10 YA Fantasy Female Characters You’ll Fall in Love With

1. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine depicts Ella, who is cursed to be obedient by a fairy named Lucinda. When her mother dies, all her troubles begin since she is left with her absent father, a stepmother who hates her and two treacherous stepsisters. 

 

1. Shadows of the Master by Emily Rodda is about Britta, who wants more than anything to become a trader like her father, sailing the nine seas to bring precious cargo back to Del. Britta has no idea that distant shadows from a haunted isle watch her every move.

 

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins centres around 16-year-old Catniss Everdeen, who is chosen for the Hunger Games, a death sentence for almost all participants. She learns to survive the most rigorous hardships and fears, becoming an incredibly resilient character. 

 

1. Lyra, a young orphaned girl, goes on a journey of self-discovery in The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. A natural liar, clever, loyal and passionate, she becomes the wielder of the golden compass when she befriends an armoured polar bear. 

 

1. Author Veronica Roth shows a divided society in Divergent, in which Beatrice Prior has to make an important decision that transforms her whole life. As part of the Dauntless faction, she undergoes extreme physical tests of endurance and gruelling psychological simulations to hide her secret. 

 

1. Although Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‘s Stone is mostly about Harry Potter, author J. K. Rowling introduces a powerful secondary character in Hermione Granger, who proves to be a loyal and brave ally to Harry. She adds loads of memorable situations with funny, courageous wizardry that endear her to the readers.

 

1. One dark and stormy night, an unusual visitor arrives at the Murry house. This is how A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle begins. Meg is introduced and is enticed away on a wild, extraordinary adventure that forces her to be brave for the sake of her family.

 

1. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is about Sophie, who is transformed into an old lady by a witch. Her one chance at breaking the spell lies in the ever-moving Wizard Howl’s castle. Along this perilous journey, she discovers there’s far more to Howl—and to herself.

 

1. Coraline by Neil Gaiman is about a girl called Coraline who explores her new house which is made up of apartments. One day, she opens a door that is always locked and enters a creepy alternate world where she must conquer her fears, uncover the truth and solve problems in order to rescue her parents, herself and others.

 

1. Lena Duchannes in Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia struggles to conceal powers and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. The focus of the story is the romance between Ethan and Lena - a mortal and a Caster, and a small southern town trying to tear them apart.