They don’t really add much, but here are the descriptions for the new characters TeenNick released (as well as links to the new cast on twitter). I don’t know if anyone noticed this, but with the addition of the new characters a solid 1/3 of the cast is made up of minorities.
Lola Pacini (Amanda Acuri: https://twitter.com/amandaaarcuri)
Grade 9 – Bubbly and excitable, Lola is a boy-crazy cheerleader with colorful hair and a vibrant personality that is hard to miss in the halls of Degrassi. Lola’s closest friends are Shay and Frankie.
Shaylynn “Shay” Powers (Reiya Downs: https://twitter.com/reiyadowns)
Grade 9 – Shay loves playing sports and is determined to be the best athlete. She aims high in school and her standards also extend to boys. There is only one guy she has eyes for, but Shay may have a rude awakening when she realizes that she can’t always get what she wants.
Arelene Takahashi (Devyn Nekoda: https://twitter.com/devyn_nekoda12)
Grade 9 – Arlene is a quintessential nerd that is sometimes tucked away at Degrassi wearing elf ears and reading comics. Often picked on by the cheerleaders, she is the antithesis of Zoë and Lola and she’s fine with it.
Jonah Haak (Ehren Kassam: https://twitter.com/EhrenKassam)
Grade 11 – After getting into some bad situations, Jonah has seen the light and he’s ready to make some friends who share his strong faith at Degrassi. He gave up all his vices, but he’s kept the rock ‘n’ roll.
Kary's Degrassi Blog 
Awesome! :) I hope Keisha’s still in it though (and Damon)
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I’m sorry to break this to you but Keisha’s been blackholed and won’t be showing up anymore. Damon, I’m pretty sure he’s been too.
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I’m really looking forward to Arlene
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i really liked damon. i hope they bring him back atleast recurring
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Hopefully Shay won’t be pigeonholed as a sidekick or have storylines that should be told from her perspective told from another character’s like the other black female characters before her. The description is promising though.
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Lol I was about to say, you do realize Shay has received FAR more pub about her character than Hazel and Chantay ever did combined? And it’s especially promising given that she’s a brand new character. A small part of me initially thought Degrassi remembers Andrea Lewis’ blog post and they’re looking to prove her wrong, so to speak.
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Judging from her description, she shares a few similarities with Liberty, only she’s an athletic overachiever instead of an academic one. Her having eyes for one guy reminds me of Liberty’s pursuit of JT. Since Liberty was the only developed black female character, I see this as a good sign.
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I wish that Jonah’s strong faith was Judaism, because the last Jewish character was Toby, but I’m 99.9% sure he’s another Christian.
Speaking of Toby, it’s refreshing that for once a female character is his type of nerd. Usually, the female nerds are academically oriented, while the male nerds are more into sci-fi, anime, comics, fantasy, gaming, etc. Now we just need a male academically oriented nerd.
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I think that Jonah character will be interesting and he might be Maya love interest
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The fact that the description for Arlene mentions elf ears makes me think she will end up dating Hunter. He’s into fantasy games and she is into comics and nerdy stuff so they seem like a good match plus I think he’ll be in grade 10 now (maybe?) so the age difference wouldn’t be weird.
Jonah is in grade 11 with a strong faith and to me that screams Becky. So I assume she will end up with Him at some point.
I honestly don’t know what is up with Clare. Is it possible for the baby to be Eli’s? Did they do anything when she stayed with him? Or is she just deciding who to be with? Her choice doesn’t make much sense to me since she will eventually have to tell both guys and they may not react well. This is where I’m hoping Drew will shine because he has been around Dallas and his son and he does the summer program thing with kids so maybe daddy duty would be good for him. Although I do think Eli and Clare connected well when she stayed with him so I’m conflicted. Either way everyone is saying she will lose the baby.
I have no interest yet in Lola. None.
Who is Shay interested in that she can’t have? Other than that question I don’t care about her character yet either.
Also, the promo where you see Miles’ dad asking about a boyfriend, is that conversation definitely between Miles and his dad? I got the impression it was between Frankie and her dad but was just cut to look like it was about Miles. I’m probably way off since I’m not sure how Frankie having a bf would be ridiculous.
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