Dexter is very short, wears thick semi-circular glasses, and has curly orange hair. He is normally shown wearing black pants, a white zip up lab coat with a black button, purple gloves, and black boots. His skin is pale because he seldom goes outside, preferring his laboratory to normal childhood pursuits. He's not athletic in the least and often suffers the consequences of his physical limitations (victimized by bullies, clobbered in school gym activities such as dodgeball, many objects out of reach due to his short stature.) His initial design was rounder and cuter than his later design, created after his show was revived in 2001; that design was more graphic and stylized, and Dexter seemed much less childlike as a result.