Pataki likes sports and hanging out with boys. She likes to call Arnold Football-head. She also seems to have a crush on Arnold, but tries to hide it because she's embarrassed about it: examples of such eps include The Little Pink Book, Helga's Parrot, and to a lesser extent, Arnold and Lila. In one of the show's most noteworthy eps, Helga on the Couch, she discussed this crush with the school psychiatrist (voiced by Kathy Baker), and in probably the most memorable scene of the series, she finally got around to telling Arnold about it in Hey Arnold!: The Movie.
Helga G. Pataki and Arnold have known each other since they were little kids (Helga on the Couch). They are middle-school children. Helga has blond hair (with unusually wide pigtails), large, circled eyes and large teeth. In addition, she only has one eyebrow, which goes over both of her eyes.
Back home, she has a very dysfunctional family: her father Big Bob (Maurice LaMarche), a beeper seller, does not care much for her as much as he does for her big sister Olga (Nika Frost), a straight A student and over-achiever (the Patakis have a room filled with her trophies), and her mother Miriam (Kath Soucie) is often making smoothies.
Helga usually wears a pink over-alls dress and a white shirt, along with a large bow on her hair. She was voiced by Francesca Marie Smith for the series' entire run.