Sharaletta Novella

[ScratchThat]

-General Stuff-

Name: Sharaletta Novella (Shar-a-let-a. 'Shar' sounds like beginning of Charlotte).
Nickname/Alias(es): Shar, Lottie, Shara, 'Scar' by some bullies during school.
Race: Earth pony
Gender: Female
Age: Young mare
Additional Status: She has a pet varied thrush (bird) called Raffa who usually hangs about her house. In her hair she usually has various ribbons of different colours, although they're usually a purple hue. As far as fame goes, she's fairly well known for being a professional hair stylist, who's styled many wealthy ponies hair in Canterlot in her time, despite her only being quite a young mare. Her shop in Canterlot is also highly regarded for being a good place to visit if you're going to attend some sort of fancy banquet or another such event, as the prices are affordable and all products made using natural sources.

-Physical Stuff-

Pelt Color: A light orange/brown colour.
Mane/Tail Color and Style: Her mane and tail consist of two colours, one being a light chocolate brown, and the other being a pale blonde. When it comes to style, it usually varies from day-to-day, as she is always styling it differently and braiding/tying it up in various ways. In the picture she has a messy braid/plait (only messy for style) in her mane, along with a biker braid with a purple ribbon running down the length of it. Her tail also has a braid tied into it.
Eye Color: A bright blue, rimmed by a paler blue shade.
Cutie Mark: A comb made out of a bird's feather. She admittedly doesn't have one of these, but she'd very much like to create one someday.
Other Scars/Markings: Sharaletta has numerous scars on the back of her legs due to an incident when she was younger. Her fur mostly covers these up now, but if you look closely some are still very much visible. For other markings, she also has some darker brown/red patches on her coat which are mostly around her legs, but she also has one on her forehead and neck.
Physique: Noticeably shorter than the average mare, but apart from this she's of average weight, and average in most other categories to do with physique. She often looks quite overdressed (her hair, anyway), but this is mostly because some stare at her because of her scars, so she may as well give them something else to look at.

-Social Stuff-

Current Residence: Shara was born in the suburbs of Canterlot, where she still lives today in a reasonably sized house which she shares with her thrush, Raffa. Although, she commutes everyday to the centre of Canterlot where her shop is. Despite her hailing from Canterlot, she's not particularly posh, and speaks quite normally with a noticeable (and natural) rasp.
Job: Professional hair stylist and hair dresser.
Mother: Harmony Spark
Father: Scriptscrap Novella
Sibling(s): None
Other Family: N/A
Closest Friends: None right this moment, as she's always fairly busy. ((Will update when needed.))
Courting/Courted By: None
Mate: None
Foal(s): None (Whilst she quite likes the idea of a foal in the future, right now she just doesn't think her lifestyle would be healthy for a child, as she commutes regularly and is only at home in the evenings unless she decides to take a day off).

-Personality Stuff-

Likes: Natural hair products are something she absolutely loves, uses, and sells in her shop. The only thing that can make these hair products better in her eyes is if they smell natural too, and she will usually hunt around for various flowers and plants which will provide a sweet scent to satisfy her customers. Along with this, she quite likes the attention she receives for her profession, as she's written articles in various fashion and hair styling magazines, giving tips and recommending products and such. Due to writing a fair few articles in said magazines, it's also given her a great interest in writing, and she has contemplated trying to become an author, but feels that she can't just simply throw her career away, so that's a dream at the back of her mind. Animals are also another love of hers, but she refrains from buying another because of how busy she is on working days.

Dislikes: Due to her love of animals, testing products such as hair products on them is seen as cruel in her eyes, and she's stressed in many of her articles that she simply doesn't think that it's right. She especially dislikes the testing of unnatural products on animals, however - especially if they have artificial ingredients in them that could be dangerous and potentially put the animal at risk. It's not just the fact that they're tested on animals that bothers her, however, as she generally dislikes unnatural hair products as a whole, and would always recommend naturally created ones rather than these to customers. Because of this belief, she doesn't stock anything unnatural in her shop. Other dislikes include ponies who do recommend these things, as many other ponies with similar careers to her have done. They're usually the ponies who're so caught up in fame that they no longer care what companies ask them to sell as long as they get money from it.

Motivation: To teach ponies how to properly care for their hair and suggest or create different hairstyles and products are what she lives for, although standing up for animal rights is another thing that she cares deeply about. Overall, her motivation would be running her shop, as it's her pride and her joy. Because of this, she may seem a little 'married to work', although she's aware of the importance of taking time out for herself and knows to get her good night's rest.

Strengths: Sharaletta is a humble mare who doesn't let fame or attention get to her head, and she'd never attempt to scam anypony for money by selling them something that could clearly damage their hair or just generally have an unhealthy effect on them. Because of this, she's an honest pony, who cares deeply for the wellbeing of others. Another strength of hers is advice giving - whether it's about hair or not - as she has a balanced view on most things, and would attempt to suggest the best solution to a certain situation. Another factor that contributes to this is the fact that she's an excellent listener, who'd probably prefer to listen to others rather than talk herself, but she's certainly capable of carrying a conversation. She tries to be as friendly as possible, but if you've rubbed her wrong, she'll probably just ignore you or avoid you, as she had to deal with bullies in the past, and it's seemingly left a mark on her.

Weaknesses/Flaws: Whilst she's not overly sensitive, due to her experiences during school, she's definitely got a rather fragile trait to her, and if you're openly unpleasant she will take offence to it and try to keep her distance from you. Prone to zoning out when something bores her, she has quite a wild imagination, which usually contributes to her new and creative ideas concerning hair designs and products, but also contributes to her missing certain parts of conversations. She's a good listener, all right, but only if something interests her or she's trying to help somepony else. As soon as a conversation takes a more boring turn she can find her thoughts taking over; her thoughts which are usually far more interesting than what somepony is saying to her. Other than this, time management is something that she fails absolutely with. In fact, it's due to this incapability of estimating how long something will take that contributes to her having to work from dawn to late afternoon.

Fears: Losing her title as one of Canterlot's major stylists is probably her biggest fear, although she'd hate to admit because she fears it sounds quite boastful and self-centered. Another is that ponies will eventually find her ideas about using only natural products stupid, which is usually associated with the fear of losing her name, as in her dreams, this is one of the main reasons for her downfall. Another is that Raffa will one day turn on her, like another bird did in the past. Although her love of animals is still strong as ever, the incident from her younger years left her much more cautious of animals - especially the wild and untamed - so she'll always try and get to grips with whether the animal is friendly or not before approaching.

Overall Persona: Sharaletta is a fairly friendly mare, who lives life by the rule of 'if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you'. Although, when somepony says something that she believes is out-of-line - even if it was a mere mistake - she will hold it against you for a while until she feels comfortable again, as it sometimes takes her a while to calm herself due to bullying at her school in the past. She's one to believe in 'I'll give you a second chance, but if you blow it then you're clearly not worth it'. Despite this, she's very concerned for the wellbeing of others; both physically and mentally. If somepony's having a bad day, no doubt Shar will be by their side, willing to listen if they're willing to speak. Afterwards, she'll offer the best advice that she can and wish whoever it is well. This same situation can pan out very differently, however, as if you're not in the mood to talk about it and tell her this in a perhaps 'rude' way, she'll probably think differently of you, and definitely try and avoid you. It's a little insecurity of hers, as she's forever afraid of getting hurt again.

Extremely honest, when giving advice about things, she'll openly express if she feels like you shouldn't have done something, but she'll do so in quite a polite, helpful way, saying something that'll help you to make the right decision next time or nudge you in the right direction. Because of her enthusiasm for helping others, some see her as fairly nosy, and maybe the kind to follow you around her shop, trying to get you to spill what's on your mind. Whilst helping others is something that she enjoys, she won't usually ask strangers if anything's wrong, as she understands entirely that ponies need their own space. It's actually usually them coming to her simply due to her friendly demeanour and willingness to listen, usually trying to strike up some small-talk when ponies come to the till to make purchases.

With friends, Shar will go beyond simple small-talk however, loving to strike up interesting conversations, whether it's about somepony's real life experiences or some novel they've read recently. She's quite an all-inclusive kind of mare, usually starting the conversation, but then letting other people talk for however long they want, just because she loves listening. Due to this, she doesn't judge others by what they look like, as she'd like to meet as many different ponies as possible. Studying other ponies is all quite fascinating to her, and it usually helps her come up with characters when writing ideas for stories and such. Overall, she's quite an easy pony to get along with, but properly getting to know her and becoming a close friend is quite difficult, especially because she's so busy during the daytime.

History/Background: Growing up in the suburbs of the capital city, Canterlot, you generally saw more nature than you would in the centre of the city, but still not much. Because of this lack, she'd usually venture out more into the countryside, finding plants, flowers, and all different kinds of animals. This interested her greatly. So, of course, when she was seven and found a phoenix - possibly the most beautiful creature she'd ever seen - with an injured wing, she approached it slowly, wanting to help it. The bird didn't want her help, however, and acted aggressively towards her. Without warning, he lurched at the young filly, clawing at her legs with his sharp talons. She ran away quickly, although the wounds were quite deep. After this, she's always been more wary of wild animals, so she looks them over for a while, trying to judge how they may react to her approaching, or what kind of mood they're in.

Because of said scars, she got teased excessively by other foals at school, who mockingly called her 'Scar' because all her close friends called her 'Shar'. For a while, she believed simply laughing along with them and being overly nice to them would get them to stop, but it didn't, and she wasn't stupid. This is when she started living by the rule 'I'm nice to you if you're nice to me'. After these two events, it made her wary of both animals and other ponies, although her mother helped her through, telling Shar to express her feelings so she could offer her help. This lead Shar to want to be just like her mother, helping others and offering advice no matter what kind of scars they may have.

As well as her change in how she judged others, she began wearing her hair in various styles much more, as her hair was always extremely thick and long, so tying it up was the only way to maintain it. She did this mostly because people were already looking at her scars, so why not give them something else to stare at, too? In a sense, she's quite a tough mare, and coped with this, although it has left her as quite a hard mare to get close to. She'll help others freely, but she doesn't let others help her nearly as easily, as she doesn't feel as though she can trust people until she properly gets to know them, which takes quite a while due to her being cautious with who she chooses to befriend. 

[CableZ]

Well made character, well thought out. Good personality.