetest of the sisters, is wearing a pink bow on her head.
Fan Works
- The Door (Zootopia): Sarah, a little human girl adopted by the Ottertons, is described as wearing pink ribbons in her hair. She's considered adorable by her foster family and roughly everyone who meets her.
- Kedabory's Elmore Chronicles: Sophie Small, the innocent Hipster, wears small pink bows in her pigtails.
- Maple Sugar Pretty Cure: Cure Panda, the bubbly Pink Heroine, wears bows in her giant twintails.
- Strong and Steady: Annie, The Baby of the Bunch known for her innocent personality, wears a giant orange bow on her head.
Films — Animation
- Alice in Wonderland (1951):
- Alice wears a black bow in her hair to symbolise her innocence.
- Dinah wears a pink bow in her neck to symbolise her cuteness.
- All Dogs Go to Heaven: Anne Marie wears a yellow bow in her hair to symbolize how much of an adorable orphan she is.
- The Aristocats: Marie wears a pink bow around her neck, along with a tiny matching bow on the top of her head, to accentuate her cuteness.
- The Book of Life: Sasha, who is a sweet little girl and the nicest of the Detention Kids, wears a big red bow in her hair.
- Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation: As cubs, several of the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins wear little bows to make them even more cutesy. Notably, this is not tied to gender as typical for this trope, as bows can be seen on male characters (Birthday Bear) as well as females (Cheer Bear, Harmony, Wish Bear).
- Cats Don't Dance:
- Tillie wears a blue yellow-spotted bow atop her head, and is a sweet Big Fun hippo.
- Averted with Darla Dimple. She wears a pink bow in her hair, but it's quickly made apparent that she's the Big Bad and a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Spiral City: The Spiral City's mayors are a pair of pig siblings, Pibu and Popi. Popi who's the more "adorable" one of the duo compared to her brother wears a bow on her head, 24-7.
- Inverted in Encanto: Dolores has her scarf tied in a big bow at the front, but she is the oldest and most mature of Mirabel's cousins.
- The Great Mouse Detective:
- Olivia Flaversham has a red bow tucked behind her ear to symbolize the fact that she's a cute little mouse girl.
- Averted with Felicia, Professor Ratigan's cat. She wears a purple bow on the top of her head ala Marie, but is a wicked cat who serves as Ratigan's personal executioner.
- Kiki's Delivery Service: The titular Cute Witch wears a huge red bow on her head throughout the movie, to emphasize on her cuteness, in contrast to her close friend Ursula whose long hair is fashioned into a Tomboyish Ponytail instead. Crosses into Signature Headgear territory - Studio Ghibli's merch store has Kiki's bow on hairbands as part of the movie's tie-in merchandise.
- Rock-A-Doodle: Peepers, a mouse with a proud and resourceful personality, wears a large pink bow on her head, which likely symbolizes her sweeter side, shown when she tries to wake Edmond (when he returns to being human).
- The Scarecrow (2000): Gretchen is one of Polly's adopted orphans, and her hair is tied in pigtails with two black ribbons, which symbolize her youth and her desire to adopt a puppy.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Snow White herself, an innocent little princess, wears a red bow on her head.
- Amy Lawrence from Tom Sawyer is a Tomboy persian cat who has a blue bow in her long braid, symbolizing her girly side and her desire for romance.
Films — Live-Action
- Matilda: The titular character is seen with a red ribbon tied into a bow, representing that she is an innocent little girl. Unfortunately, she unknowingly lost it when it gets caught in a tree on the night she spooks the Trunchbull with her powers, where the ribbon ends up in possession of the Trunchbull who recognises her presence.
- Midnight Cowboy: Cass's dog Baby, a primped up Mister Muffykins, has a ribbon tied in the fur on her head.
- Wee Sing: In "Wee Sing in Sillyville", the mother and daughters of the Bitty Booty family wear red bows in their hair. Despite being prejudiced against the other various groups in Sillyville over what colored clothing they wear, all of the family are polite and friendly to Sillywhim and see the error of their ways by the end of the film.
- The Wizard of Oz (1939): Dorothy Gale, a sweet girl, wears blue hairbows tying up her pigtails for most of the movie, then a single bow on her head when she gets a makeover in Emerald City.
Literature
- The Burpee Bears: In this British picture book series, Bella, the daughter of the family, usually wears a ribbon tied into a bow, to represent innocence.
- The Doll People: Annabelle and Tiffany, two innocent doll girls, both wear pink bows in their hair, even though they are very different types of dolls (Annabelle is a china doll from 1895, while Tiffany is a modern-day, William Joyce-esque wooden doll).
- Funny Little Animals: In this French picture book series, many of the female characters (Mireille the bee, Belle the ladybug, Camille the caterpillar) are portrayed as wearing bows on their heads to represent their innocent nature.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The evil and sickly-sweet villain Professor Umbridge is often described as wearing a bow with her pink outfits.
- Junie B. Jones, a spunky little five-year-old always wears a bow on her head, getting a different pattern on it for each book cover. In the First Grader Sequel Series, she ditches the bow and instead her Iconic Item is a pair of purple glasses.
- Koiramäki: Elsa, one of the main dog characters in this Finnish picture book series, is often depicted as wearing red bows tied around her ears to represent her innocent nature.
- Loup: Titi the yeti is often seen with a red ribbon tied around her head to garnish her intimidating appearance.
- Magnificent Millie: The titular mouse wears a red spotted bow on her head to represent innocence.
- In the picture book The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson, one of the very cute dolls drawn by the little girl is "Jo with the bow", which she wears around her waist.
- Rainbow Magic: Each fairy who wears a bow or ribbons is an adorable young girl. Specifically:
- Ruby the Red Fairy wears ballet flats with long ribbons tied up her legs. She is the regal leader of the Rainbow Fairies and a Cool Big Sis to her six younger sisters.
- Jasmine the Present Fairy's main symbol is a blue bow; she wears one on her head, and it's the primary shape of her fairy dust. She is a generous fairy who protects the magic of giving gifts.
- Fiona the Flute Fairy wears sandals with ribbons tied up her legs and ending in bows. She is the most feminine of the Music Fairies.
- Sophia the Snow Swan's ponytail is tied with a purple ribbon in a bow. Like Fiona, she is the most feminine of her fairy group.
- Edie the Garden Fairy's sunhat has a polka-dot ribbon tied around it in a bow. She has an innocent personality.
- Pia the Penguin Fairy has a bow on her headband, and two smaller bows on her shoes. She's one of the more feminine Ocean Fairies and protects cute penguins.
- Morgan the Midnight Fairy wears a bow on her headband and a bow on the front of her dress. She is among the more feminine of the Twilight Fairies.
- Alesha the Acrobat Fairy has a giant pink ribbon attached to her wand, which she uses in her performances. This is combined with Pink Means Feminine to make her look more like a Girly Girl.
- Demi the Dressing-Up Fairy wears little pink bows on her belt and shoes. They add a cutesy element to her design as she is a feminine princess.
- Clara the Chocolate Fairy has a little pink bow on the collar of her shirt. She is one of the more feminine Sweet Fairies.
- Marissa the Science Fairy wears a quirky bow tie, adding a cute element to her nerdy design.
- Kathryn the PE Fairy has a bow on her headband, as a contrast to her generally tomboyish appearance.
- Mariana the Goldilocks Fairy wears a big red bow on her head since she's an innocent little girl.
- Bonnie the Bike-Riding Fairy has her pigtails tied with little red bows. Like Kathryn, it's to add a girly contrast to her tomboy nature.
- Kylie the Carnival Fairy has rainbow ribbons tied in her hair, showing off her fun, wild personality.
- Paige the Pantomime Fairy has a pink ribbon tied around her waist, and her fairy dust is made up of ribbons. She has a gentle, elegant personality.
- Chrissie the Wish Fairy has a sash tied in a bow around her waist, giving her outfit a cutesy flair.
- Mia the Bridesmaid Fairy has a sash tied in a bow just under her chest, as she's one of the most feminine fairies of all.
- Trixie the Halloween Fairy has a bow tied in her hair and around her waist, showing that while she's in charge of a spooky holiday, she's still very nice.
- Emma the Easter Fairy has a pink ribbon tied around her waist for a cute Easter flair.
- Reggie Rabbit: Reggie's older sister Lettice wears a vertical striped ribbon tied in a bow on her head to represent innocence.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Katie Aalto, the most traditionally feminine of the Sword Roses (compared to the more martially inclined Nanao Hibiya and Chela McFarlane), wears the necktie of her school uniform tied in a bow rather than in a Windsor knot as is typical.
- Shine Books: In this neurodiversity-themed British picture book series, Alice the aardvark, Bea the badger, Emma the elephant and Priya the panda all don bows on their heads to represent their innocence.
- Sieben kleine Hasen: In this German board book series, Emma, one of the seven rabbit siblings, always wears a pink ribbon on her head, representing her girly innocence.
- The titular mouse character of Belgian picture book series Sourimousse by Gilson always wears a ribbon tied into a bow on her head, since she is innocent.
- Ursule Lapine: The titular rabbit of this French picture book series usually wears a red bow around her head as a cute accessory.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: A few episodes have Carole wearing bows in her hair. Fittingly, she is the most feminine of the staff members, is raising three children in the leisure centre, and is usually portrayed as rather naive and a bit of an Extreme Doormat.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding", Claudia's hair is sometimes adorned with ribbons to convey that she's a young, bubbly, girly girl.
- Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation: In "East Meets West Part 3", a poodle that Wick hangs out with has ribbons tied on her ears to make her more cutesy, as a contrast of Wick wanting to eat her.
- Small Wonder: Vicki wears a large red bow in her hair as part of her usual outfit.
- The Thundermans: Nora Thunderman is constantly seen with a bow in her hair and very rarely do we see her without it. By the time of The Thundermans Return, she no longer wears it.
- The Toy Castle:
- Rag Doll, the youngest and most innocent of the toys, wears blue bows in her pigtails.
- As part of her elaborate noblewoman costume, Freda Frog wears a bow on her bonnet.
- To easily tell her apart from Papa Mouse, Mama Mouse wears a big red ribbon on her head.
Puppet Shows
- Inverted in Fraggle Rock. Red wears pink ribbons in her hair, but she is the more tomboyish of the two female leads; her Girly Girl contrast, Mokey, doesn't wear any hair accessories.
Theatre
- Mitzi Mozzarella of The Rock-afire Explosion wears green bows in her hair, befitting her youthful Girly Girl characterization.
Toys
- Many Lalaloopsy dolls, such as Crumbs Sugar Cookie, Swirly Figure Eight, and Trinket Sparkles, have bows in their hair to add to their cutesy, childlike appearance.
Video Games
- Danganronpa:
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
- Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, is seen wearing a pink bow on her head in flashbacks of her time as an Idol Singer since her group's theme was traditional feminine cutesyness. Another member of the group seen in the picture also has a bow. When Sayaka arrives at Hope's Peak Academy, the bow on her head is gone, but the tie on her Sailor Fuku is tied into a bow.
- Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Fashionista, wears a big red-and-white bow on the right side of her head, reflecting her status as The Cutie. Once she's revealed to be the Mastermind all along, and that the "Junko" the cast had previously encountered was actually her twin sister Mukuro posing as her, she replaces it with a black Monokuma charm.
- Celestia Ludenburg wears white ribbons in her hair as part of her gothic femininity.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair:
- Usami/Monomi wears a pink bow on one of her ears, both as Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and to show how much more innocent and cute she is than Monokuma.
- Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess, wears a black bow on her head and a red bow on the front of her dress in her casual wear, as she is an innocent, all-loving Princess Classic.
- Hiyoko Saionji, who is The Baby of the Bunch and a Kawaiiko, wears two bows with cat charms in her pigtails.
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
- Delicious:
- In "Emily's New Beginning", Baby Paige wears a pink bow on her head, since she's an adorable baby. The bow disappears in the final section of the game as she's grown into a toddler.
- Paige gets her bow back with the art style change in "Emily's Message in a Bottle", this time in blue instead of pink. This, combined with a Childish Tooth Gap, reflects her new status as a cute Genki Girl. However, like before, upon an Age Lift from five to twelve, the bow is again gone.
- As a baby, Emilia also wore a bow like Paige did, both because it's cute, and as an Identical Twin ID Tag to tell her apart from Vito (along with Pink Girl, Blue Boy). Like Paige, she also lost the bow when she got older.
- Ralsei, the gentle goat boy from Deltarune, loves the bows and ribbons he can equip as armor, commenting how cute they are when he wears them. Susie, the tough dragon girl of the group, defies equipping them specifically because of this trope, saying how against she is wearing any ribbon you try to give her.
- Edna & Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes: Lilli wears a big bow on her head to show her sweetness and innocence... except she unconsciously causes many accidents lethal to others.
- Grimms Notes: Chaos Marie wears a total of six large pink bows, two on her head, and four on her dress, which helps her to sell the image of a young, adorable Magical Girl.
- The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: Kako Tsukumo wears a large, sequined black bow on her head that remains when she transforms into her Class Armor, adding to her cute, feminine looks.
- Pokémon:
- Sylveon has a pink and white bow with a trailing ribbon on one ear and another under its chin. Those bows are actually part of its body, adding to its cute, feminine appearance.
- Alcremie, when evolved with the Ribbon Sweet, can have two purple bows in their hairstyle-like whipped cream atop their heads. Alcremie are an entirely female race of Pokémon resembling adorable slime girls made out of cream.
- Parodied in Slyders, which features a female giant Sand Worm monster as one of the heroes (named... Sandy). Who sports a giant purple bow on her head every time she tunnels in and out the ground to chomp down Aryx's enemies.
- Stardew Valley: Jas, the youngest female character who has an innocent personality, wears a green bow on her head.
- Undertale: The Faded Ribbon, a red ribbon tied in a bow, is one of the first items the player can find and equip. It functions as armor because, as the flavor text says, "If you're cuter, monsters won't hit you as hard."
Web Animation
- Happy Tree Friends:
- Giggles wears a big red bow on her head, and her fur is even pink to match it.
- Lammy wears a small purple bow on her hair tuft.
Webcomics
- Angel Moxie: In Chapter 2:
- Master demon Shugari wears a giant bow in her hair that is larger than her head, to emphasize her Cute Is Evil nature. When disguising herself as student Candi Shugari, she wears a more realistically sized bow to look younger and innocent.
- After Riley's crush Mr. Kyokasho calls Shugari "cute", she starts wearing a giant bow as well to attract his attention (which works). The bow dramatically falls from her hair after Kyokasho's Heroic Sacrifice to Shugari, showing Riley's innocence has been shattered. She shoots Shugari immediately after.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: Polly, the youngest of the Plantar siblings, is a cute little pollywog with a large yellow spotted bow on her head/body. This creates a comedic contrast with her role as a Blood Knight who loves weapons.
- Angry Kid: Li'l Sis, among the more innocent characters, wears two bows in her hair. They are blue in the original stop-motion shorts, then changed to pink for the CGI revival.
- Arthur:
- Baby Kate, who is of course The Baby of the Bunch for the Read family, has a green bow on her head.
- Muffy, the Girly Girl to Francine's tomboy, has purple bows tied in her braids.
- Captain Flamingo:
- Kirsten, a little girl who often falls in love with Milo, wears a green bow on her head, representing her cute youthful innocence.
- Subverted with Ruth Ann. While she does embody vanity and wears a big oversized red bow on her hair, she isn't exactly that innocent and can rather be jerky at times. She does, however, have a cute design.
- Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot: This generation of Care Bears gives each bear a unique accessory or hair fringe, which includes a big rainbow...bow, for Cheer Bear, the happiest bear of them all.
- Cococinel:
- Babicinel, the younger sister of the titular ladybug, wears a light pink bow on the side of her head, to represent her innocence.
- Similarly, Bambee, the younger twin sister of antagonist bee Levallois, dons a light blue bow on the side of her head, to represent her own innocence.
- Daisy Duck, like her friend Minnie, always wears a bow on top of her head, since she's a girly diva. Her bow changes colour often; for instance, it's blue in House of Mouse, purple in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and pink in Mickey Mouse (2013).
- Gravity Falls: .GIFfany, a one-off from "Soos and the Real Girl", wears a giant bow on her head to add to her cutesy nature. Except that she's not all that cute on the inside, as she turns out to be the episode's main villain.
- Josie and the Pussycats (1970): Two of the four girls in the troupe have hair bows, namely Josie and Alexandra. Josie's bow is atop her hairband, which keeps her bangs in check, and marks her as the leader and the prettiest one. Almost in defiance, Alexandra ties her ponytail with a large red bow, but her default scowl and snippy speech negate any cuteness the bow adds.
- The Magic Roundabout: Florence wears a blue hairbow that represents her innocence, but it also makes her mature-like.
- Minnie Mouse is most commonly depicted with a bow on her head, usually pink, since she's a sweet Girly Girl. In marketing, it's one of the easiest ways to tell her apart from Mickey.
- Miraculous Ladybug: The costume worn by the kind Marinette as the superheroine Ladybug retains the short pigtails from her civilian identity, but they are held back with red ribbons.
- Muppet Babies (1984): Baby Piggy always wears a giant pink bow on her head, since after all, she's the baby version of fashionista diva Miss Piggy. She still wears this bow in the 2018 reboot, although it's now magenta and sparkly instead of light pink.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Apple Bloom, one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and younger sister to main character Applejack, has a big pink bow on her head to illustrate her youth compared to the adult main characters.
- In G1, most of the ponies wear tail bows.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Isabella Garcia-Shapiro has her trademark pink hairbow matching her everyday dress, representing her innocence. She is even seen with different colored hairbows to match her outfit in question, to the point of even putting one on her Fireside Girls beret, where the symbolic diamond would usually be.
- Stacy Hirano wears a hairbow as well, albeit it makes her more feminine and mature-like.
- Postman Pat: Sarah Gilbertson, an innocent little girl, wore a pink bow on her head in Seasons 1 and 2. In Season 3, when her personality became more tomboyish and mouthy, her bow was removed.
- The Simpsons:
- Maggie, the baby of the Simpson family, wears a bow in her hair. Selma's adopted daughter Ling also wears a bow (later two bows).
- Jessica Lovejoy subverts this by wearing a headband with a bow on it, which adds to her deceptively cute appearance. To a lesser extent, Sherri and Terri also wear bow headbands and often make fun of people.