March is National Women's History Month, and the Teen Board is celebrating through a series of blog posts! Every Thursday this month, a different Teen Board member is writing a post that somehow relates to women and literature, so make sure you keep an eye out each week! The second one is by Aliza M., where she talks about a great female role model in YA lit --- Hermione Granger.Read on!
Hermione Granger is one of my favorite fictional women of all time. The amount of effort that she puts into everything that she does inspires me to constantly work my hardest. She teaches me that I should not make excuses for my bad work. Instead, I should put in as much effort as needed in order to produce the best product that I can.
Hermione is a bright, intelligent woman who does whatever she puts her mind to. Although Hermione was muggle-born and only found out about magic a few months before attending her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she quickly shot to the top of the class. Hermione not only completed every single assignment that she was given, but she also put in extra effort so that her final product was perfect.
Hermione could’ve gotten away with lower grades. Teachers understood that she had just been introduced to magic, so they weren’t expecting very much from her. Instead of fulfilling their expectations, Hermione worked harder than some of the other students to make sure that she achieved the best marks possible.
Even when there are no grades at stake, Hermione continues to work extremely hard. When Hermione was working with her friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, to break into the Slytherin common room, she put in a huge amount of effort to make sure that they were brewing the Polyjuice Potion correctly. Hermione did not have to create such a difficult potion, but she knew that this would be the most foolproof way to achieve her goal, so she did it.
After her sixth year at Hogwarts, Hermione dropped out of school in order to help Harry destroy Voldemort, an evil wizard. She continued working hard even when she was done with school. Throughout her time searching for ways to beat him, Hermione constantly applied her knowledge and logic. Hermione was not forced to work hard, yet she put in as much effort as she could to succeed in her mission.
Hermione Granger is a perfect example of a hardworking young woman. I believe that we can all learn to work hard from her, no matter what. We, as women and people in general, should not let excuses stand in our way. Even if we could get away with doing less than perfect work, we should not let that happen. We should not settle for doing our second best work --- we can, and should, always work our hardest. If we focus on emulating Hermione’s attributes, we will be able to succeed in everything we do.
