Awesome Female Role Models - Rory Gilmore

If you've been following my Twitter lately... this week's awesome female role model shouldn't come as a surprise to you.

I recently bought the entire series of Gilmore Girls for a crazy good price off of another blogger, Neely, and naturally it's been playing non-stop in my living room ever since.

Warning - if you haven't watched the entire series, this post may contain spoilers.

I love all of the characters in this show - so please don't interpret this as I think Rory is a better person/role model than the others. I'm sure eventually they all will have their place on the blog. Rory is simply the first to get the spot.



I feel like Rory and I are kindred spirits in a sense. First, there is her love of books. Rory Gilmore is infamous for her reading. She carries a book around with her at all times (because you just never know when you'll need one!), she almost cries when she sees the Harvard library, and when her dad asks her what book she wants as a gift she asks for a dictionary. Someone who loves books this much is definitely someone I want to hang out with.

Rory is also a coffee drinker. (She inherited this from her mother.) Which, of course is an "A+" in my book.

Beyond these two points though, Rory has so many other qualities that I think makes her an amazing role model.

First, Rory knows what she wants. She wants to make a difference in the world, she wants to do the absolute best that she can do, she wants to be a journalist, and she wants to experience life. Rory will let nothing get in her way. In the first season she gets accepted to Chilton, a very high class, expensive, and tough school so she can get into Harvard University. She has a hard time at Chilton and gets the worst grades she's ever received and is teased mercilessly by her classmates. But she knows that this is the path which will lead her to where she wants to go, so she pushes through and does what she's needs too. She then graduates as valedictorian.

Rory also makes her own choices. Many people may influence her choices (especially her mother, Lorelai) and she may need a nudge in the right direction at times, but ultimately she does it on her own. Her entire life she has been planning to go to Harvard. Then, she's introduced to Yale and she knows where her heart truly lies. It's hard for her to tell her family about her change of plans, but she does it because it's her choice. Not someone else's.

Rory also believes in people. She brings out the best in them. With each of her boyfriends, she would encourage them and believe they could do more and do better than what they were. Then they stepped up to the challenge. Well... more or less. I think they all wanted to step up to the challenge.

Even beyond her boyfriends though, she wanted to see the best in people. Her mom had an awful relationship with her parents, but Rory still reached and built her own relationships with them. They had rocky times towards the end, but eventually they worked it out because I think deep down, Rory learned from her mistakes and also that it could be repaired.

Rory does't put up with the stupidity of others. She may want to see the best in people, but when they are stupid she'll call them out on it. Rory will not settle for when people act rude, selfish, and overall stupid. She will tell them so and then move on with her life. Yes, it bothers her that the other students may tease her constantly, but she doesn't let it bother her so much that she lets it ruin her life and how she views herself. She knows that they aren't worth her time, so she doesn't give them her time.

Then, on the other hand, she eventually repairs many of those relationships. As they all grow older, Rory becomes friends with the people who treated her so badly in high school. She learns to forgive and move on.

Rory is a loyal friend. Her best friend Lane may not go to the same school as Rory and has the strictest mother in the history of the world, but Rory doesn't care. Rory lets Lane crash in her dorm room when she has no where else to go. Rory helps Lane concoct crazy stories to tell her mom so she can go meet up with a boy. When Lane is having issues, Rory is there to listen.

And of course, we can't forget her amazing relationship with her mom, Lorelai. It's kind of what the whole show is based on.

It's a completely unrealistic relationship, but I think one we all can strive for. They tell each other everything, are always there for one another. They get into arguments (especially in the college years... they both did stupid things that season...) but eventually make up and go back to the way things were before. Rory respects her mom and wants to make her proud. They work through problems together and face them head-on.

And of course they have the most fantastic witty dialogue when they are together. Which made it hard to find quotes to put in this post because so many quotes are just them going back and forth and not just one-liners.

Although... a downfall of watching Gilmore Girls... meet Dean:

No... that's Sam. 

This is Dean:

NO THIS IS DEAN RORY'S FIRST BOYFRIEND!

Gah! I had finally stopped calling Dean, Sam and Sam, Dean on Supernatural. Now as I watch Gilmore Girls I'm having a ton of Supernatural feels. When does it end?????

Awesome Quotes:

"I can go from zero to studying in less than sixty seconds."

"My books look sad. Can books be sad?"

"I love you, you idiot."

"There are a lot of things in my life right now that are undecided. And that used to scare me, but I kind of like the idea that it's all just kind of wide open."

"I humiliate myself at least six times a year for this town, and just because I'm going to Yale, that's not going to stop. Now the reason I am not the Ice Cream Queen is because Taylor never asked me. I didn't know about it, and that's why I was busy. Now I love this town, i will be back in that ridiculous pilgrim outfit at Thanksgiving, so everybody just get off my back."

"No, I just take a book with me everywhere. It's a habit."

"Remember, there's cute jealous. Then there's Othello."

"I just got hit by a deer!"

"It's my mother's name too. She named me after herself. She was lying in the hospital thinking about how men name boys after themselves all the time, you know, so why couldn't women? She says her feminism just kind of took over. Though personally I think a lot of Demerol also went into the decision. I never talk this much."

"I'm in love with him. Despite all of the bad he's done, I can't help it. I'm in love with him."