Stephanie Tanner

Stephanie Judith Tanner, portrayed by Jodie Sweetin, was the middle child on the sitcom Full House. As the daughter of Danny Tanner, she was D.J.'s younger sister and Michelle's older sister.

Stephanie often struggled with being the middle child, and even tried to get married in one episode when she was six, figuring a husband would have to pay attention to her. ("Middle Age Crazy") She was the most excitable of the girls, a trait she inherited from her mom, and while she was kind of wild in seasons 6-8 - getting her ears pierced without permission, joyriding, etc. - she was still quite well behaved, and very hard on herself when she did mess up. She blamed herself a lot for just cutting off a lock of Jesse’s then long hair in "Cutting It Close," even before he broke his arms in a motorbike accident going to his hairdresser’s. When she backed Joey’s car into the kitchen ("Honey, I Broke the House"), she ran away, although once Jesse convinced her to return home and confess, she learned she’d be loved no matter what, a theme central to the show.

Stephanie was very athletic, as she is seen scaling the curtains in the room she shares with D.J. in the first episode, she pitches on a baseball team for two years, and she performs ballet so well she has the chance to go to New York to a special school one summer, though she declines because it takes too much time from everything else.

In the "Full House" books based on the series, that wild streak is not present in grades 6 and 7, the grades which overlap with seasons 7 and 8 of the TV series, but the character still has her trademark excitability and tendency to ramble, along with even a very occasional "how rude," her catchphrase from the early days of the show. The first "Full House" book independent of her was "Phone Call From A Flamingo, and featured what would be a recurring theme in many Stephanie books, as she battles a rival gang of snobby girls in Middle school. Other times, that excitability leads her to get into things way over her head, leading to comical results.

In books and TV, Stephanie is an excellent student, too; she could read at age 4, and is an accomplished storyteller and journalist, especially in the books, where she takes after D.J. just like Michelle in some ways. Stephanie also starred in a commercial while in Kindergarten. The character of Stephanie is the most outwardly developed, perhaps, of any of the main characters, which is logical, considering that the show was originally to be built around Jodie Sweetin; and still was at times in later years, even with the growing popularity of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Steph's catch phrase was "how rude!". Jodie played Steph from ages 5 thru 13.