Caught up in the city life of sex and drugs, at the age of 15, her parents sent her to live with her conservative Christian grandmother Evelyn Ryan (whom she calls "Grams") in Capeside.

They often clash due to their differences but, as the series progresses, Grams softens her views and forms a strong bond with Jen.

Jen is introduced in the pilot episode as arriving from New York City to live with her grandmother in Capeside, after her parents realized just how out of control she was.

In the aftermath of her grandfather's death, Jen becomes depressed and dismayed when Dawson begins dating Joey.

She ends up striking up a friendship with Abby Morgan, a mean girl who everyone disliked, and they often drank and partied together, much to Grams' dismay.

They fell out for a short while when a sailor docked in Capeside who Abby was attracted to chose to date Jen instead.

She later re-befriended Abby who died shortly after from falling off a pier while drunk, which sends Jen into a depressive downward spiral.

Grams kicked Jen out of the house due to her behaviour so she briefly stayed with the Leerys before she attempted a reconciliation with her parents, but they again rejected her.

Jen later entered a purely sexual "friends with benefits" relationship with Pacey; both agreed that there will be no emotion involved whatsoever.

Jen and Henry break up, and she became closer with Jack which almost results in a drunken sexual encounter on the school ski trip.

One of Jen's old acquaintances from her days on the New York party scene, Drue Valentine, moved to Capeside to live with his mother, and brought an unhappy reminder of her past.

Instead, a depressed Andie took the drug, which mixed with her medication caused her to gain a high fever and end up in hospital.

This caused a massive rift between Jen and the rest of her friends, which was only healed after Andie told them that she was leaving for Italy.

The two grow closer as Jen encourages Dawson to attend grief councilling and consider moving to Boston.

During the gang's spring break trip to Florida, Jen finds Joey spending some quality time with her ex-boyfriend Charlie Todd.

At the end of the season, Jack relays to Jen that he has passed all of his classes, and the two friends prepare to take a vacation to Costa Rica.

In the two-part series finale, set in 2008, the gang learns of Jen's fatal heart condition, pulmonary congestion, after she faints during Gale Leery's third wedding.

Jen, now the single mother of a one-year-old daughter, Amy, ends up hospitalized and reveals to Jack, her best friend, that there is nothing to be done to save her.

[4][5] Many considered Jen's death a tragic ending to a character who was mistreated and underutilized during the entire series' run.

Vulture stated, "we're repeatedly told via slut-shaming dialogue that Jen is a seductress or a 'barracuda,' but she walks like she's been on horseback for three days, in concrete panties — and the writers never did quite figure out what to do with the character, sending Jen on a series of downward-spiral arcs that landed like wet toilet paper.

"[6] In Grazia's article "Dawson's Creek, Jen Lindley, And The Betrayal Of The Noughties Bad Girl", writer Guy Pewsey discusses the misogynist aspects of her story arc.

"[7] Williamson previously explained his reasoning for the conclusion of Jen's story arc as such: "she always felt like the outsider, the misfit.

[7] Lindley's character has been reassessed in recent years as "underappreciated" and received praise for her calling out of sexist tropes and her sex-positive views.

[5][8][9] Williams, who was a 16-year-old teenager when Dawson's Creek began production, had previously acted in films and TV sitcoms but had her first major role in the series.

[11] Williams received two nominations for the YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama TV Series.

[12] Williams commented on the experience of seeing fans' early distaste for the Jen character while she was a teenager at that time.

But now, I’m 37 and everything is fine.”[13] In 2018, Entertainment Weekly organized a Dawson's Creek reunion with the original cast to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series.

[14] For the occasion, Williams appeared on two covers of the magazine, one with Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek and Joshua Jackson, her fellow lead actors; and the other with Busy Philipps, her best friend whom she met on the set of the show.

[16] In 2019, during a Variety's Actors on Actors interview with Patricia Clarkson while promoting her first television work in years, Fosse/Verdon, Williams called her time on Dawson's Creek "an incredible learning experience” and “very formative," but also spoke about the grueling schedule, saying, "It was a very different kind of television.