50 influential fictional women in nerd history

Mia Thermopolis

I’m sure that every girl remembers the first time she watched The Princess Diaries. Now, it isn’t the greatest representation of what a girl needs to do to be “desirable,” Mia basically changes her entire being in order to be a princess, but her independence is what makes us love her.

Like who names a cat Fat Louie? She’s incredibly quirky and was one of the original quirky girls who remains as weird and fun in the sequel. Yes, I wish she didn’t have to change her hair and wear contacts to be a princess, but you take the good with the bad in a lot of cases.

Mia is a great character because while her appearance changes, her personality never does. She is still weird and fun and loves being around her friends. She actively wants to appease her grandmother but doesn’t want to change who she is as a person, and it was inspiring.

So often we’re told to look at things certain way and react to something differently, and Mia fights with that just like we all do growing up. She is a representation of something all girls go through (minus the whole princess thing), and it made us all feel like we could still be ourselves even as we were physically changing.