Seeing a variety of female characters in movies and on TV can be an empowering feeling. It’s especially important for young girls who maybe don’t see female characters who look like themselves very often. I know that even at 18 years old, seeing Wonder Woman made me cry. On the days where maybe you don’t feel strong or powerful, these are the characters for you.
(Spoilers ahead!)
Miranda Bailey, Grey’s Anatomy
While the title character for Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith Grey, is a force to be reckoned with, the unsung hero of this medical drama is most certainly Miranda Bailey. We’re introduced to her in the pilot episode as the resident nicknamed “the Nazi” by other Seattle Grace Hospital staff. She is the toughest, the most no-nonsense, and the absolute best. However, through the course of the show, we’re shown that Miranda has had to work hard and fight tooth and nail for everything she’s ever gotten. We’re also shown that she cares deeply for her interns, and won’t let them get away with not doing their absolute best because she knows their potential and wants them to succeed. She’s a tough woman, but she’s not cruel. Miranda often gives the best advice when it’s most needed, even if it’s not what the person necessarily wants to hear. She cares for her patients personally and deeply. Miranda eventually gives her child the middle name of one of her interns, George O’Malley. During a mass shooting, Miranda attempts to save the life of one of her residents, and when her efforts fail, she holds his hand until the end and promises to talk to his mother for him. She is one of the characters that I most look up to.
Okoye, Marvel Cinematic Universe (Black Panther, Infinity War)
First appearing in Marvel Studio’s groundbreaking film Black Panther, Okoye is the General of the Dora Milaje, an all-female warrior group in the country of Wakanda. She is incredibly strong and skilled at fighting, and is sworn to defend the throne. Okoye stays by the king’s side through missions, interrogations, and battles, and is one of his most trusted subjects. Throughout the Black Panther film, Okoye and the Dora Milaje are forced to follow a new king after he technically won a fight with T’Challa, and Okoye follows her oath to protect the throne despite her personal loyalty to T’Challa. In one powerful and emotional scene, Okoye and her lover meet on opposite sides of the battlefield, and he asks her if she would kill him. She replies, “For Wakanda?” then raises her spear to his neck and says, “Without question.” It was a chilling moment that exuded strength. Okoye also appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, leading Wakandan armies to protect the last infinity stone against Thanos’ invading alien army. She is incredibly brave, charging Thanos on her own, the only non-Avenger to do so. She is a fantastic warrior and character.
Maggie Rhee, AMC’s The Walking Dead
Maggie is a survivor, through and through. She’s lived through the zombie plague, as well as losing her stepmother, step-siblings and cousin early on. She then survives the Governor, a sadistic leader who tortures her and eventually kills her father publicly. She survives an attack on the group’s home and the death of her sister, her last remaining family member. She was forced to watch as Negan, the psychopathic leader of another group, beat her husband Glenn to death while possibly amidst a miscarriage. Maggie continued to fight against Negan’s group while pregnant and eventually giving birth to Glenn’s child, who she names after her father. Throughout all that, Maggie remains a strong, tactical leader, challenging everyone who tries to keep her from the people she loves or whose actions threaten the safety of the group. Maggie manages to keep a level head in life-or-death situations and remain rebellious against her enemies. Her husband’s death was meant to break the group’s spirit, and instead, she let it fuel her to bring the whole enemy group to its knees.Ellie, The Last of Us
One of the main protagonists of the survival-horror video game The Last of Us, Ellie displays a sky-high level of courage well beyond her age of fourteen. She was bitten by an infected person, but failed to turn, providing hope that a cure could be reverse-engineered, if only she could be taken to a research lab far outside Boston’s safe walls. Ellie is smuggled out by the game’s other protagonist, Joel, who lost his daughter at the start of the infection’s outbreak. Ellie and Joel develop a loving adopted father-daughter relationship, taking care of each other as they travel farther and farther west in the hopes that Ellie’s mutation could cure them all. Ellie’s rampant attitude and stubbornness only aids her in her fights against robbers, infected, and gangs they encounter along the way. Ellie is also a lesbian, according to content revealed before the events of the first game and by the trailers for the second game.Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation
Leslie Knope is a bright, hardworking member of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department in Pawnee, Indiana. She loves working in the government and has dreamed of being a leader since she was a child. Leslie is a cheerful person and is beloved by even those who begrudgingly tolerate her love for hard work. She always has a smile on her face and does nice things for the people she loves, and always has something positive to say. Leslie loves her friends more than anything, and even is confronted at one point by her husband and best friend, who tell her she is just too thoughtful and sweet with her presents and that they just can’t keep up. She loves the people in her town and wants to do anything to improve their lives and well-being.Willowdean Dickson, Dumplin’
Willowdean Dickson is the star of the movie Dumplin’, one of the sweetest, down-to-earth movies I’d watched in a long, long time. Willowdean is the plus-size daughter of a beauty queen in a small, traditional Texas town. She constantly endures bullying or backhanded comments about her weight, and even the nickname “dumplin’” from her mother. She has a strong sense of self and a love of Dolly Parton, both thanks to her late aunt. Willowdean has a strong personality and refuses to compromise any part of herself. Even when she joins the town’s famous beauty pageant to agitate her mother, Willowdean doesn’t immediately try to starve herself or engage in any weight loss tactics. She simply comes as she is, and is only shown to be embarrassed when she doesn’t try to do well at pageant activities. She and her friends enlist the help of her late aunt’s drag queen friends for the pageant. The drag queens of Dumplin’ are the most supportive, loving characters and encourage all of the girls to love themselves and loudly, and even come to the pageant to support them. Willowdean is a sweet, loud-and-proud character that made me cry much more than once.
C.J. Cregg, The West Wing
CJ Cregg is the loyal, strategic White House press secretary for the Jed Barlett administration on The West Wing. She is a funny, professional woman who is a valued member of the White House staff. She works harder than anyone, never letting anyone bully her into giving away information or back her into a corner. She’s an expert at navigating the press and controlling the media. CJ is a beloved member of the Barlett team and especially by Jed Barlett himself, who values her ability to keep control of things on the home front. CJ handles a high-stress, high-stakes job and does it without fail. She is never talked down to or treated poorly by the male characters of the show, and they regularly acknowledge that she belongs on their level.Agent Melinda May, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Melinda May is one of the main characters on the show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a Marvel spin-off show focused on the team of Agent Phil Coulson (who supposedly died during the events of the first Avengers film). Melinda May is the strongest, most skilled fighter on the team, hands-down, and is devastating to nearly every enemy she goes up against. She becomes a mentor to the younger characters of the show, training them in combat and surveillance skills. She’s shown to be an immensely complicated character, having post-traumatic stress disorder from having to terminate a child using mutant abilities to harm people. She has incredibly instincts and is able to intimidate even those who are more powerful than herself. Melinda is incredibly loyal to Phil Coulson and the team, even during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where the Nazi organization Hydra was revealed to have infiltrated the U.S. government.Regina Mills, Once Upon A Time
Regina Mills (otherwise known as The Evil Queen from the Snow-White story) is one of the most interesting and powerful female characters that I know. Instead of being a one-dimensional villain for the heroes to defeat, Regina Mills is actually redeemed and becomes a heroine in Once Upon A Time. In the pilot episode, her curse sends all fairy-tale characters to the modern world, wiped of their memories. However, throughout the events of the show, Regina’s love for her adopted son, who pleads with her to renounce evil, eventually wins out against her desire for revenge. She is shown to have a constant battle with her desire to lash out versus her desire to earn her son’s love. It’s incredibly interesting to see a non-linear character change, especially as an alternative take on a classic storybook character.
Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel
While the Captain Marvel film does not hit the big screen until March 2019, Carol Danvers has been a Marvel comic character since 1968. Canonically, Captain Marvel is the strongest superhero in the entire Marvel Universe, also called “Marvel’s biggest female hero” and “the mightiest Avenger”. She has the powers of superhuman strength, speed, and endurance, and energy absorption and projection. She can fly six times the speed of sound. Carol was originally an officer and a pilot in the United States Air Force, before she was in an explosion with a Kree warrior. The explosion, instead of killing her, fused her DNA with the Kree’s, making her immensely powerful and a human-Kree hybrid. She is the first female character to headline a Marvel live-action film, and is already confirmed to be in Avengers: Endgame. Many believe she will be the deciding factor in the fight against the all-powerful Avengers villain Thanos.