Beauty and the Heroine

I am gearing up for Nanwrimo again.  Ideas are spinning in my head.  I am eager to write, and eager to get to know all the new characters that are just starting to formulate in my head.  For those of you who don't know what Nano is, I will explain.  Nanowrimo or National Novel Writing month is an event that happens each and every November.  The challenge is to write 50k words in the month of November.    Those 50k words are a start to your novel.  :)  This year will be my 6th year participating!!

While thinking about my main character who is yet unnamed have run into a double edged sword.  Is she Beauty?  Or is she the Heroine?

I love pink.   I love sparkles, and I love to dress up for my husband.   I love having dinner on the table.  I love taking care of my gorgeous daughters.  We sit around sometimes and we do mani/pedis.  We watch princess movies, and we have dance parties in my family room.   I am a girly girl.    I love being a girly girl.

I am also tough as nails.  I have been through emotional turmoil, and I have overcome.  I have been abused, been a single mom, I have survived.  Not to mention, I am quick, strong, smart and organized.  If you need a heroine.  I am your woman.

Wow, rereading that I am thinking that it sounds really like I am tooting my own horn here, and that is not my intention at all.  I am only trying to make a point here.  Why is there always a choice?  Why can't my Beauty be a heroine?    I intensely dislike it when people assume that to be strong you cannot be beautiful.  Or to be beautiful you cannot also be strong or smart.

I have a challenge for myself this year, and for other writers out there.  Stop short changing female characters.  We can be strong and beautiful!