Petite and pretty Maya Gallo, a graduate of Stanford University, considers herself a serious journalist. After being fired from her last job and with no other job prospects, she settles for a position at her father’s magazine, Blush.

Maya strives to make Blush into a credible periodical--less about push-up bras and more about an honest appraisal of the fashion industry. In fact, Maya wins a Femmy award for excellence in women's magazine journalism. The piece that wins is an article about cleavage she wrote on the subway, that her father swapped in for a more serious piece she meant to submit. Understandably, she is furious when she is undermined as a journalist and a daughter. To further her frustration, she harbors jealous feelings regarding her father’s personal life. Jack marries one of her former classmates and has a child. She feels he pays much more attention to this child than he did to her growing up.

Though Maya has a series of boyfriends throughout the run of the show, she has an attraction to co-worker Eliot, Blush's photographer. When Finch plays a practical joke on the two, switching Elliott's birthday gifts so it appears Maya has not given him a video game console, but rather a promise of passion, it becomes a comedy of errors and the two discuss their feelings for one another. Elliot and Maya nearly marry at one point, but the rocky relationship never seems to heal.

Maya tries her hand at becoming a more artistic. In an episode, she participates in a photography workshop. Deemed talented and ready for the next step as an artist, her teacher assigns her to take nude self-portraits. After some hesitation, she asks Elliot if she can borrow his studio. A jealous Elliot agrees, but voices his concern that her teacher merely wants to see her naked. Maya strikes a deal with Elliot. If he thinks her photos show no artistic promise, she’ll quit the class. Yet, Elliot, in this instance, cannot tell a lie and encourages Maya. He says he does see an artistic eye that goes wholly unappreciated by her father and the staff at Blush.