Like Brenda on '90210,' Shannen Doherty was complex and era-defining.

In the pantheon of teenage characters, there was no one better suited to bring a twist to the childhood stage, when we’re eager to fit in and grow up, than Shannen Doherty. The actress, who died Saturday at age 53, was in her late teens when she took on the role of Brenda Walsh on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and her experience was similar to that of the character for which she is best known.

Brenda was a baby-faced Minnesota girl with a very attractive twin brother who moved with her family to the most famous and fashionable zip code in Los Angeles during her formative years in high school. Doherty was an immigrant from Memphis, Tennessee, who as a child was discovered while acting in a church play.

Doherty, as Brenda, spent countless hours keeping us company on television with an unforgettable, relatable portrayal of a teenager dealing with mixed emotions — insecurity, angst and rebellion among them. Her character was ambitious, determined to find her place among the Los Angeles elite. “I'm not going to miss Minneapolis. Nobody knows me here. I can be anyone; I can be anybody,” Brenda says when we first meet her in the “90210” pilot.

Brenda started out as a shy character, but she was determined to fit in the moment she set foot at West Beverly High. She quickly struck up a friendship with cool girls Kelly (Jennie Garth) and Donna (Tori Spelling), while also immediately developing a desire to copy their confidence and style. At one point, being one of the few brunettes in a sea of ​​blondes vying for a guy's attention, she attempts to lighten her hair, burning it in the process. But over time, the new girl became the it girl when she started dating the coolest guy in school, Dylan McKay (Luke Perry). She was also noted for ignoring her parents' advice and wishes and drew us in as she developed an interest in acting.

As the series progressed, she illustrated what it was like to be a complex figure not only on-screen (Brenda was a rarity among teenage female characters at the time), but off-screen as well. Hostility toward Doherty and her character even gave rise to a newsletter called “I Hate Brenda,” which published gossip and anger about the actress, becoming a flashpoint for how people perceived strong, misunderstood women.

You can hate her in one moment, like when she slapped Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) in drama class because she was jealous of Andrea's closeness to the teacher, on whom she had a crush. And then root for her in the next, like when she came to the defense of her friends at a sleepover after Kelly's cool-but-mean friend Amanda tried to belittle them. Or cry with her in another, like when she broke up with Dylan after a pregnancy scare, forever altering how we feel when we hear R.E.M.'s “Losing My Religion.”

Re-evaluating her character now, you can see that we had gotten her all wrong: She was just a young woman trying to figure out life, making immature mistakes and complaining, sometimes being annoying or mean in the process. Why hadn’t we given her more grace when she was betrayed by her best friend, who had hooked up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend while she was in Paris? “I thought you were my friends. I loved you. I trusted you two,” Brenda yells at them. “I hate you both! Don’t ever talk to me again.” While Brenda wasn’t perfect and her actions sometimes deserved criticism, she often deserved more understanding. The same could be said for Doherty as she navigated fame.

Created by Darren Star and backed by prolific TV producer Aaron Spelling, “Beverly Hills, 90210” was a must-see show that laid the groundwork for the teen drama genre. The show was revolutionary in its exploration of high school life, with its discussions of sex and social strata. It turned its mostly little-known cast into superstars who incited mall crowds. As they rose to fame, Doherty generated plenty of tabloid fodder: Headlines gushed about behind-the-scenes drama with her castmates, her reputation as a hard-partying girl and domestic disputes with her partners.

The show was an exciting, early hit for a rising Fox network, and it was '90s television at its finest. And like Brenda, Doherty It was one of the main reasons. That's why it's impossible to imagine “Beverly Hills, 90210” without Brenda Walsh. But along the way, Doherty and the “bad girl” persona that Brenda exemplified became intertwined, prompting her exit from the show after a rocky period. And again, re-evaluating it all with some distance, one wonders what could have gone wrong. Doherty.

Shannen Doherty in 2010. Love her or hate her, the actress and her character deserved more.

(Evan Agostini/Associated Press)

In 1994, after the show’s fourth season, the series was axed from the series. The final stretch was a rollercoaster ride that included her character’s return home after a brief stint at the University of Minnesota and rumors of a casting couch situation after she landed the lead role in a production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at the fictional University of California, where the characters were enrolled. When the show returned for its fifth season, Brenda’s absence was explained by saying she had moved to London to study acting. It was an unsatisfying conclusion for Doherty and a character who had so indelibly defined what it was like to be a teenager for a generation: Love her or hate her, she deserved more.

The fact that Doherty and Perry died at 50 — roughly the same age as many of their original “90210” fans — is a sobering reminder of the passage of time for a generation that feels too old to be young and too young to be old. But it’s comforting to know that they will live on forever as Brenda and Dylan, at least on screen and in our minds, heading to Baja against their parents’ orders and dancing the night away. That was the power of their performances.

Not every actor is lucky enough to have a single character that transcends the zeitgeist the way Doherty did. She leaves behind a legacy that includes not only Brenda, but at least two other era-defining roles in pop culture: Heather Duke in “Heathers” and Prue Halliwell in “Charmed.”

Bad girl or not, there's no denying how good that is.