Fierce Heroines: Inspiring Female Characters in Pop Culture

by Rosie Knight, Arielle Jovellanos (Illustrator)

Overview

This inclusive and diverse anthology gathers seventy-five empowering heroines — perfect for pop culture fans of all ages.

Whether it's anime, movies, video games, comics, books, or television series, pop culture is full of female characters that inspire and encourage us to be brave, kind, thoughtful, and powerful. With comic-book inspired illustrations, character profiles and origins, and fun facts throughout, Fierce Heroines is the ultimate feminist tribute to pop culture's most amazing female characters.


Now fans can learn about 75 diverse classic and contemporary heroines that are empowering girls and women all over the world like:

• Anime & Manga: San (Princess Mononoke), Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon), Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket), Bulma (Dragon Ball), Kagome Higurashi (InuYasha), and Ochako Uraraka (My Hero Academia)

• Cartoons: She-Ra (She-Ra and the Princess of Power), Susie Carmichael (Rugrats), Carmen Sandiego (Carmen Sandiego), Toph Beifong (Avatar: the Last Airbender), and Garnet (Steven Universe)

• Comics: Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl), Ripley (Lumberjanes), Goldie Vance (Goldie Vance), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Leah Dwyer (Jem and the Holograms), and Barbara Gordon (Birds of Prey)

• Movies: Hermoine (Harry Potter), Moana (Moana), Jesminder Bhamra (Bend It Like Beckham), Valkyrie (Thor: Ragnarok), Leia Organa (Star Wars), and Meg Murry (A Wrinkle in Time)

• Television: The 13th Doctor (Doctor Who), Andi Mack (Andi Mack), Eleven (Stranger Things), Mel, Maggie & Macy (Charmed), Becky Jackson (Glee), McKeyla, Adrienne, Bryden & Camryn (Project Mc²)

• Video Games: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII), Tracer (Overwatch), Zelda (The Legend of Zelda), Samus Aran (Metroid), and Mina (Battle Chef Brigade)

A perfect gift for girls, women, and fans of all kinds, Fierce Heroines is a powerful, inspirational reminder that anyone can be a heroine!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762496631
Publisher:	Running Press Book Publishers
Publication date:	09/02/2025
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 9.55(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Rosie Knight is a journalist and author from London who currently lives in Long Beach, CA. She grew up reading comics, writing poetry, and talking far too much about her passions. Luckily, she managed to translate that into a career and now spends her time writing about all the things she loves at outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, Nerdist, IGN, Slashfilm, Eisner-nominated Women Write About Comics, Eisner-winning PanelXPanel, Esquire, and Buzzfeed.

Arielle Jovellanos is a NY based freelance illustrator, writer, and comic artist. Her work has been featured in the Eisner & Harvey nominated anthology Fresh Romance and in magazines, comics, books, and branded social media campaigns. Recently, she drew a series of variant covers for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Giles mini-series by Joss Whedon & Erika Alexander, was a featured cover artist for the Adventure Time comic series, and finished a nine month art residency with Redbubble in San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

With 75 entries (and brief tributes to additional characters at the end), readers are sure to find someone they haven't heard of before. A fun work with strong reader appeal.—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2020-07-28
A collection of lovingly crafted entries to inspire and empower.

This compilation of artwork and character profiles serves as a celebration of fictional women. The profiles are split into sections dedicated to characters from anime and manga, cartoons, comics, movies, TV shows, and video games. Each two-page spread contains a gorgeous full-color illustration and a page of text that details the character’s interaction with gender roles, their admirable traits, and a brief, relatively spoiler-free summary of their plotline and character arc along with the names of their creators and first appearance. Racial and ethnic diversity is represented, with characters included who are Latinx, Black, Asian, Muslim, and Pacific Islander. A plus-size woman is shown, as are disabled characters. Queer characters represent a range of identities including transgender women; however, some queer characters, such as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman—who is bisexual—do not have their identities fully addressed. With 75 entries (and brief tributes to additional characters at the end), readers are sure to find someone they haven’t heard of before. Each entry is designed to invest readers in the character and entice them to seek out the works in which they appear. The format lends itself well to casual browsing while the short length of each profile makes the book ideal for those averse to longer reads.

A fun work with strong reader appeal. (Nonfiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews