Thirteen Favorite Fictional Heroines:

1. Scarlett O’Hara – The Queen. She had it all: style, attitude and ambition. Yes, she loses points for holding on to her infatuation with Ashley Wilkes too long and losing Rhett, her real love. Gone With the Wind
2. Ashley Wilkes Stockingdale -The heroine of Kristen Billerbeck’s wonderful Christian chick lit novels. She is hip and loves Jesus. What more could you want in a heroine? What a Girl Wants: A Novel
3. Princess Daisy – I don’t know if all girls dreamed of being a princess when they were young, but I know I did and I love this book about an American woman who really is a princess and her struggles. I’ve read it over and over again.
4. Mia Thermopolis – Going along with the theme of the above entry, Mia finds out she’s a princess when she’s a teenager. I love this series of books, which are different from the movies (especially the second one) and I love Meg Cabot as a writer. The Princess Diaries
5. Heather Wells – another heroine created by Meg Cabot. She is an ex-pop star who leaves music when she isn’t allowed to record what she wants and after discovering her pop star boyfriend in a compromising position with another female teen sensation. She ends up working in a college dormitory (something I did for two years) and defending herself against charges that she’s “gotten fat.” Size 12 Is Not Fat: A Heather Wells Mystery
6. Kate Connor – heroine of Julie Kenner’s Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series. I mean, for a die-hard Buffy/Joss Whedon fan, how could you not love her just from reading the name of the series. Kate is dealing with a teenager, a preschooler, a husband who doesn’t know about her past and demons flying through her front window the day of a dinner party. Between helping her husband’s political career, dealing with her son’s spoiled playmates, and driving her daughter to the mall, how does she find time to thwart a demon plot to end the world? Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom
7. Wlhelmina Hunnewell Winthrop Ikehorn Orsini (Billy) – heroine of Scruples, another book I’ve read more than once. Yes, it’s not great literature, but it’s a fun book to read if you like stories about the rich, Hollywood, and how women triumph over adversity.
8. Sabrina Longworth – heroine of Deceptions, the story of adult identical twins who live very different lives. One is wealthy and owns an antique shop in London. The other is a suburban wife of a college professor who may or may not be sleeping with a student. On an annual trip together, they decide to switch places. Things, of course, get out of hand and it becomes interesting. I read this book back in college. I was home on a weekend or for a holiday, and while the rest of the family watched, probably, a football game on TV, I couldn’t put this book down. I remember my father talking to me and marveling how it must be a good book if I hadn’t stopped reading it all day. I’ve read it once since and actually read it out loud to my husband when we were first married.
9. Marge Simpson – yes, her husband is a buffoon and her kids are either headed for prison or the white house, but her house is immaculate and her husband loves her so deeply that even when women throw themselves at him (for whatever reason), he thinks about their first kiss and goes back to her. And she loves him unconditionally. Despite all the criticism of this show, I love it because in the end, the family loves each other and sticks together. The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
10. River Tam – She lives in her own world and appears crazy, but she is really, underneath, very perceptive and frankly, dangerous. What’s not to like? Serenity (Widescreen Edition)
11. Dexter’s Mom – She’s another one with an immaculate home, a loving, if weird, family and deep down, she has super powers. Dexter’s Laboratory – Greatest Adventures
12. Peggy Hill – Come on. She speaks “fluent” Spanish, in fact she is a substitute Spanish teacher (three time winner of the substitute teacher of the year award, thank you!) and worries about the Y2K bug bothering her Kaypro computer. She gets taken in by scams and thinks pretending to be a nun so she can get a teaching job is a great idea! Through this all, she believes she is a highly intelligent woman. My kind of gal! King of the Hill – The Complete First Season
13. Jennifer Marlow – WKRP’s receptionist and most highly paid employee. She wears fabulous clothes and dates rich men. There was time in my life when I wanted to be this woman. WKRP in Cincinnati – The Complete First Season