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"But Nate hates me! ...And I hate him!"
―Gina on February 14, 2009
Screenshot 2022-03-28 6.38.37 AM

Gina Hemphill-Toms is one of Nate's classmates and one of his all-time rivals. Gina is P.S. 38's know-it-all and over-achiever and sometimes finds herself in academic competition with Nate's fellow over-achiever Francis. Nate and Gina despise each other with a fierce passion, viewing each other's personalities and work ethics as utter nonsense. Again, Nate is oblivious to the similarity between the both of them.

Early life[]

Gina's past is mostly unknown. According to her baby picture, taken when she was 14 months old, she was beautiful with blue eyes and a button nose. Nate said she was the "best-looking baby, by far," because he thought the photo was of Jenny. She has four older brothers who taught her hockey.

Her grandfather works at the best hospital in the state, won all kinds of doctoring rewards, and even has been on TV. He also has a second wife who looks forty years younger than him, probably because Gina Hemphill-Toms's grandmother died or divorced her grandfather.

Description[]

Physical appearance[]

Gina usually wears a pink shirt (but is sometimes shown wearing a bikini) and white shoes. She also has blonde hair in a ponytail, golden earrings, and stereotypical square glasses. She appears to be very slender, even though she has been proven not to do any sports. Despite her appearance being so similar to Jenny’s, no boys have taken much interest in her.

Gina.bikini


Screenshot 2018-05-03 at 5.52.34 PM

Personality and traits[]

"Think of the most annoying person you ever met. Then multiply that by about a billion."
―Nate, describing Gina[src]

From her first appearance, Gina was first seen giving a great presentation in Ms. Clark's class. Gina is most known for being a "know-it-all" student in P.S. 38. As thought by Nate, she is terrible, although Gina and Nate view each other's work as terrible. She considers Nate as a dork. Gina loves getting Nate in trouble or even in embarrassing situations. She also likes going up to Nate and making fun of him even when she sees him. Gina is also a very nerdy and highly devoted person. It is also implied that she is a suck-up, especially to Mrs. Godfrey, who is her favorite teacher. She has also stated that she would like to attend Harvard College, but can’t due to her having 7 detentions on her record.

Relationships[]

Nate Wright[]

Nate Wright and Gina Hemphill-Toms are complete opposites to each other. From the start, Gina was Nate's archenemy. For separate reasons, both were extremely annoyed with the other. Nate was annoyed by Gina's geekiness, obnoxious personality, perfectionism, and arrogance. Gina, in turn, was annoyed by Nate's arrogance, as well as his tendency to avoid schoolwork, being messy, and hatred for Mrs. Godfrey. People in P.S 38 sometimes think they should be in a relationship. However, Lincoln Pierce confirmed they will never be dating.

Big Nate dressed as Gina 3

Nate dressed up as Gina for Halloween in 2014, describing her as the "worst teacher suck-up of all time!" and thus a suitable "evil... super-villain". When Gina saw him dressed as her, she turned the tables by suggesting that Nate had done so out of envy for her many academic achievements and to mask his inadequacies, concluding with "That's sad. I pity you." She also brags a lot about her grade, and she loves cats.

Whiskers[]

In 2014, Gina got a dog whom she named Whiskers. At first, she wasn't happy that she got a dog because she wanted a cat, but over time, she got used to Whiskers, and it can be assumed that they now have a loving relationship together.

Francis Pope[]

Francis is shown to have a distaste for Gina. He and Gina have competed for the Outstanding Scholarship medal in a 2006 story arc, trying to outscore her by 12 points, but he outscored her by 11 points, and Gina said that she let him do that. He has been seen cooperatively working with her, though during a study session.

Teddy Ortiz[]

Teddy Ortiz thinks that Gina is a pain yet has a sense of humor when it comes to Gina punking Nate.

Annie[]

Gina became friends with this Jefferson student when P.S. 38 got colonized by mold, although at first, they were fighting because Annie got a 106 on a math test while Gina got jealous of her with only 105 points.

Chad Applewhite[]

In one instance, Gina had a crush on Chad Applewhite. After being rejected, she quickly returned to her normal self and moved on. Nate filmed a movie once and Chad was a hero when Gina was a villain, she tried to make moves with him but didn't get her way. In another more recent arc, Gina and Chad both ran for president. Chad would most likely have won, but Chad however told everyone to vote for Gina, most likely because Chad did not actually intend to become president, much to Nate's dismay.

Clara Godfrey[]

Gina is constantly sucking up, as described by Nate Wright, to Mrs. Godfrey, often to Nate's personal loss, as she is often telling Mrs. Godfrey of things that Nate was doing that were disruptive or insulting to her.

Trivia[]

  • She first appeared on March 27, 1997. Her first major appearance was February 15 to 18, 2000
  • Her ringtone is "Heartless" by Kanye West.
  • In Big Nate: On A Roll, she made it into the Math Olympiad along with Artur and Francis.
  • On the April 13–14, 2010 comic strips, her hair was brown instead of blonde: a coloring.
    Coloring error.
    mistake.
  • In Big Nate: On A Roll, Gina says that her math grade is the highest in the school.
  • Gina has four older brothers who taught her a few hockey moves.
  • She is the least likely person to get detention, even though she received detention before in Big Nate. She once got 5 detentions from Mrs. Godfrey because she forced Nate to be kind to her, and it backfired. Another time she got a detention from the librarian for being too loud.
  • Many people think that Gina and Nate secretly have feelings for each other, so Lincoln Peirce confirmed that they will never get in a relationship.
  • Gina got a dog for Christmas in 2014, named Whiskers, which angered Nate. In 2018, it is revealed that she had gotten another dog, who had wandered onto Nate's porch, to keep Whiskers company.
  • In recent strips, Gina's grandfather is a famous doctor, while her grandmother is deceased. Her grandfather remarries a woman decade younger than him.
  • In Epic Big Nate, Lincoln Peirce explains that he originally called Gina "Gina Hemphill", then "Gina Toms". In order not to confuse readers, he decided to permanently call her "Gina Hemphill-Toms".
  • She starred in one of Nate's movies in May 2016. At first, she refused to play the part of a super-villain, but Nate persuaded her when he announced that it would include "romantic tension" between her and Chad, who was playing the hero. In fact, in a scene where they were supposed to fight each other, Gina ended up hugging Chad dramatically.
  • During the Fact-Town Smackdown of 2014 she and Francis ended up in a draw due to the appearance of Peter Mason. Gina gets mad about this because Nate claims that Gina has lost to a First Grader.
  • She once said that she’s forgotten more useless information than Francis will ever know.
  • She is known to be the worst player in Nate's fleece ball team. She is likely to be bad in other sports as well except chess (chess is a sport, as shown in Big Nate: Flips Out).
  • Gina once got 5 detentions from Mrs. Godfrey for making Nate tie her shoelace, Nate got only 2. And afterwards she said, "I'll never make it to Harvard."
  • Gina.hot.jpeg
    Francis and Teddy like to tease Nate that he likes Gina when he argues.
  • She once audited something from Princeton.

Behind the scenes[]

Her last name is Hemphill-Toms because in one comic, Peirce made her name "Gina Hemphill", and in another, he made it "Gina Toms". After realizing this mistake, he put the two together to create "Gina Hemphill-Toms".

Gina being called "Gina Toms" on October 9, 2009 while announcing the winners of the Student Council election.

On the March 26th, 2021, comic strip, it seemed as if Gina's hair was pulled too close to her face.

Gina's hair getting pulled too close to her face.
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