Calling all Kick-Ass Young Adult Heroines!
I took parts of this article from Tor.com by Natalie Zutter. You can read the full article here
Don’t be afraid to make her masculine.
One of the most fascinating questions was whether the ladies consider their characters intrinsically female, and what makes them so. “Aoife does have a lot of masculine traits for when the story’s set,” Kittredge admitted. “She’s good at math, she’s athletic… She’s actually socially awkward and doesn’t have very good manners. I think with her character traits, if Aoife had been a guy, she would’ve come off as a jerk. Her desire not to be pigeonholed and to go out and seek adventure outside of the roles she’s been told she has to play, is intrinsic to her character.”
Grin and bear it when it comes to hypersexualized heroes.
However, there’s a big difference between Chicks in Chain Mail and the scantily clad superheroes that NYCC attendees saw every day on the show floor. To this relevant question, Pierce answered, “I grind my teeth a lot, I speak against it. I’m not happy with it; I would be happier if people would do it less. I support independent comics.” (You can also push to make more respectable heroines in comics, like Pierce did when she worked on Marvel’s new White Tiger series in 2006.)
Don’t be afraid to make her masculine.
One of the most fascinating questions was whether the ladies consider their characters intrinsically female, and what makes them so. “Aoife does have a lot of masculine traits for when the story’s set,” Kittredge admitted. “She’s good at math, she’s athletic… She’s actually socially awkward and doesn’t have very good manners. I think with her character traits, if Aoife had been a guy, she would’ve come off as a jerk. Her desire not to be pigeonholed and to go out and seek adventure outside of the roles she’s been told she has to play, is intrinsic to her character.”
Grin and bear it when it comes to hypersexualized heroes.
However, there’s a big difference between Chicks in Chain Mail and the scantily clad superheroes that NYCC attendees saw every day on the show floor. To this relevant question, Pierce answered, “I grind my teeth a lot, I speak against it. I’m not happy with it; I would be happier if people would do it less. I support independent comics.” (You can also push to make more respectable heroines in comics, like Pierce did when she worked on Marvel’s new White Tiger series in 2006.)
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