She was first drawn by cartoonist Samm Schwartz, probably modeled after a prototype designed by Bill Vigoda for a 1948 Archie Comics story.

In Zoya Akhtar's 2024 Teen Rom-Com movie adaptation of The Archies, which goes by the same name, she is played by actress Aditi Saigal.

Earlier issues featuring Big Ethel show her bearing a strong resemblance to Jughead, also, with her prominent nose, dark hair, and angular build.

Although Ethel is usually portrayed as drab-looking and gawky, one story involving a makeover by Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge in an attempt to attract Jughead's attention revealed her to be quite curvy and pretty (albeit still with buck teeth).

In the later era, she has been portrayed as an average, decent-looking, somewhat likeable teen girl, whose infatuation for Jughead has been considerably toned down.

She and Dilton share mutual sympathy due to their few successes with romantic relationships, which is one of the reasons that they occasionally date.

It is later revealed that Hank was originally a pen pal of Ethel's, and she sent him a picture of Veronica instead of herself because of her low self-esteem.

[5] In another story, a merman (temporarily transformed into a teenage human boy) finds her enchanting due to her inner beauty, giving her self-esteem a huge boost.

She was given her own subplot in the series when she chose to leave Archie's team and join Babette and her henchmen, one of whom had a crush on Ethel and whose feelings were returned.

Babette explained that the ray gun was a device that can give the recipient mental powers and she planned on using it on herself after testing it on Ethel.

An early unnamed prototype for the Big Ethel character drawn by Bill Vigoda appeared in Archie Comics #30 (1948).

Except for her freckles she looks exactly like Ethel with black hair in pigtails, a buck toothed smile, and a tall skinny figure.

Ophelia was also tall, skinny and dark, but her hair was styled differently, her nose was much bigger, and she usually had no buck teeth.

[9] A separate and unrelated character named "Big Ethel" appeared in Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #95 (November 1963).