When I was a kid, I couldn’t relate to those spacey Disney Princesses who communicate with forest critters and sleep through half of their own stories. No, my favorite was Belle of “Beauty and the Beast”. Belle had brown hair tucked into a ponytail, just like mine. She was one of the few Disney women who wasn’t saved by her swashbuckling hero. Plus, she spent more time lost within a book than socializing. Books were my primary main means of entertainment growing up; nobody I knew loved books the way I did. Once in high school, I tried to explain that the book I was reading was not for a class. My classmates looked at me like I was an alien and one girl announced that she was going to introduce me to television. Belle gave me hope that I wasn’t some sort of anomaly.

The books I’ve loved most—the ones I’ve read until the spine wore through and sit atop of my bookshelf within easy reach—have been the ones with those unique female characters who stood out from the crowd. Like Belle, there was something about them that confused their male peers. Astrid from Janet Fitch’s White Oleander surfed from foster home to foster home, trying to fit in but never quite getting it right. In Jose Saramago’s Blindness, the Doctor’s Wife is the only character who can see, a metaphor for individuality if there ever was one. She’s the leader of the ragtag group of the blind, facing conflict at every turn. And then we have my personal favorite literary heroine: Aliena of Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth. Despite her various hardships, including losing her position in life, she works her way up from a penniless wool seller to a major entrepreneur in a time when women weren’t respected in business. She’s the mastermind behind many of the novel’s plots and practices general badassery. Much of the nine hundred plus pages of reading Pillars consisted of me saying, “Damn, you’re awesome.” Those moments are my favorite parts of reading.

There’s no comparing characters like Elizabeth Bennett to newer, trendier characters like Bella Swann. They both may be infatuated with dark, mysterious strangers but Elizabeth has wit, strength, and loyalty — whereas the other has a bit of clumsiness and a boy. Don’t get me wrong, I too can get swept away in a good romantic storyline. For example, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, a love story that literally transcends time, is one of my most read books. However, I don’t want my female characters to lose themselves in it. Can’t a girl date the angsty, anti-hero with his handsome, broody face without turning into a dating zombie who’s only thought is “Boys…boys…?” I prefer a character who gets to be the hero of her own story.

There are plenty of young adult novels that feature badass girls, fighting evildoers all while fancying a cute boy. Books like Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games prove that there can be a balance between the guilty pleasure and the badass.

For me, a huge part of reading includes wish fulfillment. When I close my eyes and imagine that I am in the place of a character, I don’t want to be the princess who flips her hair with a vacant smile. I want to be the quick witted girl who formulates plans and kicks ass, figurative or literal. And it wouldn’t hurt if she reads too.