Protagonist and point-of-view character Shirin is a 16-year-old Muslim girl. Her parents, immigrants to America from Iran, are Persian; Shirin was born in America. Her parents speak Farsi and English. Shirin relates early in the story that her Iranian cousins say she speaks “mediocre Farsi with an American accent” (4), and she insists in strong language to her Honors English teacher that her English, her first language, is “perfect.” Shirin lives with her parents and older brother Navid. Her parents make frequent moves to new and better jobs and homes; for Shirin, this means uprooting and resettling in new towns and new schools often. One of the moves included living in Iran for under a year when she was eight.

Shirin likes music and listens often to her iPod via headphones she wears beneath her headscarf. She appreciates the traditional and homemade Persian food her mother prepares and mentions how important daily family meals are to her parents. She is a strong student but voices a disregard for her studies, claiming she does not much care about assignments or SATs; this limits her stress and supplies time for writing in her diary, an activity and object she treasures and safeguards.