Welcome to the latest strawberry feature of this blog, where I will talk about the heroes and idols of my childhood and take a look at how they have inspired me and made me the person I am now.
Most of them are female, but the word "heroine" makes me think of either a glamorous actress or a drug, so I'm not going to use it in this feature.
This is also going to be quite personal, which some people might like, while others might not.
The first hero that will step in to the spotlight in this feature, is perhaps the greatest one, and also the one that has had the greatest influence on me: Hermione Granger from the HARRY POTTER series.
When I read the Harry Potter books, I thought Hermione was a lot like me, but I didn't like how her looks were described - she didn't seem very beautiful, and as every little girl, my idols had to be not only smart and admirable, but also pretty.
The one person who really brought Hermione to life for me then, and who also became one of my teenage idols, was Emma Watson. Right after seeing the second film (which was the first one I saw, strangely), I went my mom and asked her to cut my hair Hermione-style. So I ran around with straight bangs - and looked like an idiot.
Anyways, as Hermione changed looks after the second film, I did too, and inspired by Emma Watson's personal style, I grew interested in fashion too.
But to get back to the first films (and books); Hermione was quite snotty and bigheaded at the beginning - and I just admired that. The way she seemingly didn't care if anybody was harassing her, I was really jealous of that.
Then, when she locked herself in the bathroom because she was sad, I was close to crying. Though I always had a few close friends when I was smaller, I was more of an introvert because of various things, and the fact that I was always the best in my class wasn't helpful.
But then I found that Harry, Ron and Hermione - they all were very close friends, and they weren't in some big gang or something. So even their friendship became a role model for me, and made me realize that having a few really good friends is so much better than having many meh-friends.
Hermione also inspired me to take interest in school though it wasn't "cool", and though sometimes it was really boring because it was so easy. I also learned, especially through the third film/ book, that I couldn't do everything and say yes to everything. Just because you're smart it doesn't mean your energy isn't used up at some point.
Whenever I sat down and read for hours, and the thought crossed my mind that this was just too nerdy, thinking of Hermione reminded me that being nerdy wasn't something bad - it was okay, maybe it was even cool. Then, with the years I stopped reading that much and started watching movies, but it was still the same thing, and I still sometimes think of Hermione when I feel nerdy. Like right now, blogging... blogging about movies, analyzing movies - let's face it, it's nerdy!
But non-nerdy people are actually quite often jealous of us. And that's not just something I say to make me feel good, it's true, there are people who have told me this.
There are so many things that make Hermione one of my greatest heroes, that I'm not able to express them without writing a whole book about it. But there's one last thing I would like to mention at last: remember in one of the last books, when somebody asks Hermione what she wants to do when she's done with school? And you expect her to say something about a post in the ministry - but she says she wants to help people, maybe expand that Elf-organisation.
And that's when I truly realized that you should do what you want to and what you love, not what people expect you to.
