Busting Writer Myths: Overly-Attractive Protagonists

Ancient Greece called. They want their statues back.

I hate to burst your beautiful little bubble of reality, but not everyone in the world is a supermodel. Not everyone can have the clear skin, the perfect body type, the delicate hands and perfect hair. We can't all be the flawless image of beauty that our society has set up for us. And you know what? That's good. Because if everyone matched that flawless image, I wouldn't be able to find anyone in a crowd.

We talk about having diversity in books, but there's more than one type of diversity. What about having some diversity of appearance? Why has culture corrupted us so much that if we see a protagonist that isn't Hollywood-golden-girl status on appearances, we like her less? It feels wrong.

The first example of this problem that comes to mind is the Never Ending Story. In the book, Sebastian was described as being a fat little boy. Don't judge me on the description. It's what the book said. In the movie, as much as I love it, they didn't make Sebastian much like his description in the book at all, which is kind of a disappointment. This is exactly the kind of problem I'm talking about.

There are too many body image issues in America as it is. We don't need to make it worse with all-white, all-perfect protagonists. I'm not just looking at the girl protagonists, either. In fact, the issue with the guy characters seems to be even worse. Guys in books are either gorgeous or super-stereotyped nerds. There seems to be no in between, which is also has a harmful effect on society.

So now that I've complained about the issue, question: how can we fix this?

Answer: We can give them actual flaws.

Let me share some ideas with you. Just please, use these one or two at a time. Our poor characters have been through enough without us piling everything on them at once.

For girl characters, consider:

• Giving her a bad hair day once in a while. What if the same day she had to face the bad guy, she woke up with the worst hair-snarl of her life? Not only would it be amusing, it would add a distraction and lower her self-confidence as she leaves to face the villain.
• Giving her some image issues. Don't think she has to think she's completely hideous, either. One of my characters, Gina, doesn't think she's super pretty, but she likes her haircut. She thinks of her hair as her best feature.
• Giving her a weird birthmark or something that she's embarrassed about. Some girls even don't like their freckles.
• Giving her a less-than-perfect body type. Need I repeat, 90% of people don't have a supermodel figure. She doesn't need perfect curves, perfectly shaped limbs, or a flat stomach. Make her real.
• Giving her glasses, braces, wrist supports, that kind of thing. I have known people who can pull off any and all of them with some serious flair.
• Giving her an awkward sense of style. She may or may not pull it off, but she can try any clothing combination she likes.
• Giving her all-out hair problems. Some people just have uncontrollable hair.

For guy characters, consider:

• Um, not making him look like a superhero? Come on, name five people you know who have perfect abs. He can be wider or heavier or twig-thin, just please, no greek statues here.
• Giving him hair troubles. Maybe it's so thick that a comb could get lost for weeks up there. Some guys just have the kind of hair that the only thing you can do with it is just let it sit there.
• Having him wear more unusual clothing. I'll admit, jeans and a white t-shirt look good, but there are other clothes out there! He could go for the button-up shirt look, or maybe he could constantly wear shirts with fandom references. Even perpetual camouflage print would be a nice shake-up.
• Making him short. Unfortunately, not all guys can tower. I've even known some that are my height, and I'm only average girl-height.
• Giving him freckles. Guys can have freckles, too, y'know. They just don't get them as commonly as girls do. A birthmark wouldn't go amiss, either.

And just for an extra measure, here's a Tumblr post I found:

Well, I hope you enjoy being knee-deep in a pile of ideas because I think we're both stuck here now. If I forgot anything in the post that should be included, let me know in the comments! 

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