I don’t know about you, but I love watching chick flick type of films. It’s not because I am an emotional type of girl, who lives in a unrealistic, fantasy world. No, it’s because I genuinely feel inspired and empowered by women, who know their worth and are fearless to get what they want. Women often feel to live in the traditional, stereotypical roles because of their gender. I don’t agree women should have to limit their dreams to be married happily ever after in a traditional sense. Below, I’ve listed a few films that inspire me to achieve my goals in life and I hope they inspire you too!
1. Legally Blonde
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Legally Blonde is one of my favorites and all time classic to watch. Elle Woods was stereotyped and frowned upon on when she wanted to transfer into Harvard Law School from her Fashion & Merchandising undergrad program. She was seen as a rich, ditzy blonde girl, who should stick to shopping. Elle knew what she wanted in the so she persevered and ignored everyone else’s negativity. She didn’t play by society’s rules and broke through those barriers to receive an acceptance letter from Harvard. Throughout the movie, it shows you by working hard, believing in yourself and having a positive attitude, you can accomplish anything just like Elle did.
2. A Cinderella Story
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Who hasn’t seen Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff? There are so many versions of this movie, but I love the original because it shows a more realistic young, high school teenager, who dreams of getting away from home. I’m sure we all felt like that at one point in our life. Sam, portrayed by Hilary Duff, works really hard to save her money, go to school and tries to have an active social life, but her home wasn’t the most loving environment. It becomes a rags to riches love story when she discovers her own self worth. Throughout the movie, she faced her own struggles and rose above the negativity to reinvent her own happily ever after.
3. Flashdance
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Flashdance is an inspiring movie because it focused on a young college woman, who her dreamed of becoming a ballerina and wants to train at a prestigious dance conservatory. Her character name is Alexandra Owens, but she goes by Alex. Alex is associated with the male gender, but it implies she’s cool and fits in a man’s world to make ends meet. She has two jobs as arc welder in a steel mill and a dancer at a bar. Alex doesn’t fall into the category of stereotypical women because she isn’t your average girl next door. Instead, she dances her way to accomplish her dreams by overcoming those challenges and battles she was often faced living in a man’s world. After she discovered her own identity, she became an inspiration for others to do the same.
4. Selena
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Selena Quintanilla, played by Jennifer Lopez, is an iconic woman, who’s life was tragically cut short during the beginning of her stardom. She is often known as ‘Queen of Tejano Music’ because she incorporated other styles of music like country into Mexican music, which resonated with her latin culture fans. In the movie, she beats all the odds of being marginalized by all sorts of people, brings attention to redefine womanhood by using her sexuality to push against all barriers and redefines her own identity to not fall into the stereotyping of racial profiling. Throughout her career, Selena remained authentic and sincere in her stardom, but as a dedicated woman she was willing to go against all odds for love and her family. After so much time has passed, her legacy continues to live on and inspire others.
5. Love & Basketball
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This movie is an epic love story between the female lead, Monica and her neighbor, Quincy. They both are talented basketball players, but their relationship changed when Quincy has higher prospects of joining a professional basketball team and Monica lets her temper get the best of herself. These two fell in love very young, but grew up playing basketball together through their own ambitions and deep affection for each other. Monica had to learn through early childhood lessons to become the confident woman she is at the end of the movie. She had to learn to separate her love for competitive basketball to falling in love with another partner and to overcome her own temperaments to triumph in her life.
6. Wonder Woman
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Lastly, but not least by no means, is Wonder Woman! Wonder Woman is my all time favorite #girlpower movie because this Amazon princess shows she is an independent, strong woman who doesn’t need a man to fight for her. Diana Prince has exceptional fighting skills demonstrate her love for just and her all-around badassery. It may have taken 75 years for the entertainment industry to bring this famous female superhero to the big screens, but I’m so happy it finally arrived and it was definitely worth waiting for! Fun fact: Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman, made the decision to hide her pregnancy while filming the scenes for this movie because she didn’t want to me treated differently. To me, she has my ultimate respect and so inspired by her badass #bossbabe attitude.
If you haven’t seen any of the movies I listed above, I strongly encourage you to do so and get ready to be inspired to conquer your own girl world! I always love to binge watch these shows on the weekends, during late night studying or when hanging out with my besties because it helps me to stay motivated in my obstacles. Let’s face it. Not everything is peaches and cream out there, which is why it’s up to us to stand together and make our own #girlpower move.