About strong women

In the last year, I started to recognize that there is one key element that will likely determine whether or not I like a book, and it is the Strong Female Lead.

There are two types of Female Leads: those who make the changes, and those who wait for changes.

I admired the Strong Female Leads who could get through a bad situation on their own, and I was annoyed with the women who let work, men, life or other women destroy them (both in fiction and non-fiction).

And I didn't just feel this way about books; I looked for the same characteristics in the women I watched in movies and TV shows, and in real life. I realized I couldn't stand the women who just sit down and take the crap dished out to them, the women who have no fight in them and little ambition.

That's why I was annoyed for most of the beginning of Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It's a memoir about how she let her life fall apart after the death of her mother and then set out on an 1,100-mile hike of the Pacific Crest Trail to figure it out. She had basically given up — and I wanted to do the same with the book. But I wouldn't let myself, and I'm happy I didn't because by the end of the book, she had become an incredibly strong woman. It was her real-life journey from a fragile woman to a Strong Female Lead.

Now that I've figured it out, the way I select books has changed as much as the way I read them. That's why I finally joined the party and bought Tina Fey's Bossypants. I'm a huge Tina Fey fan, and it's easy to see she's the type of person who makes things happen for herself (she did create her own award-winning sitcom), which is why I wanted to read about her life from her perspective. It's a short, easy read and not what I expected, but it's funny and honest and definitely makes you think.

And I can't wait to read Amy Poehler's new book, Yes Please, which comes out tomorrow(!). Much like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler is hilarious and awesome, and she clearly doesn't let anyone or anything stand in the way of her own success. I'm excited to learn about Poehler from her own perspective.

(Image via Word and Film)