{"id":14706,"date":"2021-11-22T13:03:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T18:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itwaslikemagic.com\/?p=14706"},"modified":"2026-08-17T16:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:43:12","slug":"girl-week-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/girl-week-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl Week 2021: Favorite Female Leads in Romantic Comedies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Girl Week 2021:<\/em><\/strong> Like the Against the Blogathon<\/em>, Dell on Movies<\/a> is hosting a new blogathon celebrating women in film. It takes place November 22nd-November 28th, so here is my contribution! Female Leads in Romantic Comedies. Mind you, this is not<\/strong> an entire list of my favorite rom-com heroines, because that would be the longest blog post in the history of blog posts, but these are 10 characters that I love.<\/p>\n

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Lainey (Sleeping with Other People)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lainey<\/a> is not your typical rom-com heroine. She is flawed, almost frustratingly so, caught between her love for her best friend and the undeniable hold a now-married former flame has on her. Even when she is making obvious mistakes, you can’t help but root for her, and Alison Brie is the perfect actress to bring the sexy yet vulnerable Lainey to life.<\/p>\n

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Jenna (13 Going on 30)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It takes a really special actress to be able to play a 13-year-old in an adult woman’s body, and Jennifer Garner is that actress. Jenna is slightly na\u00efve, but also wonderstruck at the life she’s leading as an adult, and also… a bit taken aback, given what a horrible person she apparently turned out to be. But Jenna manages to turn all that around while finally realizing what she has in her best friend, Matty. It’s not just about finding love, but discovering that having it all isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and happiness is more important than success.<\/p>\n

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Princess Anne (Roman Holiday)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Audrey Hepburn is so insanely charming as the sheltered Princess Ann, a young woman controlled by schedules, meetings, and diplomacy. Desperate to experience some normalcy, she sneaks out during a trip to Rome and meets an opportunistic reporter played by Gregory Peck. Hepburn won an Oscar for her portrayal of Princess Ann, and rightfully so. Her naivety, strength, and passion create such a delightful character that I can’t fathom it ever being successfully repeated.<\/p>\n

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Nancy (Man Up)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Like Lainey, Nancy is not your typical rom-com leading lady. She’s quite a mess, actually, and quite cynical about romance and relationships. But she’s also funny and impulsive and never hesitates to call Simon Pegg’s Jack out on his own bullshit after they meet. Lake Bell is tremendous as Nancy, and I would love to see her in more leading rom-com roles.<\/p>\n

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Bridget (Bridget Jones’s Diary)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Oh, Bridget. Always looking to lose a few pounds while searching for her Prince Charming. There’s nothing quite like watching Bridget awkwardly navigate her way through life and love. Her chemistry with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) is off the charts, but it’s not hard to see why she fell for Hugh Grant’s Daniel as well. It’s hard to imagine anyone else but Ren\u00e9e Zellweger playing Bridget for so many reasons, but I absolutely love this character, and I’m thrilled we get to see her ride off into the sunset with the love of her life (no, I am not thinking of the books, thank you).<\/p>\n

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Kat (10 Things I Hate About You)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Heath Ledger’s Patrick Verona tends to get most of the praise in this 90s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew<\/em>. But Julia Stiles really carries this movie as Kat Stratford, the antisocial, hard-headed high school senior who becomes the object of Verona’s affection. Stiles may play up the “shrewish” angle of the storyline, but she’s quite skilled at letting Kat’s insecurities and pain shine through when Patrick begins to peel back her many layers.<\/p>\n

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Monica (Love and Basketball)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you haven’t seen Love and Basketball,<\/em> you really should. It’s such a wonderful film, chronicling the friendship and romance between Monica and Quincy as they face life-threatening events that threaten to pull them apart. Sanaa Lathan is an actress I find to be very underrated, and she shines in Love and Basketball<\/em> as Monica. Monica is confident, so much so that she comes across as arrogant at times. Her strength hides her vulnerability, but when push comes to shove, she steps up and fights for what she wants.<\/p>\n

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Sally (When Harry Met Sally)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As neurotic as Sally is, it would have been very easy to view the character as an unlikable mess. But when Meg Ryan plays her, she instead becomes an adorable neurotic mess, one who amuses rather than annoys. Watching Sally’s friendship with Harry (Billy Crystal) blossom and grow is pure perfection.<\/p>\n

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Leslie (Just Wright)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Leslie is a woman who has little luck in the love department. She’s a sports physical therapist, and her love of sports tends to put her in the camp of being “one of the guys,” especially when her best friend Morgan (Paula Patton) is gorgeous and feminine. I love that Leslie never changes who she is to get the guy. She’s authentic and stays true to herself.<\/p>\n\n

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Elle (Legally Blonde)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Look, Idon’t think Legally Blonde<\/em> really qualifies as a romantic comedy. There is romance, sure, but it’s definitely not the film’s plot, nor is it really a subplot. It’s a very minor one, so I’ve always been wary about putting Legally Blonde<\/em> on any lists. But for the sake of this one, I’m going to go ahead and use Elle Woods. She’s hilarious, smart, and, like Leslie Wright, not afraid to be herself, even if others ridicule her.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Girl Week 2021: Like the Against the Blogathon, Dell on Movies is hosting a new blogathon celebrating women in film. It takes place November 22nd-November 28th, so here is my contribution! Female Leads in Romantic Comedies. Mind you, this is not an entire list of my favorite rom-com heroines, because that would be the longest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2615,4262,2377],"tags":[2503,2581,2582,2583],"class_list":["post-14706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-blogathon","category-lists","tag-blogathon","tag-favorite-female-leads-in-romantic-comedies","tag-girl-week","tag-girl-week-2021"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14706"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85667,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14706\/revisions\/85667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theromcomcatalog.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}