What Wonder Woman Means to Me, on Wonder Woman Day

It’s incredibly cheesy to talk about how inspirational Wonder Woman is. I recognize that, but on Wonder Woman Day, I think it’s important to remember why she’s so important to so many of us. Being a fan of comics and superheroes, Diana Prince was always someone we could turn to to remember the brilliance of truth and love, but she also didn’t really have her time onscreen like the boys around her did.

With the exception of the ’70s Wonder Woman show with Lynda Carter (who sent us her own message today!), we got quite a few animated movies, and that was sort of it until 2017’s Wonder Woman movie. And for a little girl like me who wanted to grow up to be Diana Prince, I felt like I was missing out on what the boys had with their countless takes on Bruce Wayne and Superman. (Granted, I would grow up to only be 5’2″ but a girl can dream.)

But the important thing is that I grew up knowing who Diana Prince was and what she stood for. Now, there is a new live-action Diana for all these young girls to turn to. They can see her on the big screen take on Ares in Wonder Woman and feel powerful in the same way I’m assuming young boys always got to feel when they saw their favorite heroes onscreen.

Getting to see all these young girls go out and watch Wonder Woman, or knowing that my niece will get to see Diana onscreen when she’s older, it just means a lot to the kid in me. Because all I wanted was to see a hero like Diana on the big screen taking on the bad guys. I wanted to be able to have that.

But seeing Wonder Woman as an adult just transported me back to being that kid again. Watching her walk across No Man’s Land, taking all the fire so her team could follow after her? I felt invincible, even though I knew that it wasn’t me doing it. I felt like I could be that hero if I wanted to be.

And yeah, in a way, it is cheesy to feel like this because I’m an adult, and I recognize that they’re fictional characters, but for so long, little girls grew up watching the boys get to do all this stuff while we were on the sidelines and so watching Diana have her time on the big screen and getting the treatment she deserves just still means a lot.

Diana Prince has always taught us to be truthful to ourselves and to represent love whenever we can. That messaging has helped me become the person I am today, and I’m so happy that little kids around the world will get to see that messaging in these movies and carry it with them as I did. I’m proud that she’s had 79 years of making kids like me feel like they can do anything.

(image: Warner Bros.)

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