Velu Nachiyar
Random Princesses

Charlotte Badger
The first European woman to end up in New Zealand, Charlotte Badger was part pirate, part adopted Maori, and part mom. Which part is which is somewhat lost to history.

Gudit
This Jewish-Ethiopian warrior queen took the throne, ended a millennium-old biblical dynasty, and caused a break in Ethiopia's history that has not healed to this day - or did she...?

Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones)
This leader of the labor movement suffered imprisonment, defamation, and untold misery to battle against forces that most of us just take for granted.

Penta
When her brother of this fairytale princess decided to marry her, she warded him off by cutting off her own hands. Then she gave birth to a dog. It got weirder after that.

Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz
This brilliant poet rose from illegitimacy and poverty to become one of the luminaries of her age - until she flew too close to the sun.

Iara
When this indigenous Brazilian warrior mermaid proved too awesome for her tribe, she just took up residence in the water, and started an aquatic harem of passers-by.

Annie Jump Cannon
This astronomer threw off all the social conventions of her day to pursue her one true calling: the stars.

Arawelo
Somalia's ballsiest queen, she took power from men either figuratively or literally - by ordering much of the gender castrated.…

Beloved
The ghost of a tragically-murdered young child come back to haunt her mother in post-slavery America.

Keumalahayati
The first naval admiral of modern times, she protected her country from foreign invaders with aplomb.