A Conscious Author

When I first saw this question to this post, I panicked. I couldn't name a single female artist that influenced me tremendously. I mean, even when it came to directors - the people that I tend to pay attention to the most, my mind automatically started listing male directors. Not that I have anything against female directors, it just so happens that a lot of the directors that I admire happen to be male. So after scouring the web for female artists that I could really admire and whose work could potentially inspire me, a name suddenly popped into my head. I don't know how but the author of one of my favorite Young Adult series came up - Cassandra Clare. Cassandra Clare is the author of several trilogies and a series all set in an imaginary world called the "Shadowhunter World". On hindsight, it may seem like just another YA series but in this series as well as her trilogies, it features a female protagonist. I think that's why this world really resonates with me. It's basically Harry Potter but with a female lead. On top of that, there's also many other strong female characters. And though almost all the female characters are in romantic relationships, they all shine best when they're focused on an important situation. I think that it's hard to find book that do not have just one but several strong main female characters. In fact Cassandra Clare once said in an interview that "I wanted to make sure that every book passed the Bechdel test", which is pretty awesome to have an author who ensures that not only the books pass the Bechdel test, but also that the film and tv series pass the bechdel test as well. I think it's also pretty amazing that the series not only include several strong female characters but it features several characters in the LGBTQ+ community. Talk about diversity. 

Cassandra Clare saw a gap in a lot of the Young Adult series, most heroes tend to be male protagonists. A few examples of this are Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. And even when there was a female protagonist, more often than not she is the only female protagonist like The Hunger Games trilogy. So Cassandra wanted to fill that gap in her series by putting multiple female heroes. Though there are times in the books when the female needs saving (I mean who doesn't every once in awhile), it's hard to ignore that by the end of the book, the female hero ends up saving the world. The films and some of the book got pretty harsh reviews, but no one can deny that these books have that female voice that we have all been waiting for. Of course it can use some improvement as the books talk about some pretty heavy topics that seem to be taken lightly in the actual books themselves, but there's always room for improvement. Nonetheless, Cassandra Clare started to pave a road for many future authors to follow.

Works Cited:
-Cassandra Clare on the Bechdel Test: https://www.themarysue.com/cassandra-clare-interview-sdcc/
-Why Cassandra Clare is Important: https://medium.com/legendary-women/why-cassandra-clare-is-super-important-to-ya-fiction-8de5a28b1c2