Top Ten Tuesday was started by The Broke and the Bookish, and was taken over by That Artsy Reader Girl in 2018.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is Characters that remind me of myself! This feels like a deeper dive than the meme that goes around every so often: “tell me about yourself in three fictional characters.” I also struggled to not just put the characters I maybe aspire to be rather than who I really feel I am, but this always still feels super conceded? Anyways, here are my ten characters and the reasons why I see myself in them! And because I am well rounded in my media(?), they aren’t just from books.

Character 1: Cath from Fangirl

I think I wrote about the book Fangirl at some point on my blog, and even years later it still weighs heavy on me. Kath is an introverted girl afraid to really explore life outside of her online persona. Reading this book was, quite frankly, an experiment in feeling uncomfortable about my college years. And unfortunately, I didn’t end up with a super hot boyfriend out of it.

Character 2: Rachel from Animorphs

Okay, I don’t actually worry about becoming a blood thirsty warrior, but I read Animorphs at such a young age, I can only just start to grasp how much it had an influence on me. Especially the blonde warrior who was also dealing with bratty younger sisters and divorced parents. She’s strong and quick tempered, but also incredibly selfless. Again, I don’t see myself as Rachel, but she taught me so much about who I wanted to be that I cannot help but see myself in her. Also, if I was a part of an team fighting aliens, I would probably be most like her than any of the other group.

Character 3: Riley from We’re Alive

I am binging through We’re Alive currently — one of the two times I will probably do so before Goldrush starts, and I started wondering which character I was most like. While I super want to be Lizzie or Saul, or maybe even CJ, I realized I was prbably more like Riley or Pegs. Both of them start on opposite sides of the spectrum: Pegs is a mess at the beginning of the outbreak but finds her stride and adjusts back to normal. Riley, on the other hand, is the voice of reason at the beginning of the outbreak who eventually breaks down and nearly kills herself. She can handle massive changes — she’s good in those situations — but as the losses become more personal, Riley breaks apart. She’s eventually diagnosed with a mental illness, but still remains obsessive over finding someone (being vague for anyone who wants to AND SHOULD listen to this audiodrama.)

Character 4: Veronica Mars from Veronica Mars

I wrote about loving the show Veronica Mars recently — it weirdly led to some backlash from some French fans. But I also super relate to Veronica, and not necessarily her good qualities.

Veronica doesn’t get over her past trauma easily. By season 3 she can’t let things go — she’s obsessive and impulsively dangerous. And as I did my last binge watch, I couldn’t help but feel even more of a kinship to her anxiety and issues.

Character 5: Jane Lockhart 

Jane Lockhart is the main character in Not Another Happy Ending. She’s a writer who is suffering from writer’s block, which is entirely a movie that is me when I am on a deadline. Baking, killing plants, running errands, WHATEVER to not finish her sophomore novel. It is a delightful movie that I recommend to everyone.

Character 6: Suzie from Sex Criminals

Suzie is the one who doesn’t talk in this strip, but I couldn’t help but share my favorite joke from the comic. Again, my neurotic tendencies relate way too much to Suzie in this surprisingly deep and NOT ALWAYS FUN comic.

Character 7: Mabel Rose from The Diviners

Mabel Rose is the …almost sheltered friend of Evie from The Diviners. Her parents are popular liberals fighting for union rights and other hardships in the 1920s. Mabel is shy, quiet, fiercely loyal, hesitant to jump in, and crushes hard on a guy. And she’s also intensely brave, selfless, and realizes her worth in a world with Diviners.

 

Character 8: Miriam Kendrick from Comics Will Break Your Heart

Miriam is an easy character to see myself in. She’s hesitant about what she wants to do after high school and if she should apply to college, also while holding a teenage grudge and angst. She should stand up to her friends, but she doesn’t want to rock the boat. Also, we both worked at a country club (….in different capacities, sure.)

Character 9: Meg Murray from A Wrinkle in Time

Clearly another character from my childhood, but I would have felt awful not including Meg! She’s the oldest kid, feels very weird in her own skin at school, doesn’t quite want to embrace her nerdiness… she’s a pretty great protagonist to see yourself in honestly. And, to be fair, any awkward kid with glasses who doesn’t seem themself as special in anyway needs Meg to help them see that maybe, if they just embrace themselves, there really is.

Character 10: Peyton Charles

Peyton might be a bit of a stretch for me, as she’s entirely driven and self-confident while I am definitely not. Also, super fit and a lawyer. But her reaction to finding out Liv is a zombie and how she handles that felt very real and honestly how I would have handled it.

 

That’s it! That’s the ten fictional characters I see myself in! Please don’t judge me too harshly?