I'm not afraid to fall; it means I've climbed up high.

So recently I actually was able to get my parents to sit down and watch The Golden Compass with me. I was surprised to find out how much my mom actually liked it. I believe it was when Lyra was crossing the ice bridge that she made the comment, "I think it's AWESOME that it's a little girl."

Which got me to thinking. I love the His Dark Materials series, and I've read each book innumerable times, but it never really struck me that the protagonist was female. As I dwelled on this a little more, I realized that there are many strong female leads in the book series. The witches, Mrs. Coulter, Mary, even Atal (who, while not human, is still a girl), and of course Lyra. She's quick-witted, brave, loving and incredibly loyal. In a world of Hannah Montanna and pregnancy pacts, where girls imitate the--let's face it--bitchiness on TV and idealize everything, I think we need a hero like Lyra to follow.

I was once again struck (though not by a smooth criminal, mind you) at how few books actually do feature heroines. Even when there is a girl in the lead, there's usually a guy to help her on the way. Dorothy may have been the hero in the Wizard of Oz, but it still took the help of three (four, if you count the Wizard and five if you count Toto) other guys to help her find her way home. Still, I rather like Dorothy. She didn't just sit back and let the guys do all the work. She helped them out first (getting the Scarecrow off a pole, oiling the Tin Man's joints), but keep in mind that the killings of both Wicked Witches was accidental. Anyway, it's a start. Go Dorothy!

Looking through my list of favorite books while writing this, I couldn't help but notice that the majority of my favorite books have girls as the main characters. More than that, they're kick-ass girls (although Briar was really my favorite from The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens books). I have read The Book Theif at least twenty times (this is not an overstatment), because I love the way it's written and because I love the main characther, Leisel. This girl has survived through so much, probably more in her fourteen years than I've experienced in my nineteen. Of course, living in Nazi Germany must have something to do with that. I won't say that she's always come out on top, because she hasn't by any means. But she was able to survive everything she had been through.

I'd like to see more books featuring girls like Lyra Silvertonuge, Francie Nolan, Kaye Fierch, Liesel Meminger, Sandry, Daja, Tris, Pocohantus and Mulan. I'd like to see less (a lot less, actually), of Bella Swans, Cinderellas and Snow Whites and any other girl who needs a man beside her to do anything.

I want so see women in fiction stand on their own two feet. I want to see women in real life do the same.