Tavi Gevinson Talks 'Strong Female Characters' At TEDxTeeN (VIDEO)

Tavie Gervinson, the 15-year-old editor-in-chief of RookieMag.com, a website for teen girls, is 'still figuring it out.'

The high school sophmore, who four years ago started a fashion blog that launched her into the spotlight and in the front row at Fashion Week runway shows, spoke about the dearth of strong female characters on TV and in movies at the TEDxTeen conference last month.

The self-professed "pop culture nerd" told the audience she thinks what constitutes a strong characters is often misinterpreted, and instead were presented with "two dimensional super women" who exhibit a single quality emphasized heavily in the narrative, but not much else.

Gevinson calls these figures, including "Catwoman type[s]" and those whose sexuality is made into their calling cards, "cardboard characters," lacking the depth and complexity of real women.

"The problem with this is that people expect women to be that easy to understand and women get mad at themselves for not being that simple," she told the audience. "When in actuality, women are complicated. Women are multifaceted, not because women are crazy, but because people are crazy and women happen to be people."

The key to creating a strong female characters is allowing them giving them flaws, she said, and listed the female protagonists in "Mad Men" and "Bridesmaids" as prime examples of complicated and more realistic characters.

Gervinson also expressed concern about the representation of teen girls in popular culture. She said she longs for 1990's when teenage characters such as "Freaks and Geeks'" Lindsay Weir and "My So-Called Life's" Angela Chase, were (briefly) on television. Those characters accurately portrayed what it means to be a teenage girl who is still trying to figure things out, she said.

Though Gervinson arguably has her life more together than most 20-somethings these days, she still professes to be figuring things out herself, which she cited as the reason she started RookieMag.com. She's quick to say she doesn't have all the answers, and instead she's created a space that just allows girls to try to work through the complications of life together.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Beth Hill]

01:36 AM on 04/16/2012

she's awesome! How does she fit in homework exactly?

[Arlene La Hera]

03:04 PM on 04/15/2012

A brilliant young lady and wise beyond her years. There will always be those that resent strong and complicated women and so protest against them. This is how feminine assertion and power is usurped and diminished by antagonists who feel threatened by their position in the world and among men already. They certainly will not acquiesce to a female. This is because of the way they were raised. I used to blame the men for their arrogance, cruelty and ignorance but when I ponder the unfortunate state of affairs, I arrive again and again at the most certain fact - these angry men were raised by even angrier women.

[aviana]

04:23 AM on 04/14/2012

Tavi you're awesome!

[KrustySanchez]

09:04 PM on 04/13/2012

You're joking, right? You can't watch a prime time TV show without various Ladies In Charge, women detectives, women politicians, etc...

Claiming there aren't enough strong female characters is similar to Christians claiming they're persecuted by the non-Christian [minority] in this country. Just another baseless persecution complex.

[Arlene La Hera]

02:55 PM on 04/15/2012

lol Way to dismiss the facts. I am guessing this opinion is coming from a man. Am I correct there Krusty?

[Aitch5]

07:56 PM on 04/13/2012

This is great.

[ILoveGreatDanes]

02:31 PM on 04/13/2012

Who?

[rixback]

01:57 PM on 04/13/2012

Good for you Tavi. Way to tell it like it is. Good job on helping other teens too.

The best way to avoid the frustration if TV's misrepresentation is to turn it off. Viewership count drives sponsorship, so the best way to express your displeasure is to not watch. Seems you have plenty of other things to keep you busy, enjoy them instead.