Everyone has one person that inspires them the most. The person who makes a huge difference in your life’s decisions and everything around it. Mostly, this person is your mother, sister, friend, or family member. My mother is the most important person in my life, her support is unconditional and selfless. A self-motivated person who acts like a spinal cord of the family. She literally has the whole family balancing on her two shoulders, I am sure all mothers are made up of titanium, the strongest metal of them all. If I say, my mother is the one who inspires me even today, it will be a cliche, isn’t it! But, then some cliches are hard facts of life.
But in this post, I am going beyond the real-life inspirations and venturing into the world of fiction, sharing with you the strong women roles that inspire me the most.
Strong Female Characters that Inspire me –
1. Meredith Grey (Grey’s Anatomy) played by Ellen Pompeo
Meredith Grey, the female protagonist of the long-running medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, is a strong, brave empowered woman who wants it all – a successful career as a surgeon, a name, a loving husband, and a family. She is a hardworking smart-ass, numb-wrecking braveheart all at the same time. Her character goes through resilient situations, where she portrays courage, and perseverance beautifully.
Meredith is a positive role model for many as she keeps it raw and real. A hard-core professional who is emotional and sentimental at the same time. She doesn’t mind playing dirty to achieve, but not brutally. She calls herself ‘dark and twisty’ but what inspires me is her honesty. She is unapologetic about her life choices and always ready to give them a try.
She is a mix of so many emotions, and that’s why I connect with this character. Women are like a bag mix of many shades, good or bad we own up to our actions and face the music when things go haywire.
Meredith Grey’s famous quote is, ‘adapt or die‘.
2. Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones) played by Sophie Turner
Sansa Stark is born to be a queen someday, an ignorant young girl who is well-protected and raised with traditions and has a natural opinion about life. She is shallow, naive, non-political, and a big dreamer. She chooses traditions, popular opinion, and the validation of others over her own judgments.
Life turns upside down and Sansa is lost in the cruel brutal warring world to fend for herself. She learns the art of survival, it’s her against the ever-conspiring world. Sansa responds to the challenges by taking baby steps in the power games. Her role portrays growth from a naive dreamy girl to a seasonal politician who never forgets and always delivers her revenge.
I truly loved this fictional character from GOT, there is no wrong or right way to find your path. Some are born to be leaders and others find a way around it. Sansa Stark faced the worst nightmares and learned a lot from life. She is a winner in the end.
Sansa Stark’s famous quote – ‘I am a slow learner it’s true, but I Learn‘.
3. Christina Yang (Grey’s Anatomy) played by Sandra Oh
Christina Yang is a shark! She is this super brilliant cardio geek who lives, breathes, and dreams of heart surgeries. She is unapologetic about being focused on her goal and there are absolutely zero deviations from that. Christina is competitive, stubborn, talented, and visionary.
You see, we find very few people in life who are focused, and many don’t accept the fact they are extremely focussed thinking it might hurt the general sentiment. Christina Yang is near-robot-like when it comes to her focus, but she is also very emotionally attached to her extremely small inner circle.
What inspires me in Christina Yang is her immense strength, she can operate for 20 hours in a stretch, is very ambitious, and strong pillar of strength for her people. She doesn’t care what others think about her, it’s her way of the highway. She never hides away from challenges and makes her own decisions, life has taught her to value her instincts the most, and she is unapologetic about it. That’s one aspect I absolutely admire in Dr. Yang.
Christina’s famous quote is – ‘be unstoppable‘.
4. Claire Underwood (House of Cards) played by Robin Wright
She is a woman on a mission! Claire Underwood is a power-hungry, manipulative, strong-headed woman who becomes the 47th President of the USA. She is absolutely ruthless when it comes to her ambition. A lone wolf who trusts no one and strongly believes in her own capabilities.
Claire is an intelligent woman who knows she can do a man’s job better in the oval office. She doesn’t mind using people to reach her goal and has shown a refreshing tale of women with ambitions. Nothing comes her way, she knows how to handle any given situation. She learned her art from keen observations and intelligence.
The idea of mentioning such a strong ‘ruthlessly power-hungry’ women role model here is that there is nothing wrong with being ambitious. We have seen men playing this game for generations, so much so, that their thirst for hunger has been generalized by society. But when women choose her ambition over everything, she suddenly becomes a villain.
I see that things are changing slowly and women are too accepted in the ‘male-centric’ world of power games, but we still have a long mile to cover.
Claire Underwood’s famous quote is – ‘The blood is on all over hands, and doing nothing is the same as pulling the trigger.’
5. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter Series) played by Emma Watson
She is an odd one out, but most honest and admirable person in the whole series. She is the glue that kept the story alive and on various occasions outshined the main protagonist. I truly love the strong build-up of Harmione’s character. Very real and no-nonsnse girl who puts in twice the efforts to outshine the nepotism of wizardry.
She stands against gender stereotypes, fight giants, does all sort of things ‘women’ aren’t supposed to in the magical school of Hogwarts. She is witty, smart, and inquisitive to learn.
Hermione stood for those who could not take their own stand, she was vocal against ‘lame-rules’ and often challenged the authority. She is everything I would like to see my own kid grow into.
Hermione’s famous quote is – ‘I mean, it’s sort of exciting, isn’t it, breaking the rules?‘
This blog post is part of the Women’s Day Blog Hop, themed on She: A Tribute to Her, hosted by Swarnali Nath
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40 Comments
Hey Dipika, such a nice feeling after reading your blog post. I also connect with characters I see in the series or movies and how they impact my life.
That’s exactly the same as how we develop a relationship with a literary character. Glad you like the idea, Geet
Wow I have read or watched none of the above mentioned by you. I should watch them now just to get the feel of the women in the stories.
You will love them, please try with Grey’s Anatomy. Thank you for stopping by.
Well analysed & strong characters, Dipika.
Characters in books and movies do have an impact on readers and viewers.
I agree that there is “nothing wrong with being ambitious”. Why should women be judged and considered as villain for being competitive and goal-oriented?
Thank you so much for stopping by, means a lot. Glad you like the idea and the post
I second that for Meredith Grey. Loved her role in Grey’s Anatomy. Dont you think, being a writer, our way of looking at things (even TV shows) and its interpretations has changed a lot? As if we have got an extra limb.
So true! We love them, hate them, think about them once we connect with these characters. They become part of our everyday life.
I have not seen anyone here except Hermione. But I am very glad that you picked a handful of characters who are role models for many. I really liked how you concluded the post with the quote. Thanks for joining the blog hop, means a lot. Much gratitude. 🤗
You must watch Grey’s Anatomy and House of Cards. Amazing series to get glued. Thank you, glad you like it.
First I liked the idea of blog post. I agree, we all get inspired from our mom, friend and other family members and writing about them sounds cliché, I feel that too. I loved the way you have picked some amazing female characters from famous series and shared your thoughts on why you liked them. Indeed, a unique post in bloghop. I loved it.
I am so glad you like it, Surbhi. Thank you
Oh boy!
You’ve listed all of the fictional women I love.
My favorite among them has to be Hermione Granger #PotterHeadForLife
I stopped watching Grey’s Anatomy after Christina Yang’s exit *hides face*
The way you’ve written about each of these characters reminded me of why I fell in love with them.
Thanks for the nostalgia ride and for reminding me to be inspired by them, as and when life throws curveballs at me.
Great tribute, Dipika.
Cheers!
So happy to read your feedback. It’s true we get inspired by the stories, fictional characters and their roles. I love watching the classics back and forth. Thank you for cheering me 😌
Sometimes cliches are indeed hard facts of life. I totally enjoyed this read, Deepika, as I too share the same sentiments about these fictional characters. I have not watched House of Cards, but your description of Claire makes me want to. Adding it to my list 🙂
Thank you so much, glad you like it.
Sansa Stark’s character arc was indeed amazing. Very much like a lot of women these days, who grew up accordingly to the rules of the society and decided to grow out of it! From Harry Potter, I like Hermione Granger but my favourite is Luna Lovegood for having been herself right from the start.
I loved her growth in the show so much, by the end of GOT I was a huge Sansa fan.
So true that we get inspired by fictional characters. I think quite a few young girls who would have been inspired by Hermoine to not be apologetic about being a nerd and great in studies. I think Christina Yang was one of my favourites too , and like Manali I too stopped watching Grey’s Anatomy after her exit!
Commanding list you have chosen, Deepika. We, women, should take inspiration from such personalities., even though they are fictional, their character is strong. You seem to be an avid TV viewer. Your choice is superb. Wish I could sit and watch such shows. I am watching only romcoms.
Amazingly strong women from the fictional world. Watched Grey’s anatomy and have loved the women characters but the way you wrote about them makes me see them in a new light. Very well brought out loved reading it. Nice take on women’s day
All mothers are made of strongest metal and the list of women characters that inspire you is awesome. Strong women portraying strong mothers are always a delight to watch.
Visual media has played a key role in shaping the thought process and movies are the greatest source of inspiration. I love to watch movies which portrays a strong woman character. You have compiled a great list here.
That’s so right! Thank you for stopping by.
I love Meredith Grey in Grey’s Anatomy. About the rest other characters, I just heard about them, but your post has given me the required enthu to go and watch those series. Thanks for that enticing report about all these inspiring characters. 😍
I quite agree with your choice of women role models. A lovely post for women’s day. Most would not consider Claire Underwood a role model but she is one of my favorites. Women are often vilified for being ambitious. On the contrary, a “shark” of a man is often a compliment.
Sometimes we are fortunate enough to find our role model in front of us but most often we fall back to the fictional world and they provide the much needed solace.
Beautiful
That’s so right! I like to take inspiration from the fictional world too. After all, fiction is nothing but a stretched arm of reality.
Tragically, I’m ashamed that I haven’t read quite a few of these. Like most here, Hermione is the one I’m most familiar with. Time to correct my error.
Hermione and Sansa are my favourites too! I loved this post Deepika where you have truly shown how the fictional characters affect our lives and the thought process!
when I started reading your blog I was hoping it be about your mother, but you surprised me with the list. That was a wonderful read.
I too wanted to write about mothers, but then aren’t they our souls are omnipresent in everything we do! They are the energy behind our fires.
You’ve chosen the perfect characters to portray what a woman can and must be; ambitious, sensitive, strong, independent, opinionated, knowledgeable and lots more. Hermione is my daughter’s favourite because she’s smarter than the boys and is so brave too!
This is such a lovely post. Whenever I watch any Hollywood movie or show, I always wonder how they portrayed the image of strong women. They can fight, they are jumping from plane, doing all the stunt like men. Bollywood movies should also show this kind of women instead of women crying for help.
You are so right! Indian women are often portrayed in helpless conditions or mere as objects.
Mothers are so special Dipika in fact a very first person to come in mind when the combo of woman and favorites(inspiring one) are given to write on. However I like the twist you have given to the theme by picking the powerful inspiring female characters from the famous dramas. At the same time I am sorry as among all the characters you mentioned above I am only known to the witty, smart, little peacemaker between Harry and Ron for many times the one and only Ms. Granger!
I don’t watch TV series but am familiar with some of the lead women mentioned in your post. Inspiration can come from anywhere. The society needs lead characters who are not afraid of gender based typecasting to create an open mindset.
I agree with you, inspiration can come from anywhere.
From the world of fiction, you brought these characters to life with your deep insights and analysis. I loved how you’ve mentioned their strong affinity to hold ground always and emerge victorious!!
Wow Deepika, I was reading your post with so much joy and was remembering all my favorite scenes from all the series you have mentioned. Your character analysis is also spot-on and I must say you have a keen eye to look at the positive side of every character.