I love women, and I love women who write and star in books. In honor of Women’s History Month, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite books featuring female characters that women also write. This is just a glimpse of my favorites if I am honest. And there are so many female characters I love that aren’t written by women.

One of the reasons I love these women so much much is because they are not perfect. They make mistakes, they mess up, they do the wrong thing, they lose, they fight, but at their very core, they are themselves, no matter what. I find many of these characters inspirational.

1.     The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

2.     The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

3.     Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.     Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

5.     The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

6.     The Diviners by Libba Bray

7.     With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

8.     The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

9.     Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

10.  Circe by Madeline Miller 

11.  Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

12.  The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

13.  Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

14.  The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

15.  Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

16.  Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

17.  You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

18.  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

19.  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

20.  Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

These books have helped shape who I am today. They’re part of the reason I keep reading. It’s stories like these that make me want to be strong.