Rowan Blanchard Calls For More Female Roles Like What Audrey Hepburn Had

Rowan Blanchard is celebrating Audrey Hepburn‘s birthday by sharing her thoughts on strong female characters in film and television.

The 16-year-old actress shared a photo of an autograph from the late actress and called for there to be more parts for strong women other than superheroes.

“The first thing I ever saved up for and bought for myself, Audrey’s autograph <3 Audrey’s presence on screen has always brought an emotional visceral-ness to me, to be able to witness these dimensional woman characters who weren’t superheroes or even necessarily empowered," she wrote.

"Lately, I get concerned that a sort of recent feminism dictates that what constitutes Strong Women or Strong Female Leads are women who are to a certain extent, are playing men: an empoweredness, a inability to be shaken, maybe even less sensitive and more forceful with their will- while it is cool to see that I guess, I wonder what movies and other types of strong women are being left behind or forgotten as they as they are masqueraded under some sort of non feminist relevance," Rowan added. "Audrey’s characters on screen never really had it figured out, sometimes they were selfish, insecure, silly helpless, or maybe even delicate. Her strong softness, (which was influenced by a especially strange and traumatic childhood, and dysphoric body illnesses all her life), reminded me that we do not need to position our softness, our sadness, or chaos or our voidness as in opposition to our feminism, or in what we classify as strong woman leads."

"Maybe we can work within it, think of it as being more radical to give nuance to and spotlight on the power of watching women think- the endless, fascinating world of our own psyches," she continued. "If we are to describe woman super heroes or assassins or action stars etc as being the only kind of empowered characters, what does it mean for characters like Audrey’s who were just as full if not more so, of the deservingness and nuance to be called strong. Something to ponder about 🎻<3 Happy birthday Audrey, I love you forever! 💌"