So, I was listening to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from the Mulan soundtrack and it got me to thinking about all of the female characters, both in books and movies, that influenced me. I don't mean as role models (because let's be honest, characters don't always make the greatest role models. Just look at Juliet) but as a writer. This is my personal list. Emphasis added so no one gets in a huff about who I haven't included. Also, these have a few (vague) spoilers. You have been warned.
5. Mulan. First of all, she's a Disney princess who is not actually a princess. By the end of the movie, she's the hero of China. She was motivated by love of her father to join the army in his place, which is awesome and refreshing in that a lot of women seem to be motivated by romantic love. The downside, though, is that she spends most of the movie pretending to be a man and earns respect that way.
4. Hazel Grace from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. (I hope that is enough of a citation. If not, I apologize.) She has cancer but she's still funny and smart. Which I love, given that so much of the plot deals with death. John Green is amazing and I'd probably lose the ability to speak coherently if I ever met him. And then ask him why he is so good at making people cry.
3. Elsa, from Frozen. I know, I know, people need to shut up about Frozen. I'm not sorry. Elsa spends most of her life terrified that she is going to kill someone and then once she's free, she's able to take control of her powers and be herself. I can't get over what it must have been like to be her, growing up, afraid of touching anyone or anything. It must have been incredibly lonely and then to find freedom in being alone. But she's not a typical 'strong female character' in that she still needs Anna's help in fixing the winter. Talk about character development. Oh, and she's a queen for most of the movie.
2. Hermione, from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter books were the first real books that I read on my own. I even wrote my senior paper in high school on the theme of fate presented in them. But Hermione is smarter than Harry and Ron, which definitely made it easy for me to think of girls as smart. But she's also got a really big heart and doesn't sit by when the three of them get into fights.She's not perfect, which makes her human, which is the best thing that anyone (in my humble opinion) can say about any character. Love her.
1. Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. If you haven't read this book, get it and read it now. It is amazing. I don't even know where to begin with Liesel. She ages well in the book, she makes mistakes and learns from them, and feels like a best friend. Of course, given that The Book Thief is my favorite book, she might just be on this list because it is impossible to separate her from the rest of what I love about the story and the writing.
Now, I am not implying that I was not equally influenced by male characters, because I was. Maybe I'll write about them later. But all of my narrators and main characters have been female and I suspect they will continue to be. Not because I don't think guys are awesome but because I don't think I could accurately capture a guy's voice or how they interact with the world, seeing as I am a girl. But maybe one day.
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