All book and movie lovers at least once encountered a female character that was not so girly. Those characters leave a strong impression on us, and we tend to remember and analyze them and their actions rather than those of regular female characters.

These women have similar look. Short hair (or hiding their long hair under a wig), manly clothes and an interest in tools, weapons, sailing, and swordplay rather than dresses and makeup, all make a typical tomboy.

Arya Stark is symbol of irregular woman

When we were growing up, Disney gave us their version of the term with animated movie "Mulan." Mulan had a noble cause for her actions, but the way she looked, talked and behaved made her a true tomboy.

This was the last character that fits the description: at least until we met the charming Arya Stark from Game of Thrones.

Arya has a short hair, dresses like a boy and loves swordplay. However, many might think that a cruel life made her like this, but that is not true. Remember season one and the troubles late Ned had with his young daughter? She was so stubborn that eventually, Jon gave her a sword and Ned hired a personal fencing instructor. Set of circumstances made Arya's true affinities come to the surface, which is actually good because she probably wouldn’t survive otherwise.

Strong Female Characters are nothing like tomboys

In classical literature, Tomboys were more like what we now know as a transgender person, but authors lacked the vocabulary to express this back then.

Now we have the term, but still, there is something about tomboys that makes our hearts warm.

In the 21st century, the term has faded. We no longer have typical tomboys, except for Arya. Now we have something similar but more woman-like. Remember Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games? She is a typical girl. She looks like a girl, falls in love and her outfit is made for combat but still stresses out her curves.

Lara Croft joins Katniss on the list as one of the most seductive adventurers with millions of manly skills. However, she does look rather stunning in the evening gown on a date with a handsome man.

These women got a new term and that is "strong female character." But this is not the tomboy we read about in books when we were children. Hopefully, someone will recognize the problem and keep these cute, lovable characters alive in contemporary books, series, and movies.