Inspired by this post at Amy Lunderman's blog, I'm going to share with you my favorite heroines from some of my favorite books. These are the women and girls I grew up with, looked up to, admired, questioned, respected, and loved.
1. Nancy Drew from the Nancy Drew mysteries
Nancy has been around since 1930. My mother had a bunch of the original books, given to her by her mother, and gave them to me when I was in third grade. I like the original Nancy Drew, the badass young woman who drove a blue convertible, kept her boyfriend at arm's length, and solved all the mysteries on her own or with the help of Bess and George. I like her outspoken, willful, fearless, and determined. I also like the old, unedited versions of the original stories. Those are the copies I will be giving to my daughter. I did, however, like the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys super mysteries that were available in the late 1980s through the 1990s, but that was mostly because I shipped Frank Hardy and Nancy something fierce.
2. Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind
Scarlett is a selfish, self-centered, entitled, spoiled, bratty little bitch. And I love her. Gone With the Wind is my favorite romantic novel, and I try to re-read it every summer. Scarlett is my favorite character. Despite all of her flaws, she is determined, strong, a hard worker, and a fantastic role model. She's shrewd. She knows exactly what she wants. She's manipulative. She's willful. The part about her that I most identified with, however, is her inability to fit in. Scarlett tried to be a good southern belle, but she just wasn't cut out for it.
3. Tricia McMillan/Trillian Astra from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Is there any surprise that Douglas Adams' brilliant astrophysicist-turned-space traveler is on my list? She's just a little bit odd, wildly intelligent, and one of the only two humans left in the galaxy. She stands alone, beautifully, and does not need Arthur, or Zaphod, or any of the men in her life. I used to want to be like Trillian when I grew up. I considered even trying to make myself smart enough to be an astrophysicist, but I just didn't have the attention span for the textbooks I checked out of the library.
4. Bronwyn Lewis from How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadn't Called You Back?
I've posted about this book before. Bron is the quintessential teenager: sullen, sulky, having an identity crisis, and self-centered. But she's also brilliantly talented (with the piano and with cars), smart, and thoughtful. She makes a lot of mistakes along the way, but she owns up to them. In the end, though it does take a tragedy to shock her, she does the right thing. She grows up. She realizes how important family is. She finds herself.
5. Josephine Alibrandi from Looking For Alibrandi
Josephine is graceful and compassionate. She has her typical teenager moments, but she's a good girl, trying to do the right thing, and in the end, I think she succeeds. Her story is very much a "caught between two worlds" story. She shows compassion for her grandmother when the family secret is finally revealed, compassion for her friend when he kills himself, and compassion for herself. Her grace, especially when the secret is revealed and in the aftermath of her friend's suicide, and her grace in dealing with the "bad boy," are something I admired quite a bit.
6. Vicky Austin from The Austin Family Chronicles
My first experience with Vicky was in A Ring of Endless Light. Like most of Madeleine L'Engle's heroines, she has a quiet strength. She has her awkward adolescent moments, but she also has her family, and herself, and she knows that. I like the way she handled the boys after her, and I like the way she handled the death of the child. Vicky is thoughtful and intelligent, and she sorts through her feelings in a way that made a lot of sense to me.
7. Meg Murry from the Time Quartet and The Arm of the Starfish
Meg is really hard on herself, something I think most young women can identify with, but she--like Vicky--has a quiet strength. She's good at math, something unique for a female character in the 1960s and something I really admired. As I read through the Time books, and The Arm of the Starfish, I got to see her grow from the awkward teenager who was too critical of herself to a confident mother of seven. It was encouraging.
8. Polly O'Keefe from A House Like a Lotus, An Acceptable Time, and Dragons in the Waters
What can I say? Madeleine L'Engle wrote a fantastic heroine. Compared to Vicky and her mother, Meg, Polly is a modern young woman. She's feisty, self-conscious, compassionate, and determined. I liked Polly's strength of character. She's the oldest of seven children, so I think I identified with her oldest-child status. I was in awe of her language skills and how well-traveled she was. I think, of the three, Polly has the most self-confidence.
9. Jaina Solo from the Star Wars Expanded Universe books
I grew up with Jaina. I mean this quite seriously, as I started reading about her when I was about 12 and she was about 13, and now that she's in her mid-thirties, I'm still reading about her. She's the oldest of three, she's tough, she doesn't rely on her emotions as much as her logic and her skills, she has a bit of darkness in her. Jaina is probably my best friend from a book, as cheesy as that may sound.
10. Kristy Thomas from The Babysitter's Club series
The Babysitter's Club was Kristy's idea! She, like Jaina, is tough, resourceful, and practical. Kristy, actually, was my Jaina before I started reading the Star Wars books. She's business-minded and still a fantastic friend. Her moral compass is pretty much impeccable. She quietly dealt with her own pain, much as Jaina did. I would have liked to read more about Kristy as she grew up. What kind of adult did she turn into? I bet she ran a Fortune 500 company after she overachieved in college.
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