8. Zooey Deschanel (Jess - New Girl)
The first series of New Girl introduced us to Jessica Day, a school teacher who was putting her life back together after being cheated on by her boyfriend with the help of her new roommates Nick, Winston and Schmidt. Of course, being played by Zooey Deschanel, Jess was not without her quirks, including a tendency to randomly break into song and a compulsion to watch Dirty Dancing whenever she hit a low point. Casual critics have accused Zooey Deschanel's portrayal of Jess as being anti-feminist as she's a leading female character with a tendency to behave childishly and who seems to lack intelligence. We have to disagree with this idea, Jess is a young professional (one of her more endearing qualities is how seriously she takes her job as a teacher) who grows in strength and independence as the series goes on and isn't afraid to be herself, even when encouraged to tone herself down by those around her. In fact, the character seems to address these critics directly with a speech she gave to a character portrayed by Lizzy Caplan during the second season: "I brake for birds, I rock a lot of polka dots, I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours, I spend my entire day talking to children...but that doesn't mean I'm not smart and tough and strong". Sounds like a worthy leading lady to us.