(The original Jenny Everywhere illustration - Steven Wintle)
Now, I've been deliberately avoiding open-source characters for this series most of them don't have much beyond their premise, meaning my shallow, semi-comedic summaries would end up very bare-bones. However, since Jenny Everywhere Day is coming up this Sunday, I'll make an exception for our favourite Shifter.
So... where do we start? I suppose we have one paragraph already written for us:
The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.
Okay but who is she exactly? Well, Jenny Everywhere is usually a woman, usually either Asian or Native American, and usually wears at least a scarf and a pair of goggles. Personality-wise, she's usually quite upbeat and carefree. The reason for all these "usually"'s is because Jenny Everywhere exists in every universe with many different forms - which also serves as an easy excuse to take this character and make her into whatever you want.
Well, actually the Scarf and Goggles are also non-negotiable, you have to include those. Even if they're a nudist.
She gained the nickname "The Shifter" due to her ability to teleport (or shift) to different universes, or different parts of the same universe. With a premise like that, it's unsurprising how many of the writers and artists who use her are also Doctor Who nerds.
Through her use in various webcomics, short stories, and at least one short film, she also gained a large cast of supporting characters, like Laura Drake and Lord Grallyx, some of which were released under similar conditions to Jenny (though often they just make the character open source without the paragraph or credit being necessary). This includes a frankly obscene collection of similarly named characters with different premises, like Jenny Nowhere, Jenny Somewhere, Bunny Everyhare, Jimmy Wherever, Jenny Anywhere, Jenny Elsewhere, Karlie Somebody, Sophie Everytime, Jimmy Anytime, and Jenny Over-There (oh hey, that's my one!).
It's amusing to see Jenny Everywhere have such a long list of characters directly inspired by her, considering that Jenny herself was at least partially influenced by Octobriana (a very early example of an open source character who will definitely be covered here some other time because there's a story behind her).
With a character like this, it's difficult to track all their appearances, but thankfully I don't have to bother with that. If you want to find more stories featuring her, there's a very dedicated Jenny Everywhere Wiki where you can see just how much Jenny Everywhere stuff is out there. If you're looking for specific recommendations, Scott Sanford's much more coherent bio for the character lists a few starting points, so I'll also link to that below.
Finally, as I've alluded to earlier, Jenny Everywhere Day is coming up! Yes, Jenny Everywhere Day is on August 13th (aka this Sunday), meaning plenty of people will be sharing their Jenny Everywhere works, whether it be writing, art, comics, and maybe one day we'll get an interactive text adventure. The Tumblr will be linked below in case you want to give it a follow and see all the stories as they come up (including a story of my own).
https://jennyeverywhere.fandom.com/wiki/Jenny_Everywhere_Wiki
https://scott-sanford.dreamwidth.org/53923.html
https://www.jennyeverywhereday.com/