Growing up, I was a shy girl. I only talked a lot to my family but outside of that, I was clinging on to my mom’s right leg at every social event.

I’m glad to say I’ve come out of my shell to be a bubbly person but it’s taken a lot of time, effort and fictional TV show characters to build myself to be the confident person I am today. One show in particular, however, made a lasting impact on my life that I will never forget.

I grew up watching a TV show called Avatar: The Last Airbender.

For those who don’t know (shame on you), it’s a show about a young boy who is on a mission to save the world from a bad guy and does so with the help of his friends. But they each can manipulate an element and the young boy has to learn to manipulate all four: water, fire, earth and air.

I remember watching the first episode as a quirky little kid and falling in love with the innocence of Aang and the wit of Sokka.

And as I continued watching the show, the boys kept a smile on my face and continued to develop into fabulous characters, teaching me new perspectives in problems and delivering horrible puns while they were at it.

The females, however, taught me so much more.

Katara, Toph, Suki and Ty Lee were incredibly fun and relatable when I was younger. But as I rewatched the show as an adult, I saw that these girls are some of the strongest characters I have seen in an animated show. Congratulations, Nickelodeon, I finally had worthy role models that weren't perfect and actually fought bad guys.

The females in A:TLA are just as strong, if not stronger, than the men in the series.

Toph.

Suki.

Ty Lee.

Katara.

Not only had these four inspired me immensely as a child, but they continued to inspire me and many other girls into adulthood. Growing up, TV shows had usually correlated strength to men, but A:TLA showed their audience that women were no less. That strength doesn’t only have to be physical, and that “fighting like a girl” was still as cut throat as fighting like a guy.

Toph was the toph-est character in the show. Hands down.

Toph was blind and the youngest out of the main four. Being a part of the royal family and her parents thinking she was a fragile little angel, Toph was seen as vulnerable and fragile.

HAHAHA.

This girl snuck out and won a ridiculous amount of underground tournaments against professionals three times her size using seismic waves, joined Team Avatar and created an ENTIRE new form of bending called metal bending. Toph was a sarcastic, snarky, intelligent young girl who didn’t care who got offended by her words and taught me how to use your handicap as your biggest strength.

We got introduced to Suki when Sokka thought fighting was easy and challenged her to show him some moves.

She's a legit warrior bro, what are you doing??

He undermined her skills as a Kyoshi Warrior simply because she was a girl with no bending powers, and she was very quick to show him that he was dead wrong. Suki taught me that if you're doing something a boy does, you’re always going to be seen as less than, so you have to make sure to prove them wrong. You have to show them that you can’t be messed with- even if you are wearing makeup and a dress.

Ty Lee was the epitome of a girly girl. She was cute and spunky and wore loads of pink. But she came from a lot of sisters just like her, so she always felt a lack of individuality. She didn’t have the power to bend anything either, so she picked up her own fighting technique and fought her own battles, being a unique pink fighting machine.

Ty Lee taught me that no matter how girly you are, you can still be bold and powerful. Your strength is determined by how you build yourself up, not how others portray you. This girl could flirt and knock someone out at the same time. That’s skill.

And it’s crazy that despite all these characters, most people still want to be Aang- the main character of the show. Strong and powerful- the real deal.

But never once did I waver from seeing Katara as my role-model. She was strong, level headed, caring and a “Mom Type”, which a lot of the characters on the show teased her for (there’s an entire episode about it).

Despite her being so nurturing, she never once let that weigh her down. Her love for her friends made her heart strong and her bending even stronger. My god, was she powerful.

THIS GIRL KICKED BUTT

She was the only waterbender left from her tribe, and defeated a Waterbending master, learned how to manipulate the water around her as a weapon, learned how to bloodbend, and took care of her entire group of friends; all without having a mother to take care of her herself. Katara taught me that having a big heart doesn’t make you weaker - It makes you much stronger than those around you.

Along with those four, many other characters in the show have greatly inspired me to be the person I am today. Hopefully, they can inspire many more girls in the generations to come.