personality!
personality-stuff
Dawn is a fairly typical teenager, with a slight misdirected rebellious streak due to feeling like she doesn't belong, and that her family doesn't pay enough attention to her.
She is very introspective, and as a result of this has been keeping journals since the age of seven (The Dawn Chronicles), or at least that's what the memories the monks created tell her. Some part of her still wonders if she's even "real" at all, and is still in shock over finding out that she is only a year and a half old in her human form.
She's sweet, cares about her family, and wants to protect her friends. She can be a little too enthusiastic about it, over-brave, (open mouth before filtering through brain!) and it sometimes gets her in danger. She tends to be stubborn, a little hurtful, slightly vengeful when she's feeling slighted, often manifests in kleptomaniacal behavior.
Generally a good kid, who seems to often feel lonely and is a bit needy. She's a little uncoordinated, and can say goofy things at times because she's socially nervous and really wants people to like her. She genuinely wants to be useful, and though she doesn't like being treated like a child or talked down to, part of her really longs for that kind of security. Despite her sporadic immaturity, she is very strong at her core, and will step up if need be. She is haunted by not knowing if her friends' efforts managed to resurrect her sister, and doubly so by her Buffy's last words before she sacrificed her life to save her.
"Dawn, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles... tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."
This is what spurs her on, despite the fact that she is not sure she is real or alive.
Despite getting herself into trouble on a semi-regular basis, (and having to be hauled out of it by her sister and the rest of the scoobies) she can still be very quick to trust people once she's over her initial suspicions. Also, she likes to eat odd things. Like banana enchiladas. ;)