Lilo is a teenager who has spent her whole life as a parent. As her mother and father are caught in a cycle of working long hours, coming home, recovering from work, and then going back to work, Lilo is left putting in time as a parent, sister, and role model to her two younger siblings. She even takes care of her parents when they come home from work. Lilo herself is fine with this responsibility, she understands the sacrifice her parents have to make in order to provide what they have. It’s only when she is separated from the stress of having to be a good student, a good athlete, sister, parent, that Lilo realizes she has lived her entire life in relation to other people. Her entire routine, from when she wakes up to when she eats, sleeps, and uses the bathroom, everything is built around her schedule. A tight schedule that fits everything she has to be to everyone else, but there’s never time for her to be herself.   

She wants to be free of control, social or personal. This need for freedom drives her personal quest. She wants to become a full person. Complete with favorite things. Favorite colors, music, food, she has a lot of time to make up.

Lilo is someone who tries hard to be everything to everyone. She is used to filling multiple roles at once and switching between them on a dime. Over the course of the series she will attempt to hone in on a personality, a self, that is her own. This will lead her down some existential roads. This is before she realizes that all physical forms are without intrinsic selves. She must define herself by what she does and her commitment to her friends, family, and all the people she’s helped along her journey are who she is. And she should be happy with that.