Adventure Shows for Girls

I'd like to take a moment to think about animated adventure shows that had female protagonists. For a while, it seemed like girl power was a major force but I've noticed that, in recent years, female characters have fallen to the back again. So, I thought I'd celebrate some of the great animated adventure shows with female leads from the past.

Kim Possible: Maybe the very best of them. A world trotting teen who could do anything. In a twist on a familiar trope, the girl is the hero while the boy is the bumbling sidekick.

My Life as a Teenage Robot: XJ9 (aka Jenny) is trying to be a normal teen while at the same time she's a robot built to save the world from... pretty much everything.

The Powerpuff Girls: One of the foundation blocks of modern girl power, the Powerpuff Girls are made from sugar... spice... everything nice... and CHEMICAL X!

She-Ra: Princess of Power: During the 80s, the toy companies saw great success with product/show combos such as He-Man and Transformers, so they tried to duplicate that success shows and toy lines targeted to girls. She-Ra was He-Man's sister. In some ways, she's the mother of the modern animated female.

Jem and the Holograms: Like She-Ra, Jem was as much a toy commercial as a show. It is classic, bad 80s glam rock but the theme song gets stuck in your head like nothing's business. Find the cover by Freezepop sometime. It is fab!

Recent shows seem to be returning to the two boys for every one girl formula. Young Justice has four male heroes (Robin, Aqualad, Superboy, and Kid Flash) and two female heroes (Miss Martian and Artemis). Zevo-3 has two boys, one girl. And the new power rangers? Three boys, two girls with the girls being pink and yellow. Once again, the red ranger's a white guy.