Karen Arnold is a main character from the original show The Wonder Years. She is the daughter of Jack and Norma Arnold, and the elder sister of Wayne and Kevin Arnold. She is also the wife of Michael, and the mother of a unnamed son. During her teenage years, she became the liberal "flower child" of the family who often got involved in peace protests with her friends and soon began adopting a hippie lifestyle by the late 1960s. This often caused her ideals to clash with those of her conservative father, which led her to often depend on her mother as a mediator between the two.
After graduating from high school in 1970, she soon moves in with her then-boyfriend Michael during her freshman year of college, which leads to another fallout with her father. The pair marry one year later and move to Alaska, where Michael has secured a good job by working on the Alaska Pipeline. By the end of the series, Karen ultimately accepts some of her parents' traditional viewpoints and has a baby son, while her husband learns to support his wife and new child.
She was portrayed in the show by Olivia d'Abo.