Katniss Everdeen -- And 5 Other Action Heroines... -

Katniss Everdeen – And 5 Other Action Heroines Who Are Leaning In

The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen is a feminist dream: she’s intrepid and tough, an independent leader who is as smart as she is skilled with a bow. As Catching Fire remains the box office champ for the second week running, 15-year-old Alex Kukoff from Thousand Oaks, CA decided to profile 5 other action heroines who leaned in. May the odds be ever in their favor.

Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games: “I volunteer as tribute!”

Eowyn, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: “I am no man.”

There isn’t a hobbit to be found in our favorite moment from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Instead, we have the shield maiden Eowyn, who sneaks into battle disguised in a man and comes face-to-face with the Witch King Angmar, a serious baddie who boasts “No man can kill me." Eowyn rips off her helmet and declares, "I am no man” and takes him down. The theater erupted in applause every time.

Jen Yu, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: “You want to know who I am? I am the Invincible Sword Goddess, armed with the Green Destiny that knows no equal!”

Jen Yu enters a bar full of hostile men, who mock her and ask her, “who do you think you are?” She lets them know, with a dazzling display of martial arts and grace, exactly who she is.

Buffy, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: “From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand up. Slayers, every one of us.”

Buffy and Willow hatch a plan so that there will no longer be a lone vampire slayer – instead, they call on every woman with the potential to be a slayer to become one. Rather than stand alone, Buffy finds the solidarity among women to lean in together. When Buffy asks at the end of her speech, “Are you ready to be strong?” we feel like slayers ourselves because our answer is yes.

Merida, Brave: “I am Merida, and I’ll be shooting for my own hand in marriage.”

With Brave, Pixar promised audiences a new kind of princess. And they delivered. Merida wants her freedom first and foremost, so when a host of suitors come to shoot for her hand in marriage, she grabs her bow and bests them all. Millions of kids will watch this film over and over again – and they’ll learn that this princess has more to do than wait for her prince to come.

Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman: “All women can do wonders if they’re put to the test."

We had to end with a classic. In the 1970s show, Nazi villain Fausta Grables abducts Wonder Woman and imprisons her in Germany. Wonder Woman’s boyfriend goes on a mission to rescue her but is captured himself – and it’s no surprise that Wonder Woman had already orchestrated her own escape. She returns to Germany to save her guy and to convince Fausta to abandon the Nazi cause. Her heroism reminds us that all women can be superhuman if we try.

Alexandra Kukoff is a 15-year-old writer from Thousand Oaks, CA. She simultaneously attends high school and college, working towards her Associates Degree in Women’s History. She is half-deaf and her work to help the deaf has been profiled by ABC, Cogito, and Knowledge@Wharton. Kukoff has written for Seventeen Magazine, Scholastic, The New York Times Learning Network, and Hearing Health Magazine.

Photos by Lions Gate, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures Classics, 20th Century, Disney/Pixar, and CBS

Hunger Games Lean In Movies Entertainment Film Girl Power Brave Katniss LOTR Disney Pixar Eowyn Wonder Woman Buffy BAMF