Girl Power isn't just for girls anymore.

As millennial I feel like the need for nostalgia is almost overwhelming. Cartoons and other children's programming was such a huge part of my childhood, as I'm sure it was for everyone else in the class. Seeing as I am also a girl I typically leaned towards these girl power programs (although I watched a lot of "boys" programs too.) While I was reading the article about Nick and empowered girls in children's pop culture my mind couldn't help but wander to my favorite programs as a kid. Shows in the 1980s like G.I. JOE and My Little Pony ushered in a lot of new cartoon content, but it's sole purpose was the sell toys. The 90s still had that profit motive, but the children's program became focused on making more diverse and thoughtful programming. Shows like Batman: The Animated Series and The Power Puff Girls won the hearts of not only girls and boys, but a lot of the critics too.  

Each children's network not only had shows that fit into the "Girl power" category, but programs that were geared towards boys had at least one, or multiple well rounded female characters. I would argue that the girl power trend has seeped into children's programming across the board. I'm going to go back the the 80s yet again, because the transformation of children's programming has been so great since that time. Female characters in the 1980s were generally pretty bland, while there were a few exceptions; for the most part the female characters in both girls and boys programming were pretty troped out and recyclable. I would argue that male characters were treated the same way in some regards, because the point of the shows were to sell the toys.  

Skip forward to the 90s, and even to shows that have aired in recent years, casts of empowered female characters have grown. I don't think this growth of active and diverse female characters for both girls and boys to relate to is only thanks to Girl Power. However, I do think that it has benefited and evolved thanks to the interest in girl power. These female and male characters have strong bonds of friendship, strength, intellect, and leadership. These examples of strong values help both genders relate to one another. Instead of highlighting the differences between male and female characters this phenomenon has strengthened the bridge between them.