Courtney Love - Wonderful Woman No. 13

Courtney Love - Born 1964
American Singer, Songwriter, Musician and Actress

When the photo of Courtney Love appeared in my photo album, there was a comment protesting her inclusion.

Really? A media hungry drug addled train wreck who has had her children taken away from her on more than one occasion? I find nothing inspirational about this professional widow.
Owain, A Wonderful Man

While I do take Owain's point on Courtney, the original idea behind the album was not 'inspirational' women (although many of them are, especially as the album developed), it was more a selection of women who had been an influence at some point in my life, who I had been in awe of at some age or other.

I was, for a couple of years, a desperately unhappy teenager. I went through a period in high school were I was subjected to some fairly horrendous bullying by a group of very cruel girls in my year group. The typical girl-type bullying that was rarely about physical abuse and rather more about emotional torture. This was in the early 1990s when Courtney was a big deal. I saw the grunge girl who didn't seem to give a monkeys what anyone thought of her, she just got on with doing her thing whilst flicking a two fingers to the world... I really envied that.

My angsty teenage phase was short-lived, I moved on and gave Courtney no more thought but at the time, I guess it was important for me to be aware of someone like her... or, at least, the person I envisaged her to be when I was fourteen. I was not the only girl to feel this, I'm sure many, many others did too.

Although she doesn't 'inspire' me (although she's a pretty decent songwriter) I think most women our age have some level of interest in her?! She is very assertive, confident and talented and that's always good to see in a woman (particularly a woman in rock , a VERY male Dominated genre) I think some of her appeal for me has also been that she is a very obvious example of an emotionally troubled person (Something we all can at times relate to) and I think she, although obviously is now in a lot of ways, media driven, has always had some quite 'real' qualities which make her interesting and attractive. I definitely felt in awe of her at times as a teenager/young woman. She has massive balls!! And that's cool....She can stay [in the album] in my book...
Tara, A Wonderful Woman