So what actually makes a female character one of the "best ever written"? Is it the strongest, the nicest, or the most inspirational? For us, we judge by complexity – by what motivates their interior life, their agency, how are they contradictary, and what kind of growth do they experience?

Of course, none of these women are morally perfect, but that’s exactly why they resonate. A well-written woman is a knowable one. Some are stubborn, obsessive, jealous, impulsive, even destructive. Their flaws make them feel real rather than like a caricature. These are the female main characters no longer boxed into being a damsel in distress or an untouchable badass (though we'd argue some definitely tick these boxes too). In fact, they exist in the layered, complicated space in between. And it’s that multifaceted humanity that makes them unforgettable.

Below, our list of 22 of the best female main characters ever written.

1. Jo March from Little Women

Somehow Jo March feels revolutionary even now. She’s messy and ambitious and angry about the limits placed on her, and she refuses to shrink herself into something "marriageable" just to make the world – or her family – comfortable.

2. Ellen Ripley from Alien

Ripley isn’t written as stereotypical female action hero. She’s written as the most competent person in the room. Full stop. Her authority comes from intelligence, caution, and sheer nerve.

3. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

Katniss's character works because she never wanted to be the leader of the revolution. She volunteers for Prim out of love, not rebellion, and that’s what makes her so compelling. She becomes the Mockingjay almost by accident.

4. Catwoman from Catwoman

Catwoman is fascinating because she exists in the moral gray area. She’s not trying to be redeemed or condemned; she just is – playful, dangerous, emotionally guarded, and completely self-possessed.

5. Dr. Ellie Sattler from Jurassic Park

Ellie Sattler is one of the rare blockbuster heroines of the 90s who's character didn't feel flat. She's a goddamned paleobotanist – competent, decisive, and better in her field than anyone else there. She has some great quips too, from: “Look, we can discuss sexism in survival situations later” to “Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth."

6. Sarah Connor from Terminator

Sarah Connor might be one of the most complete character arcs ever put on screen. She begins as an ordinary waitress and evolves into something almost machine-like: so hardened by survival that when John hugs her, she checks for wounds instead of hugging back. The genius of her writing is that she becomes what she fears: a Terminator in spirit, especially when the Terminator’s theme replaces hers during the Dyson assassination attempt. And yet it’s her humanity – and her son’s – that pulls her back from the edge.

7. Elle Woods from Legally Blonde

Woods is proof that femininity and intelligence were never opposites. She doesn’t trade pink for power; she brings her femininity with her and wins anyway. What makes her truly special is how supportive her friendships are – her Sorority sisters show up for her, Vivian grows instead of competing, and the film refuses to punish her for being "girly". She’s a bubblegum feminist icon, and the fact that we’re still cheering (and getting a third movie!) says everything.

8. Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones

Brienne breaks your heart because she doesn’t fit anywhere in her world. She's a knight, not a lady – and she knows it. And yet, she steps up time and again and lets herself be vulnerable despite herself. In a story full of so-called honourable knights who are monsters, she’s the one who lives the code.

9. Dana Scully from The X Files

Scully flipped the script. She was the skeptic, the scientist, the calm intellectual centre of The X Files, while Mulder spiralled emotionally. The “Scully Effect” is real; she inspired an entire generation of women to enter STEM fields. (Even if the writers did have her kidnapped at least 1,000 times.)

10. Poussey Washington from Orange is the New Black

Poussey’s warmth feels radical in a show built around confinement and cruelty. She’s funny and deeply romantic and hopeful in a place designed to crush hope. (And - SPOILER – it made her loss devastating in a way that still has us emotionally excavated).

11. Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs

Clarice is written with this incredible balance of vulnerability and razor intelligence. That basement sequence – where we see her methodically clearing rooms while Catherine screams, the lights cutting out, the click of night-vision goggles – is pure terror, and yet she walks through it anyway. Hannibal sees her potential before she fully does, and watching her grow into that strength is unforgettable.

12. Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables

Anne feels alive because she contradicts herself constantly. She's dramatic and practical, insecure and wildly ambitious. We watch her grow from a precocious orphan into a mother herself facing grief, while the world shifts around her — telephones arrive, war reshapes everything.

13. Toph Beifong from Avatar the Last Airbender

Toph is introduced in the series as a helpless blind girl and immediately obliterates that assumption. She invents metalbending, casually takes down multiple earthbenders at once, and still wrestles with trust and vulnerability. Even in The Legend of Korra, she’s imperfect – not the best mother, not always right – and that makes her somehow even more legendary in the realm of best-written female characters.

14. Mulan from Mulan

Mulan’s courage isn’t about glory; it’s about love and duty colliding. She earns her spot on this list by outthinking her opponents, not overpowering them. She saves China not by becoming a man, but by being unapologetically herself.

15. Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy is the blonde girl who would die first in any other horror story – and instead, she’s the chosen one. The brilliance of her character is that she wants a normal teenage life and still shoulders the apocalypse anyway.

16. Fleabag from Fleabag

Fleabag is chaotic, selfish, grieving, hilarious, and painfully self-aware. In the show, Waller-Bridge's fourth wall isn’t just a gimmick; it’s armor. And when that armor finally cracks, it’s one of the most honest portrayals of shame and growth we’ve ever seen on television.

17. Erica Sinclair from Stranger Things

Erica steals every scene she’s in because she knows exactly who she is. She’s sharp, strategic, and absolutely unimpressed by everyone around her. “You can’t spell America without Erica” shouldn’t work — but with her confidence, it absolutely does.

18. Lyra Silvertongue from His Dark Materials 

Lyra's imagination, her moral stubbornness, and her fierce loyalty make her feel like a child who is terrifyingly capable of changing worlds. Watching her navigate truth, betrayal, and growing up is both epic and intimate.

19. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

“My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.” That line alone could cement her legacy. Lizzie’s wit is defensive, yes, but it’s also defiant; she refuses to be cowed by status or wealth, even when standing in front of Darcy. She feels centuries ahead of her time.

20. Violet Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events

Violet solves problems with invention, logic, and a ribbon tying back her hair. She’s the brain a world of brute force.

21. Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird

Scout’s perspective is what makes To Kill a Mockingbird so visceral adn devastating. Through her eyes, prejudice is exposed as learned behaviour rather than inevitability. Her innocence doesn’t make her naïve though – it makes her moral clarity sharper.

22. Elena "Lenù" Greco from My Brilliant Friend

Lenù is extraordinary because she isn’t always likeable. She’s jealous, ambitious, insecure, and deeply observant. Her lifelong comparison to Lila shapes her identity in ways that feel painfully real. And watching her wrestle with class, education, and self-worth makes her feel less intensely real.

23. Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass

Celaena Sardothien earns her place on this list because she is never just one thing. She begins as an infamous teenage assassin – arrogant, theatrical, obsessed with beautiful dresses and fine food – and yet beneath that cultivated persona is a survivor shaped by trauma, slavery, and loss. What makes her compelling isn’t simply her deadliness; it’s the tension between who she pretends to be and who she truly is.