Jo March from “Little Women.” Jo is lively, has a bad temper, and refuses to conform to norms.
She is modeled after the author, Louisa May Alcott, who in the 19th century, was the first woman to register to vote in her county, supported her family through her writings, although she preferred her “Blood and Thunder” stories (written under A.M. Barnard) better than her more famous children’s books, which she referred to as “moral pap for the young”. There is a chapter in her last “March Family” chronicles, “Jo’s Boys”, which describes some of the true details of someone who has become suddenly famous.
One of Miss Alcott’s more well-known quotes is that "I would rather remain a free spinster and paddle my own canoe.
Jo is the role model for strong minded, independent women everywhere. She eventually married because of pressure from the publishers, but Miss Alcott remained “a free spinster who paddled her own canoe” until she died at age 57 (I believe it was) from mercury poisoning which was a result of her service as a nurse during the American Civil War during the 1860’s. And Jo shows Louisa in all her glory.