Anastasia "Ana" Rose Steeleis the female protagonist of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. She is the primary love interest of Christian Grey, with whom she finds true love.
Ana's biological father, Franklin A. Lambert, died from an accident during Marine combat training the day after her birth. Her mother's second husband, Ray Steele, is the man Ana considers her "real" father. Ray taught Ana several practical skills, including self-defense, gun safety, and using tools.Ana lived with her mother, Carla Wilks, in Las Vegas during her mother's third marriage to Stephen Morton. Ana eventually moved back to Montesano, WA to live with her stepfather Ray, on account of not getting along well with her mother's third husband.
Adult Life
At the start of the trilogy, Ana is a senior at Washington State University Vancouver, majoring in English Literature. She lives with her best friend, Kate Kavanagh.
She starts dating Christian Grey who owns SIP which is a publishing company.
Personality
Ana is shown to be a stubborn but shy and kind-hearted person. Ana loves books (particularly British Literature) and is studious, maintaining a 4.0 GPA in college. She tends to be highly insecure about her appearance and does not realize her natural beauty. She considers herself a "misfit" at the start of the trilogy, preferring to keep to herself. She is also a virgin before meeting Christian.
Appearance
Anastasia describes herself as a pale, brown-haired young woman with blue eyes too big for her face. Ana has a fresh, youthful face and innocent appeal. She is described by Christian as beautiful, very attractive, and alluring, but she is shown to be rather insecure about being slim, pale, and scruffy. She does not wear much makeup, if any at all, usually wears jeans, and only owns one skirt at the start of the series. She classifies herself as a "t-shirt and converse shoes" type of girl. Ana appears to have very little fashion sense as seen in the bonus material told from Christian's perspective; he is revolted by her mismatched clothes she wore for his interview. Because she is immensely shy, she blushes easily, which Christian finds alluring.
In the bonus material of Fifty Shades Freed, Christian notices her "haze" of long, dark chestnut-colored hair and her large, innocent, powder-blue eyes (in some instances, baby-blue colored). Ana has a small frame and a delicate profile, upturned nose, and soft full lips. She has flawless pale skin, a beautiful body with assets, and is slender and petite, as Christian towers over her, and she can easily curl up into his lap.
Fifty Shades of Grey Franchise
SPOILERS AHEAD
Fifty Shades of Grey
Upon her first meeting with the famous Christian Grey, Ana finds herself utterly attracted to him. She then begins to grow closer to him over time, but soon learns there is a darker side to Christian Grey. She learns that he has a double life; he is heavily involved with the Dominance and submission lifestyle in the privacy of his Escala penthouse and Ana is offered a shocking proposition from him. Christian wants her to become his next Submissive. He provides Ana with a contract that outlines her role as a submissive, his role as a dominant, rules and limits.
Anastasia is reluctant about entering such a dark and sexual world considering she has no experience with sex, but soon finds herself unable to refuse the offer. After getting a taste of just how painful Christian's proclivities could be, Ana finds herself in over her head and ends the relationship.
Fifty Shades Darker
After the disastrous end of her relationship with Christian, Ana is heartbroken by her decision to leave Christian. She claims that the pain of not being with him is worse than the physical pain that caused her to break up with him. Christian and Ana are unable to deny their feelings for each other, and the two reunite.
Ana begins working at Seattle Independent Publishing (SIP) as a personal assistant to Jack Hyde. Christian secretly purchases the company, much to Ana's chagrin. But when Jack sexually harasses and tries to assault Ana, Christian has him fired.
Christian, desperate to keep Ana in his life, wrestles with his inner demons, and Ana struggles to create a life that fits with that of Christan's without sacrificing her own identity.
During their time as a couple, Ana is stalked and threatened by Christian's former submisive Leila Williams. Leila, who was suffering a mental breakdown, was obsessed with finding out what Ana had that made Christian love her. Despite Christian's reassurances to the contrary, Ana is still insecure about not being able to meet Christian's sexual needs. Fearing their relationship is over because of how he acted around Lelia when she was found, seeing that he will always want control and cannot live without it. At this moment, Christian breaks down begging Ana to still be with him and never leave him again. He asks her to marry him, but she tells him that she needs to think about her answer. Ana realises she couldn't live without him and says yes through her birthday gift to Christian which he receives after showing up when everyone thought he was dead after his helicopter went missing on a day trip he was on. Shortly after, Christian, inside a flower covered room, properly asks Ana to marry him again which she says yes.
Fifty Shades Freed
Ana and Christian can no longer deny their feelings for one another and they soon marry. Having their honeymoon around Europe, returning home created problems when Ana refuses to change her surname at work to Grey. Ana is promoted to Editor at SIP and Christian intends to gift the publishing company to Ana as a wedding present.
Ana accidentally becomes pregnant with their first child, Theodore Raymond Grey, after she fails to take her birth control over a period of time. Christian walks out on Ana for the evening. Believing their marriage is nearly at its end, they argue about the baby. When Ana is contacted by Jack Hyde telling her that he had kidnapped Mia Grey and is holding her for ransom, Ana must lie to Christian that she doesn't love him anymore and that she is leaving him and taking five million dollars to start a new life. After he realizes that Ana wasn't leaving him and that she only lied to save Mia from death, he saves her and Mia from Jack Hyde and their relationship is stronger than ever.
In the Epilogue of the series, Ana is pregnant with their second child, Phoebe Grey. She has successfully taken over SIP and has increased its profitability by branching out into ebooks.
Film Adaptation
After months of rumors and speculation, EL James revealed on her twitter account on September 2, 2013 that Dakota Johnson would play Anastasia Steele in the film adaption of Fifty Shades of Grey. It is to be released on February 13, 2015.
