If you’ve ever visited the Internet, I’m sure this statement is familiar to you: “Disney princesses aren’t good role models!” 

I have a lot of opinions about this statement, but my primary fault with it is that it often represents a more general accusation: the idea that Disney females aren’t good role models.

I can, of course, see why people think this. After all, the Disney women who get most of the public attention are, in fact, the princesses – girls whose strength of character are often overshadowed by their romance-driven plots and pretty dresses. And this is really too bad.

I could write a whole separate post about how the Disney princesses are more than their dresses and love lives, but today I’d like to give some attention to the under-appreciated Disney heroines who are smart, strong, independent, confident, and realistic. Whenever I see a complaint about all Disney girls being unattainably beautiful and un-relatable, I just want to yell, “They’re not! You’re just watching the wrong movies!!”

Table of Contents

1. Captain Amelia, Treasure Planet

“And doctor, again with the greatest possible respect, zip your howling screamer.”

Do you SEE this picture?? It says it all.

I don’t even know where to begin with Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet. For one thing, she’s one of only two women in this entire movie, but she establishes herself from her first appearance as the most intimidating, impressive, and undeniably badass member of the cast – and that’s probably saying a lot in a movie about space pirates.

Captain Amelia is the perfect representation of everything you could want in a powerful female character – she’s aggressively intelligent, resourceful, and fearless, and her ability to shut down anyone who crosses her with a devilishly sarcastic one-liner is nothing less than inspiring.