According to the DC Comics calendar, today marks the birthday of the one and only Lois Lane. First appearing in 1938’s Action Comics”#1, Lane came to embody power traits throughout the century, garnering as much acclaim as Superman. During a time when women had limited opportunities and even less representations in media, Lane broke the mold by developing into a character who was fierce, honest, and independent—able to seek truth and justice and defend herself without Superman’s help.

Lane helped pave the way for representations of ambitious, fearless female journalists in comics, books, and film: they have been given more in-depth storylines and have come to be seen as more than romantic accessories to the hero of the story. Somewhere in the past decade, however, Hollywood began to paint fictional female journalists in an increasingly negative light, and it still has a long way to go when it comes to representing women of color.

So, to celebrate Lane's birthday, we're taking a look back at other fierce female fictional journalists who seek their own respective truths, and we look forward to a future where they are represented in a broader spectrum of diversity.

1. April O’Neil — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Making her first appearance in the Mirage Comics series in 1984 as a computer programmer, April is later protrayed as a news reporter in the animated series from Archie Comics. Friend, mentor, and confidante, O'Neil is smart, determined, and compassionate—an integral member of the gang. 

 

 

 

 

2.  Mary Tyler Moore — The Mary Tyler Moore Show

In the 70s, Mary Tyler Moore won audiences over as Mary Richards, a single, thirty-something woman working as a news producer in Minneapolis. Noted as "TV's first truly female-dominated sitcom," the show broke the mold of a male-dominated work force with a focus on a woman in the office, not the home. 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Hildy Johnson — His Girl Friday

An adaptation of The Front Page, follows the relationship between an editor (Walter Burns) and star reporter (Hildy Johnson). Set to marry and lead a life as wife and mother, Johnson is enticed back in to reporting, covering the upcoming execution and escape of convicted murderer Earl Williams. With a story in her grasp, she becomes consumed with writing, leaving her potential life of domesticity behind her.

 

 

 

 

4. Vera Hastings — The Room and The Chair

Author Lorraine Adams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, tells a story of U.S. involvement in the Middle East, specifically Washington after 9/11. The novel begins with an ominous nighttime plane crash—an accident quietly handled— and Hastings, a novice reporter, is sent by her editor to find the true reasons behind the crash.
 

5. Murphy Brown — Murphy Brown

An investigative journalist and news anchor for fictional news magazine FYI, Murphy Brown is a talented and hot-tempered media personality. The show depicts the world of a single mother and working woman, attempting to balance both her career and raising a child.

 

 

 

 

 

6. Andrea Sachs — The Devil Wears Prada

Technically an aspiring journalist, Sachs is fresh out of Northwestern University looking to make it in New York City. Her career begins as a junior personal assistant to the editor-in-chief  (Miranda Priestly) of the prestigious Runway fashion magazine with the hopes of finding a job as a writer or reporter later on. The novel follows her year of understanding—and ultimately falling for—the fashion industry, Priestly's ridicule, and self-discovery. 

 

 

 

 

7. Rory Gilmore — Gilmore Girls

Another honorary member on the list, Rory Gilmore is a spunky wanna-be journalist, a feminist thinker, voracious reader, and ambitious in a way rarely seen in female representations at the time in media. Almost always seen carrying a book, Gilmore is an exemplary student who attends the elite Chilton School (and later Yale University as a Journalism major) with dreams of becoming the next Christiane Amanpour. 
 

8. Carrie Bradshaw — Sex and the City

One of the most famous portrayals of a female journalist in media, Carrie Bradshaw is a newspaper columnist—and later a freelance writer for Vogue—who writes a weekly column called "Sex and the City" for The New York Star, chronicling her turbulent love life. Though the controversial character certainly has flaws, Bradshaw is talented, self-sufficient,  and successful in her own right.