On Representation and Sexism in the Media

So I'm sure I can't be the only one who's noticed that in interviews with celebrities, whether on the red carpet or on a talk show, there's an extreme amount of sexism that is obvious from the questions asked by the reporters. Men tend to get the interesting questions- about their career and their experience, their inspirations and motivations, or deep questions about the character they're portraying. Turn the camera on an equally talented female, and half the interview is spent gushing over her outfit- "Where'd you buy your dress?" "How many pairs of shoes did you choose from?" -and if they have time at the end, they ask about their friends, hair, pregnancies, and other things equally irrelevant to the reason she's there on that red carpet. Not that asking them about their personal lives is a bad thing, but I'm sure they're just as eager to share their career experiences with the entire world as the men are. And honestly? All the clothing talk needs to go. If they want to share where they got that disgustingly expensive dress, then by all means, ask them, but it's beyond unfair that women aren't taken seriously as far as slightly deeper questions go.
This is something that really infuriates me. Time and time again, men and women's roles are painted in our media- the men are the talented ones, the trailblazers and innovators, the ones to watch for years to come. The women? Oh, you can watch for that fashion line she's bound to release based off of that gorgeous cerulean ensemble she's wearing. Forget that she's talented and well-thought of enough to be at the Emmys or the Grammys or whatever it is. Apparently the only people interesting enough to talk about their careers and deeper thoughts and experiences are males. Over half of the world's population is female, and there's no reason that it's fair or right to depict women as the airheads whose only valuable contribution to society is whatever they're wearing today. That's not just a wrong perspective, that's destructive and I'd go so far as to call it evil. Cause honestly, I don't think that's too much of an exaggeration. The idea that women are unimportant and uninteresting and only appreciated for their appearances and similar things is an absurd message that is harmful to everybody.

After all, Melissa McCarthy wasn't invited to the Emmys because of that purple dress she wore. And Hayden Panettiere wasn't called in to the red carpet to talk about her pregnancy. Both of these women(and the many others who have faced sexist questions on a very public scale throughout the years) are fabulous actresses, hard workers, and modern innovators, and that is why they were there. Though you couldn't tell that by listening to their interviews. I'm sure they're frustrated by that. I mean, wouldn't you be? They've accomplished great things and worked hard to get this far and the first thing the interviewer asks them to tell the whole world is where they got their shoes.

This trope appears just about everywhere in our media. Almost any interview with an actress or other female celebrity will involve questions about their clothes, hair, workout tips, etcetera. Take this interview with Scarlett Jonhansson and Robert Downey Jr.- he gets asked the really interesting, deep question about his character, and she gets asked about how she got in shape. This just goes to show how unfair and ridiculous all of this is, because I mean, not only is this sexist in the extreme, but it's a missed opportunity- both for her to share some of her insights gained from portraying this character and to spice up the interview. The Black Widow is an endlessly interesting and complex
character and the reporter could've asked her an equally intriguing question. And I mean, if you want to focus on the actors' physical traits, why not ask RDJ how he gets his hair to look so fabulous?

What it comes down to, I guess, is that our society needs to stop this ridiculous gender discrimination. People should be judged for their actions, the things they accomplish, and the way they present themselves, not for something they were born with. I hope someday we can get over this and start treating both men and women with equality and not assuming that an individual's potential is diminished or determined by something like gender.
--Oswin

"We're Such Nerds"- How It's No Longer "In" to Be Smart

Hey guys!
So today I'm going to deviate slightly from my usual theme and write something that is nothing like my other posts. As much as I love ranting about female representation in the media and dissing sexism and that sort of thing, I felt like this was a post that really needed to be written. And, well, here I am.

The idea for this post came a couple months ago when I was texting one of my close friends. We were in deep discussion about one of the things that consumes the majority of our time- homework. It wasn't one big pity party in which we complained about how much homework we had to do (I say that because that has happened plenty of times), but a rather animated conversation about new things we had learned. My friend got particularly excited to tell me about a new concept she had come across in math and I was telling her about an essay I had read in my American History course. After a good half-hour of carrying on in this manner, we agreed that we were total nerds.
That happened again a few weeks later. I spent hours with the same friend trying to identify a tree together via Facebook and we were thrilled a few days after when we finally figured it out. And again- "we're such nerds."
But that kinda got me thinking. Sure, we kind of are nerds, but why do we have to use that term in a self-deriding manner? What's wrong with being excited about new insights into common events in history? Is it a problem to be intrigued by a new concept that should be somewhat helpful in the future? Absolutely not. However, I think the main reason that we felt that we had to "apologize" for our enthusiasm for learning with a derogatory word like "nerd" is because I doubt society would agree with my above statements.

In a world of "can't even" and "lol" and "idk", could it be more obvious that we, as a society, have decided that it's not cool to be smart anymore? We feel the need to bring down our level of intelligence in a very public way with text talk and hashtags, and we pin labels like "nerd" on anyone who shows a genuine interest in being something more than that. I'm not saying you're an uneducated animal if you're into that stuff- I, for one, admit to being guilty to the more-than-occasional abbreviation and intentionally horrid grammar while on the internet -but it seems pretty ridiculous to me that we've adopted this tragically unintelligent way of communication as the norm. It's alright as a way of communication if it feels more convenient, but I see no reason why we feel like we have to paint ourselves as less intelligent to be "cool".

There's a spoken-word poem I really love written by Taylor Mali, a high-school English teacher who also decided to write really awesome poems like this one. It really conveys what I'm trying to say (probably more adequately than I can myself).
It describes the way we've fallen into this awful way of speaking, about how it's no longer the cool thing to sound like you know what you're saying. The whole poem mimics the infamous internet tone, making statements sound like questions and inserting unnecessary fillers such as "like" and "y'know".

The end of the poem challenges its listeners to speak with conviction- to "say what you believe in a manner which bespeaks the determination with which you believe it". We have all this ridiculous little abbreviations and slang words that we use to do the exact opposite of that (however inadvertently). If we happen to be some of those whose sense of wonder and enthusiasm for learning still remains through this universe filled with an overwhelming sense of unintelligence, then why shouldn't we wear that proudly? Why does "nerd" have to be a bad thing? Why do we have to apologize for what we know when our own knowledge only adds to the positive things we can contribute to the world?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that creating a culture where feel pressure and pressure others to act(and sometimes, consequently become) unintelligent seems counter-productive to creating a more enlightened society. And that starts with being proud of our nerdiness- not apologizing when we're so excited about FINALLY identifying that stupid tree, or getting a difficult math problem right. We shouldn't be embarrassed to be dedicated to our education, and shouldn't be ashamed of a precious love for learning. Why does nerd have to be an insult, anyway?
--Oswin

“Strong” Female Characters Vs Real Female Characters

The Black Widow near the end of The Avengers

This is a rant about people who try to make strong female characters, and succeed, but make them so stereotypical that they might as well just be unique and squeal when there’s anything remotely dangerous. One of the characters that bothers me is Marvel’s the Black Widow. I do like the Avengers, but the Black Widow is exactly what I’m talking about. She always has perfect hair and makeup, even after she’s been fighting, and she walks around in a tight fitting catsuit that’s unzipped just a little too far, being a perfect Mary Sue character. It always seems like she can do anything. She’s always making witty statements as she dramatically knocks someone out. She’s a character who can actually do something, but she’s really good at pretty much everything. It seems like every female character has to either be wimpy, or has to be able to do everything. Having long hair gets in the way if it isn’t tied back, and if her outfit is designed to be multipurpose, then shouldn’t it have a few pockets? Also, in every movie that she’s in, her hair changes, and it just doesn’t seem realistic that she has time to either straighten or curl her hair everyday, and even if she did, her hair would get messed up at the end. If you’ve been fighting aliens for hours, you’re not going to be pretty, you’re just going to need a shower and a hospital. The Black Widow, however, still has great hair and makeup, with only a small cut on her lip and a bit of blood on her forehead, and just a little bit of dust. I wish that people would just get over the fact that people, especially women, need to look nice all of the time, or be laughed at. Sure, it would be nice if you could come back from a day of hard work, whether it’s defending earth from aliens, or something more ordinary, and look perfect, but that’s just not going to happen.

Another character that I don’t like is Melinda May from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Melinda May is almost an exact copy of the Black Widow, but with a different back story, a slightly changed personality, and not as well known. However, she still is highly skilled in martial arts, can still win any evenly matched battle, and always looks perfect. In my opinion, Melinda May is worse than the Black Widow, because at least the Black Widow doesn’t wear heels, and never tried to put stitches in her own shoulder because she was tough.

Merida with a realistically dirty and torn dress

What my point is, is that all female characters seem to all be idealized, and something that no one could ever live up to. Maybe, if you trained for years, you could be good at martial arts while wearing high heels, but your hair just isn’t going to look good if you’ve been in combat, unless you put so much hair spray in it that it can’t move, which means you can’t dramatically peer out through a curtain of hair. A character that I do like, however, is Merida from Brave. I know, big surprise. In case you haven’t guessed yet, we really like Disney princesses. Merida actually has a personality, is sometimes selfish, and doesn’t always win every battle. She also can do things, and won’t just wait for a handsome prince to solve all of her problems either, and she doesn’t look perfect after she falls off of her horse. Her hair does still look the same before and after, but since it’s so curly, it’s still realistic. I really like it when characters aren’t either perfect or weak, whether it’s in their personality, their looks, or both. People need to stop making everyone seem perfect, and start making them real. It would probably make many more people happy, which would be good for business, so logically it makes more sense to have more realistic characters.

--Luna Lovegood

Unhealthy Food Allergy Stereotypes

Sorry this is late, I had my first ever AP exam this week, which I think went pretty well.  Anyway, this past week was Food Allergy Awareness Week, so I thought I'd cover food allergy stereotypes in the media with this post.

As a teen with  life threatening food allergies, the stereotypes about food allergies in the media deeply bother me, and I am on the receiving end of the negative side effects these stereotypes and portrayals create.

Allergies are complicated. Some people have very mild food allergies, some have life threatening ones where symptoms include projectile vomiting and throat swelling, while most have allergies everywhere in between. Food allergies are autoimmune disorders where your body's white blood cells attack food proteins instead of germs. There are so many things that take years of living with food allergies to understand and everything varies greatly for each individual with allergies. It's very hard on the people who are trying to help you. The stereotypes in the media just make it worse. The media portrays allergies as a weakness, and annoying habit, something funny to laugh at "Oh look, you're swelling up like a balloon and your throats closing because you ate a walnut. How hilarious!". Do I laugh at you for having cancer or alzheimer's? Of course not! Allergies are not a joke. They are not a preference or someone "just being picky." They are a medical condition

Whenever I see allergies portrayed in movies, TV shows or other media, it's always a negative portrayal. I have only once seen an allergy just be part of a character and not have a big deal made out of it (in The Help). Mostly I see food allergies laughed at. In Meet the Robinsons they make fun of a man having an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts.  In Sleepless in Seattle, one of the characters had food allergies, but they're shown as a weakness and a reason to not like the character which is absurd.

A peanut allergy being made fun of in Meet the Robinsons

It's rare to see any mention of allergies at all, and when they are mentioned you can be assured they are cast in a negative light. They are simply not taken seriously. Food allergies are a real challenge, but they're not a weakness in your character or something humourous. Some people don't know anyone with food allergies and so their only exposure to the concept of allergies are these stereotypes. This makes them treat allergies like a joke, which in turn can harm those with allergies. When you have food allergies, you sometimes have to rely on other people and it's incredibly hard for the people to "get it". Stereotypes make it harder still.

It's very annoying when the media shows a reality that doesn't exist, like they do with food allergies. You'd figure someone making that movie or that TV show has an allergy or knows someone with one -- surely they will speak up, and say "hey, this isn't what a food allergies are like." But no, the stereotypes continue.

Many people have food allergies today and they are gradually becoming much more common. As they do, I hope the media will start to portray them realistically and stop treating them like a joke. Allergies are not a laughing matter, and it's high time for the media to stop laughing and treat allergies like the serious medical condition that they are.

If you want to learn more about food allergies check out http://www.foodallergy.org/ They have some great resources.
-- Captain Sarah Jane

Of Cardboard Boxes and Unhealthy Expectations from Society

Hey there you lovely people from potentially over eight different countries! (Yep, that's right, eight. One of which I didn't know existed until I noticed that someone from that country had viewed this blog.)

I'm gonna tackle a rather broad but also complex issue here, and one that I could write a book on- sexism, and, more specifically, the sexist standards that society and the media have set up for women. (This is a rather lengthy rant. You've been warned.)

There are so many stereotypes about women in the media, but what I want to get at isn't so much the specific stereotypes within media so much as the stereotype- society's expectations and everything that we're expected to be, and how those expectations are sustained by the media. We have to be pretty enough, smart enough. We have to be gentle or aggressive or sexy or quiet or whatever it is society wants us to be. The worst part is, if we have any two things we aspire to be that- gasp -don't both fit inside of one of society's pretty little cardboard boxes, then people will be poking us with their pencils and shouting us down until we conform into one single mold.

And that idea that everyone has to fit into one particular mold is only helped along by the media. I mean, come on, when have you ever seen a character in mainstream media who instantly reminds you of a real person you know? Almost never, because we feel the need to be the same as everyone else. TV shows and such don't write themselves- they're written by people, and that's why the majority of characters in the media are so extremely unrealistic. We're all so insecure because we feel this need to be squished into a box, so the people who write the media portray that in their writing.

When have you seen a celebrity who's simply comfortable with being who they are in front of the world and doesn't feel the need to change or enhance who they are with plastic surgery and fancy clothing and false personalities? Never, right? That's because all of this surgery and makeup and fakeness is brought upon us (sometimes by ourselves) to make us conform to one mold.

I think we can all agree that this is an issue for everyone, but especially so for women and girls. It makes me so mad when a little girl who's still trying to learn who she is gets pushed around and manipulated so she'll grow up to be exactly what society thinks a woman should be. If your daughter prefers "boyish" colors like blue and green, then the alarm bells go off. Smother her with purple and pink, otherwise she won't grow up to be like "other" women. Even if she does fit some of society's requirements for a woman, she has to stay exactly within that little pinprick-sized center of balance. She can't be glamorous and be into sports and enjoy being active. She can't be a good student and a social butterfly.

Y'know, it's kind of like when women were forced to wear corsets way back when. Someone developed this twisted mental image that all women had to look a certain way, and forced this device upon society that forced all women to conform, even though it was uncomfortable and literally oppressing. Not only is that an example to prove my point, but it also fits as a perfect analogy over the entire issue.

I guess I'll end this with a quote from one of my favorite actresses, Alice Eve from Star Trek: Into Darkness. Some idiot interviewer asked her a stupid question and she gave a great answer.

So yeah, this is exactly what I've been trying to get to through this entire rant. There's a certain list of requirements that we have to stick to. Because we're women, we get judged if we do anything that doesn't live up to society's expectations of what a woman should be.

Anyway, it's a complex issue and I don't know how to resolve it for you guys or myself. I was fortunate enough to be raised by parents who taught me that I can be anything that I want to be, regardless of my gender, but I know that wasn't and isn't the case for so many. Basically, I just think that no one should be told what they can't or should do just because of something they were born with. I think it's fair to judge everyone based on their merit as a person and not by their gender, or to dig deeper, their race or their culture or their financial class. I think everyone should be allowed to pursue their passions and be what they want to, regardless of any physical aspects or things they can't help otherwise.

I know this isn't so much an issue in the media as it is an issue in the whole world, but it's definitely one that is displayed in and is made worse by the media.

Hope you liked this little rant, and I hope I've inspired you a bit with my own opinions.
~Oswin

Wake Up Call

Rose Tyler in "Rose"

Hey guys! This is my first post and, as my AP exams are fast approaching, I will devote this post to sleep - and more importantly, though certainly less pleasant - waking up.

Now, I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices this, but whenever I see a TV show or a movie, when a character wakes up they're a little ball of radiant sunshine with perfect makeup and hair. Occasionally, I'll see a character wake up like an actual human, like in Frozen and in season one of Doctor Who, but much more often I see characters waking up unrealistically. Don't get me wrong, I understand most TV shows and movies are supposed to be fiction. Still, sometimes it's nice to see some reality in the characters.

All of these images in the media suggest that girls should be wearing makeup to bed and that it's normal to look perfect waking up. But let's be honest, if you wore makeup to bed you'd get it all over your pillow! Girls don't have to look good every single moment of the day, and I wish the media would realize this. Viewers don't mind seeing real humans occasionally! It helps audiences to identify with the character. Anyway, no one's going to be watching you while you sleep(at least I hope so), and if there was someone you should call the police and have them drag the creeper off to jail(ahem, Bella).

Anna from Frozen looking like an actual human
waking up in the morning

So, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that characters don't have to be perfect. No one's perfect and that's okay. Imperfections in a character just make that character seem more real.  But the media often is telling us that it's not okay to be imperfect, not okay to look and act the way we are. This is a harmful message. And though, most people probably don't feel insecure about the way they wake up, these images do make us feel insecure about our imperfections, and that is not okay.

-- Captain Sarah Jane

You ____ Like a Girl!

One of the things that really bothers me is when someone says you do something like a girl as an insult. Not only is that insulting girls in general, but it's setting an impossibly high standard for boys, saying that they all

have to be better than every girl.

One of the books that made me really angry, and had multiple stereotypes in it is The Dragon's Tooth by N. D. Wilson. It's a good series, but the protagonist’s sister, Antigone, while being a strong character, is pretty stereotyped. Antigone hates martial arts, but likes learning languages, while Cyrus (the protagonist) is the opposite. They are also forced to live in a house that has no furniture, and ugly paint, and Antigone, of course, cares while Cyrus doesn't, but the thing that really got to me was in the second book, The Drowned Vault. They had a conversation where Cyrus had screamed because of a bunch of spiders, and Antigone was saying how high he was screaming. Cyrus then said that Antigone wouldn't have done better, and part of Antigone's reply was “...when I scream like a girl, at least I am, actually, a girl.”

It was really disappointing to me when I read that, because not only was someone implying that it was bad to do something like a girl, but a girl was saying that, and no one seemed to think about the fact that it's insulting to girls, and it ruined the whole series for me.

Along with that, in sports, if you tell someone, “you play like a girl”, it's an insult. If people grow up thinking that playing like a girl is a bad thing, then they really think that girls don't play as well as boys, and if a boy can't play better than a girl, then the boy is a bad player. If a boy believes that playing like a girl is a bad thing, and then he comes across a girl who can play better than him, he'll think he's not a good player, and maybe that's true, but more likely, he is good, and the girl is just better. Then the boy will just beat himself up about not being better, and you don't have to be better than everyone. On the other hand, if a girl is better than a boy, people will just think that the boy isn't very good, and no one will think about how good the girl actually is. Even if boys were usually better than girls, you shouldn't use that as an insult.

If people think it's insulting to have someone say they do something like a girl, then that really means that they think girls can't do things as well as boys. If people then think that a girl shouldn't be able to do something better than a boy, then they won't help girls to be as good as they can be, which will just reinforce the stereotypes. If people really think that women aren't as good at anything than men, then they won't hire women if they can hire men, and that's really no different than when everyone discriminated against African-American people.

On that happy note, I think that I'll end my post.

--Luna Lovegood

Expectation Vs Reality, and Our Definition of "Princess."

What it Really Means to Be a  Princess 

Now I promised myself I wouldn't rant, but once in a while I think it's necessary. I’m not here to hate just state.

The "new" Disney Princess line

We all have a different definition of “princess.” To some of us it’s royal and refined, to others it’s strong willed and ambitious. No matter how we define “princess,” we’ll always have a classic image of our favorite Disney princesses in our heads. Sometimes, change is good when it’s needed, not when it’s to change everyone’s viewpoint of what it means to be beautiful. The job of a Disney princess is to remind people that they’re beautiful in different ways, and that being a role model is about setting an example for others to look up to; and not being ‘”America’s Next Top model,” As much as a model can set an example for others, it’s not what life’s about. As you can see, all of the princesses have been completely redesigned and made over with brand new hairstyles and sex appeal. (not to mention about twice as much glitter) and may I ask why? Their looks and designs have been completely changed and they've taken out the fun, loving quirky side of the princesses, and added more glamour. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Disney princesses as much as the next girl, they’re a classic part of our childhoods; but do the independent, free spirited princesses like Merida, Mulan, and Pocahontas, etc, the ones we look up to, have to be completely made over.

Take Rapunzel for example, even though that one magic trait about her is her hair, that doesn't mean they need to include a hairbrush with every doll they sell. I mean, I love to brush a dolls hair like the next girl, but wasn't her hair the one thing that brought her down in

The newly redesigned Rapunzel compared to the original

the movie? Why don't they include a frying pan instead, to symbolize she's a strong, confident woman who can fight for herself? Speaking of her hair, why don't they have any dolls portraying her with her short hair? Are they suggesting that she's prettier with long flowing magic hair, and not with a short brown style? It makes me sad to think that not even Disney can accept her for her natural style, and only for something she just was only being used for.

The redesigned Merida compared to the original

The same thing is with Brave, instead of portraying the Merida doll as her real natural self, they have her wearing the dress she hates, they've tamed her unruly hair, shrank her waist, plastered on makeup, and added a more regal posture. It's as if they've pushed her towards the whole princess world she never wanted to be in and made her become everything that she hated, once again forcing everyone into that princess “stereotype controversy.”

The same is said for some of the other Disney princesses like Pocahontas, and Mulan, while some of the others have stuck to their classic glamorous design. Over the years, Disney has been the epitome of princesses, providing different colors, personalities, backgrounds, and upbringings. There are so many more different updates to Disney princesses; why do we have to choose one that presents such an unrealistic image to impressionable young girls?  Do they really need to believe that beauty is defined by impossibly smooth hair and a coy smile?  Disney is a huge influence over young girls, and it was a big thing for them to create a princess like Merida, a role model who isn’t afraid to fight for what she believes in. Disney princesses are the first definition of beauty that little girls are exposed to, and it’s one they can’t achieve. I don’t want to end on a low note, though. Maybe next time Disney does a makeover, they’ll think about expanding their horizons to a whole new definition of “princess.”

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I hope I didn’t rant too much. 

~ Governess Bob

3 Book Recommendations That Will Blow Your Mind

Hello there!
Oswin Oswald here. First post EVER. I should be totally honored, right?
I am. Which is why I am going to shower you readers with positive things instead of a lengthy rant.

So today I’m going to give you THREE AWESOME BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS.

But since this is a blog about tackling media issues, I am going to tackle a big one. Each of these books contains a positive female protagonist, a realistic one who isn't a breathing stereotype.

So now, my dear readers, without further ado, I present to you(in no particular order):

1. Nation, by Terry Pratchett

Nation starts back in the olden days. There's a pandemic going on in England that's wiped out the royal family, and almost all of the living heirs to the throne. One of the two still living is a 12-year-old girl named Daphne who's in the middle of the Southern-Pelagic ocean, traveling with a religious captain and his foul-mouthed sailors. The other living heir is her father, who's trying to find her after a natural disaster takes place.
So these two living heirs are nowhere to be found, which is a problem, because one of them has to set foot on English soil within a decent period of time after the monarch’s death. 
Meanwhile, on a Southern-Pelagic island, a boy named Mau is sailing back to his home island after having completed a coming-of-age ritual. He traveled to the Island of The Boys and is heading back home in his adorable little canoe when The Wave hits. (Read as: tsunami) 
He manages to stay alive because he's far enough away from the worst of it, but when he arrives at The Nation(his island), he finds that his entire island has been wiped out. And there's also something that wasn't there before- Daphne's ship. Yep.
Aaaaaand... let the story begin. Mau and Daphne can't understand each other, but they have to learn to because they're all the other's got. Nation is coming-of-age novel filled with humor, insights, incredible realizations and character growth, realistic and lovable characters and also pure awesomeness.
Daphne's the realistic, well-intending female protagonist. She's awkward, funny, practical, brave, but also very, very scared. She doesn't fit any one stereotype and reminds me of real people I've seen around me. All-in-all, it's a fabulous book that everyone should read.

2. Icefall, by Matthew J. Kirby

I haven't read this one in a while, but it's on my shelf and it's a fabulous read. It takes place in a time when vikings frolicked and somewhere near Greenland. Probably.
Solveig, a 13-14-something-year-old girl, is trapped with her siblings in an unbreakable ice fortress. She and her brother and sister(and a lot of restless soldiers) are anxiously waiting for news of their father(the king)'s victory at war. But as the seasons go on and the icy walls don't break, everyone begins to turn on each other. There's a traitor in their midst, someone who seeks to bring down the entire kingdom.
Solveig and her siblings struggle to survive the claustrophobia of being a prisoner of time, and also to find the traitor themselves before he or she gets restless and decides to end it right there.
Solveig is another utterly realistic character. She's scared but ultimately being brave in the end. She's kind but has her limits, and we see her reach them in the book. One of the main themes of this book is self-discovery, because Solveig, the over-looked middle child who isn't pretty like her sister and can't become a great warrior like her brother, feels like she just passes through her father's gaze. Through all the craziness of ice and traitors, she discovers her talent, finds out who she has the capacity to be.

3. The Worry Week, by Anne Lindbergh

This one's a little bit younger than the others, but a great read for everyone. I read it when I was ten or eleven and still love it.
Anyway, it's about a girl named Allegra and her two sisters who are visiting their family's vacation home in Maine when a family tragedy halts their vacation abruptly. Their parents have to go to a funeral and are going to dump their daughters off at their aunt's house in Boston. But they'd much rather stay on the island than at their aunt's house, so they come up with a plan to trick their parents and their aunt and stay at the island on their own.
It's a wonderful book about sisters and adventures and honesty and one of the main reasons I like it is because it's about a family working together and it's really just a lovely story. Oh yeah, and Allegra's awesome too because, again, she doesn't fit any stereotypes. She's smart, but makes mistakes and doesn't think everything through all the time. She's kind and patient with her sisters but gets exasperated with them like you'd expect. So really, if you just want a quick, fun read, this is your book.

Okay, that ended up being longer than I expected. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this post and will find a new favorite in one of these books(if you haven't read them already!).
--Oswin Oswald