What a Girl Wants: Superheroes!

Colleen Mondor has just posted her newest blog for What a Girl Wants. She asked:

Are girls missing out on something by not having a kick butt heroine to look up to? Is it all just testosterone for boys and girls don't need it? Should we find our heroes elsewhere? Am I wrong to pine for a world where girls can have a superhero birthday party with only female characters and everyone knows their names?

Here's my entry. Not a huge comic book fan, but I do enjoy the manga I've picked up, and you all know I love Heroes. :~)

Lorie Ann Grover: "I was not a comic book reader growing up. At the most, my mom would buy one for us before a summer road trip, and it was usually Archie, I guess. Which I didn't actually enjoy. As an adult, I don't even read newspaper comics.

So, I definitely didn't grow up with female superheroes, aside from Wonder Woman on TV. I despised her costume but thought it was cool that she was so tall. In some measure she gave me reassurance for my body type. I remember glimpses of Cat Woman, but something told me never to trust her. I still don't.

How interesting that there is a vacuum of female superheroes in teen lit. Every time I think I've thought of one, I realize that they don't truly have super powers. They are just super smart or strong. I'm thinking of Kiki Strike and Cammie of the Gallagher Girls series. It's almost as if this generation's superheroes wear urban fantasy masks: Aislinn from Wicked Lovely, Kaye in Ironside.

As a YA author and reader, I do get the same kind of reading enjoyment through fantasy characters that I get from male superheroes on screen. I will say it's a blast to have a true female superhero like Claire in Heroes!

I think we girls will always demand character depth and growth in our superheroes, Powers just aren't enough. But it can be done. So maybe Colleen is on the cusp of a trend that might start right here... "