By Madeleine Lloyd-Jones
27th February 2025
Yesterday, shocking news broke of the death of actress Michelle Trachtenberg at age 39.
I’m a personal fan of Trachtenberg. Ice Princess is a childhood comfort film that still stands up today; 17 Again was a sleepover staple in my teens; and Gossip Girl will forever remain a firm cultural time stamp – but Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been my lifelong favourite show, and it’s there that I hold Michelle Trachtenberg’s work closest to my heart.
In the boldest move of the show’s run, Trachtenberg was hard launched in the season five premiere as Buffy’s younger sister, Dawn: suddenly materialised and seemingly unnoticed by any other characters. The entire arc of season five and the subsequent trajectory of the show as a whole would not have worked if the role of Dawn Summers had not been in the hands of an actress capable of holding that emotional weight so delicately.
I am a firm Dawn Summers defender. In fact, I’ve had an essay in my drafts on the exact topic since the creation of this site. She was annoying, she was loving, she was excitable, she was vulnerable, and she made plenty of mistakes. Dawn was exactly her design, a typical fourteen year old girl. One who was also dealing with living in the shadow of a superhero big sister and literally not being real. As Xander once put it so beautifully, Dawn Summers is extraordinary.
From Welcome to the Hellmouth, I had watched Buffy with my mum and my younger sister. I had already identified myself with Buffy Summers, and when the show gave her Dawn, it felt like a personal gift to me. A single mother with two daughters is rare on screen, and suddenly, my favourite show of years was mirroring my home life. To this day, I still smooth my little sister’s hair behind her ear the way Buffy does to Dawn. I’ll always immediately burst into tears at the first note of the score of The Gift. I’ve recently been pondering a small ‘key’ tattoo. When my partner and I first started dating, I told him that people watching Buffy for me was my love language. Him and I are currently mid way through season five, and introducing him to Dawn has felt like showing him the final part of myself.
Dawn was an exceptional addition to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Michelle Trachtenberg’s performance showcased her smart and sensitive ability as an actor to elevate the character beyond just being the Slayer’s sister, and she altered the dynamic of the core group in a way no other character introduction would have been able to, and developed Buffy as a singular character overnight. The chemistry between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michelle Trachtenberg was tangible, and they remained close in the years since Buffy, always referring to each other as sisters.
In the series finale Chosen, Dawn is now the same age Buffy was when she first arrived in Sunnydale. It’s a poignant parallel that I don’t feel is addressed often enough. Seeing Buffy defy all the odds that both growing up, and her destiny as a slayer has thrown at her, directly represented by her baby sister, standing by her side marking that growth, is so powerful. It’s fitting then, that it is Dawn who delivers the final line of the show, underscoring just how far Buffy herself, and indeed both sisters have come. Though Dawn may only be featured from season five onwards, I believe she is the exact representation of the show’s purpose. Inspired by Buffy Summers, any and every girl can be strong in every meaning of the word.
Michelle Trachtenberg showed a genuine love for her work that brought a real vibrancy to Dawn, and every character she played. Not one person in the industry has had a bad thing to say about her. In the past twenty four hours, costars and crew members alike have shared their love and respect for her. Her early death is a shockingly sad loss.
My most heartfelt sympathies are with the family and loved ones of Michelle Trachtenberg. I did not know her, but her role in my favourite show has meant more to me than I could fully attempt to articulate.
For that, I am grateful.
Rest in peace, Michelle.
the blueprint. 