Alex Russo

Alexandra Margarita "Alex" Russo is the main protagonist of the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, portrayed by Selena Gomez. The middle child and only female out of the three Russo siblings, she is sly, outgoing, and usually underachieves when it comes to regular high school. She often gets into trouble because of her constant schemes (usually involving magic). In 2008, AOL named her the twentieth greatest witch in television history.

Personality
Alex is, by ordinary standards of beauty, an extremely pretty girl with a self-proclaimed great fashion sense. She has her mother's wavy, dark brown hair and dark eyes, though she straightens it out in Season 2. She is petite and has a slim build. She usually wears her hair down but can be up in some episodes. She is very stylish, as well. Many boys are attracted to her because of her looks, as well as her personality. For most season 3 and 4 episodes, she wears knee-high boots. Alex is a bit of a tomboy. For example, in "Alex's Choice", she wore a pretty dress to Gigi's tea, along with a pair of leggings and sneakers, so that she doesn't look too girly. Also, in "Quinceañera", she didn't like the dress she was wearing, because she thought it was too pink and poofy.

Unlike her brother Justin, she is not overly studious nor is she an academically gifted student who performs well in school. Rather, she relies more on her street-smarts than academics. She's very manipulative, using everyone's weaknesses to her advantage (like exploiting her father's love for food so he allows her to go to SS Tipton marine school). One of her flaws is her own reliance on magic and her laziness, which often results in magical troubles, as well her lack of disregard for rules.

She has a tendency to be very lazy, when given the option of the easy way and the proper way she will pick the easy way every time without hesitation, getting her into trouble often, because the easy way always has consequences she doesn't bother to think about until they're upon her. She also hates reading, even menus and just points at the pictures of what she wants, this is so widely known about her that the entire school stopped and stared in shock when she as much as picked up a book. The only subject she takes seriously and actually likes is art, which she shows deep admiration for in "Art Teacher" and "Paint By Committee". Her special symbol is Peace Signs.

Alex is typically portrayed as a mischievous troublemaker. She is usually unintentionally mean and exercises mocking judgment towards others she isn't very familiar with, an example of a situation being the time Harper asked her why she shouted at the guitarist who once played his guitar in front of a restaurant, to which she responded scathingly with, "Singing about losing his girl? Oh wah, wah, he was playing guitar in front of a restaurant, no wonder she's gone!" Her parents describe her as someone who only cares about herself, and Justin describes her as a "snarky, apathetic slacker," and she caused lots of troubles during the first and second season and had her brother fix it most of the time, but in the third season she rarely causes any magical problems anymore, often being one of the ones who fix the problems in the end, though still keeps her reputation.

Despite her frequent unkindness and pranks, Alex is far from heartless. She deeply cares for Harper, going so far as to reveal her secret to her in "Harper Knows" out of guilt for lying, and loves Justin dearly despite their constant antagonism. Alex can also feel remorse and guilt for her actions and has apologized and taken responsibility for them, and often goes out of her way to set things right whenever her disregard for the consequences directly affect her friends and/or family. Though these instances are rare, Alex does occasionally use magic unselfishly or with good intentions, such as in "Taxi Dance", where she repairs Cab 804 to allow herself and her family to continue to cherish the memories of her birth.

She despises Justin's "nerdiness", though she's jealous at how smart, good, and generous Justin is. However, she always goes to Justin first to solve her magical mistakes. She also often make pranks at Justin and even Max. She uses Max's lack of common sense as an advantage to trick him.

As the series evolved, however, Alex has shown a softer side, and proved to not only be capable of being a "nerd", but also a good person and has a good heart, and feels guilty for her wrong decisions, choosing to do good when the whole world was covered in darkness, and refusing to leave Earth when it's doomed to destruction from a meteorite crashing down on Earth. However, she remains as lazy as ever.

Involvement in Dylan
Alex Russo is seen in one episode of Dylan. She is shown to be fearless but lazy. She accidentally exposes Wizardry to Dylan Troy, Daniel Wilson, Liz McGarry and Shari Mohr-Troy and in the end of the episode has their memories wiped to stay friends with them.

Trivia

 * She is indirectly mentioned by Dylan in High School Life.