The perfect candidate for the role is a girl who naturally:

  • Is not like other girls
  • Smokes and/or has a drinking problem
  • Out-cusses pirates and out-drinks military men
  • Is never seen wasting time at the ladies parlor
  • Has no body hair
  • Chooses combative fields (army, police, secret intelligence) to follow her father’s footsteps
  • Is underestimated by all important men, except one
  • Is in a romantic situationship with that one
  • Has practice being the only girl in a position of authority
  • Has academic merit but lacks practicality and street smarts (characteristics already allocated to the male lead)
  • Is uncomfortable using the crooked ways of the world
  • Follows the rule book to the T (even to her own detriment)
  • Identifies as a rebel
  • Is secretly a spy
  • Is secretly a double agent
  • Has an undisclosed (traumatic) past
  • Is a single mom or has just had an abortion
  • Is not close to her family
  • Fights professionally
  • Fights personally
  • Is feminist, or isn’t, but is decidedly loud about it
  • Is really not like other girls
  • Is “enigmatic” or “mysterious”
  • Has no female friends
  • Has no current boyfriends or plans of future ones
  • Lives alone
  • Keeps a gun for defense
  • Fights (and wins against) men twice her size with bare hands, luck, and timing
  • Has opinions and makes them heard
  • Is loud, dangerous, and reckless (but is open to calibrating it according to the male lead)
  • Likes to prove herself as equal to the men
  • Is feared by all (for unknown reasons)
  • Wears leather (only)
  • Disproportionately favors black over pink
  • Doesn’t cry (except in front of the male lead)
  • Can’t tell nail polish and eyeliner apart
  • Doesn’t dress for men
  • Doesn’t show skin
  • Wears super tight clothes that reveal a voluptuous form underneath
  • Never gets (or prepares for) her periods
  • Is unaware of her beauty
  • Never uses her beauty to “get ahead”
  • Uses her beauty to bait, trick, and get intel on the enemy (and succeeds)
  • Is really, really, not like other girls