Captain Marvel and the 25 most empowering female superheroes of all-time

7. Buffy Summers – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Who plays her: Sarah Michelle Gellar (I’m not including Kristy Swanson’s 1992 movie version, sorry!)

Powers/Abilities: Super strength, super hearing, the ability to do almost anything.

Why she’s so empowering: Buffer Summers may not be your most traditional superhero, but she is a female who needs to be on this list. The 1990s child inside me doesn’t let me overlook her.

To be honest, if I could, I would have put the Halliwell sisters on this list too. They came from the same time period that had a lack of strong and empowering women but Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed delivered.

Why was Buffy Summer so important and empowering? She was the unassuming hero. A Valley girl at heart, she had to quickly learn how to toughen up and manager her new abilities. At the same time, she had to come to terms with the fact that Slayers die young – and the younger the called, the better.

Throughout seven seasons, we watched as Buffy took down creatures older than her, managed her broken hearts, dealt with school and college, and understood that there was power in friendships and family. While every other Slayer had been alone, she was the one to break the norm and she was the better for it.

Buffy remained grounded. She showed that having people to care about and love made you a better person. And despite friends turning their backs on her at times, she always came through as the one to save the world. She literally sacrificed herself for the good of the world.