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Noelle
Nia is a girl in Craig’s class who ends up dating Aaron. She is of half-Jewish, half Chinese ancestry. Craig himself initially likes Nia but is too afraid to say so—he later admits to Nia how much he regrets being too shy to share his feelings with her. Although she hides it form Aaron, Nia herself deals with mental health struggles and takes anti-depressants. At one point, Nia breaks up with Aaron and surprises Craig by visiting him in the psychiatric hospital. She seems strangely attracted to the idea that Craig is unwell and that she may have played a role in his poor mental health. Craig ultimately rejects her, realizing that he was only ever attracted to a false idea of Nia he built up in his mind and ultimately deciding that it’s important to accept people as they are instead of idealizing them.
Nia Quotes in It’s Kind of a Funny Story
The It’s Kind of a Funny Story quotes below are all either spoken by Nia or refer to Nia. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 10 Quotes
I had a sudden urge to walk out over the trussing and lean over the water, to declare myself to the world. Once it came into my head, I couldn’t push it away.
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Chapter 14 Quotes
“He’s always talking about himself and his problems. Like you. You’re both self-centered. Only, you have a low opinion of yourself, so it’s tolerable. He has a really high opinion of himself. It’s a pain.”
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Chapter 28 Quotes
“You want my girl, dude. You’ve wanted her for like two years. You’re mad that you didn’t get her, and now you’ve decided to turn being mad into being depressed, and now you’re off somewhere, probably getting turned into somebody’s bitch, trying to play the pity card to get her to end up with you … And I call you as a friend to try and lighten your mood and you hit me with all of this crap? Who do you think you are?”
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Chapter 34 Quotes
“You don’t want any of your Anchors being members of the opposite sex you’re attracted to,” Dr. Minerva says. “Relationships change even more than people. It’s like two people changing. It’s exponentially more volatile. Especially two teenagers.”
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Chapter 39 Quotes
“You’re not like all these other people with their stupid little problems. You’re like, really screwed up.” She giggles. “In the good way. The way that gives experience.”
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Chapter 41 Quotes
“You were the one who suggested I do stuff from childhood,” I continue. “I used to do these when I was a kid, and I forgot how fun they were.”
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Chapter 50 Quotes
I’m not better, you know. The weight hasn’t left my head. I feel how easily I could fall back into it, lie down and not eat, waste my time and curse wasting my time, look at my homework and freak out and go and chill at Aaron’s, look at Nia and be jealous again, take the subway home and hope that it has an accident, go and get my bike and head to the Brooklyn Bridge. All of that is still there. The only thing is, it’s not an option now. It’s just… a possibility, like it’s a possibility that I could turn to dust in the next instant and be disseminated throughout the universe as an omniscient consciousness. It’s not a very likely possibility.
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Get the entire It’s Kind of a Funny Story LitChart as a printable PDF.
Nia Character Timeline in It’s Kind of a Funny Story
The timeline below shows where the character Nia appears in It’s Kind of a Funny Story. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...He’s at his friend Aaron’s house with his other friend Ronny and with Aaron’s girlfriend, Nia. Aaron offers Craig marijuana, but he passes. Craig seems zoned out, so Nia asks if...
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Chapter 8
...his parents. At Aaron’s house before the party, he teaches Craig how to smoke pot. Nia, a half-Chinese, half-Jewish girl in their class who is also headed to the same high...
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Craig, Aaron, and Nia play a version of Scrabble where they’re allowed to make up words. Craig like Nia...
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Chapter 9
Aaron and Nia talk on the couch at the party, then they start to make out. Craig and...
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Chapter 10
...still there playing PlayStation on Aaron’s couch. Aaron comes back, and Ronny teases her about Nia, who is asleep in the other room. Aaron persuades Craig and Ronny to go on...
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Chapter 11
...easy. He and Aaron keep hanging out, often with Ronny (who becomes their dealer) and Nia (who becomes Aaron’s girlfriend). When Craig starts at his new high school, however, homework begins...
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Chapter 13
...struggles with self-esteem. One day at a movie-watching session, when Aaron is out for coffee, Nia asks Craig if something’s wrong, and he admits that he’s been on anti-depressants. Nia says...
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Chapter 14
...couch. While he’s in Mom’s bed and she is out of the room, he calls Nia. She says she also sleeps in her mom’s bed sometimes, since her dad died when...
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Craig asks Nia if she always planned to hook up with Aaron at the party. She doesn’t want...
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Chapter 25
...he gets a chance on the phone and calls his voicemail. The first is from Nia, saying she’s worried about him after their last conversation. The second is from Aaron asking...
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Craig calls Sarah and asks for her to give him the numbers of Nia, Aaron, and his science teacher out of his cell phone. In the middle of the...
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Chapter 28
...if there are any girls in the psychiatric ward, and Ronny joins in too, while Nia tells them to stop.
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...but Aaron says people think it’s awesome. Craig gets angry and makes a reference to Nia taking anti-depressants, but she tells him to stop. That night, Craig can’t sleep, so he...
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Chapter 30
...Craig talks about how Aaron called, but Craig has decided he’s done with Aaron and Nia too. Monica says she’s seen Craig with Humble and Bobby and warns him not to...
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Chapter 33
...in school. He checks his voicemail and has one from Aaron apologizing and one from Nia’s friend Jenna, who is going through an experience similar to Craig’s and wants to hang...
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Chapter 38
...he’s out. Later, Craig is surprised to learn that he has a visitor and it’s Nia.
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Chapter 39
Nia is crying. She says that she and Aaron broke up shortly after Craig told Aaron...
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Chapter 40
Muqtada is away, which is rare. Nia notices that Craig is sweating. She says she’d let Craig kiss her, if he wanted....
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Just then Muqtada comes back and yells that children are having sex in his bed. Nia gets ready to go. Craig says he liked making out with her but doesn’t like...
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Chapter 41
...not about Craig, just boys in general, because she thinks they’re arrogant. Noelle asks about Nia and says she saw Craig and Nia making out earlier. Craig explains his history with...
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Chapter 45
...had a weird past few days. He admits he freaked out when he found out Nia was on anti-depressants because his parents take a lot of pills and he didn’t want...
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