I remember when I was growing up, the only superheroes I knew where people like spiderman, superman, and batman. They all had similar features, despite their different stories, personalities, and whatnot, they were all men, all white, and had nothing in common with me. It wasn’t until I finally watched mulan when I was like seven years old, where I finally found a character that I could look up to and in some ways, relate to. She was smart, strong, and beautiful, although she isn’t technically a superhero, to the seven year old me, she was a lot cooler than superman, batman, and spiderman combined. I looked up to her for as long as I could remember after watching that movie. I even wanted to start learning martial arts because of Mulan, however, I’m way too lazy to actually exercise.
I think many young girls easily end up looking up to characters that they see in movies, shows, and etc. For example, many young girls have been wanting Luisa merchandise, a character from encanto, however, Disney wasn’t expecting the demand for Luisa merchandise, but they did prepare many Isabella merchandise. I thought it was quite interesting, how young girls prefer the stronger the more “masculine” presenting sister than the one that looks more like a typical disney princess. Just like how young boys often look up to superheroes that are the same gender as them such as superman and batman, young girls also need superheroes that are the same gender as them to be able to relate and look up to. This is just about gender, but there are other parts such as race, body types, and even disabilities that could be portrayed accurately and respectfully so that young children of all ages, shapes, and sizes can look up to and find a hero in a character that looked just like them.
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