Now, I have to ask this because- as a natural blond- I've started to notice things (hey, hey- I said blond, not dense). In the past decade or so, there has been a staggering lack of blond lead characters in anything- books, movies, so on. We seem to always be cast as the bitch, the homecoming queen (which I can tell you is not always the case, it's not like you're a blond and the second you set foot in high school, boom, instant popularity), the slutty friend, or- the age old classic- the ditz.

I pushed it aside, thought I was exaggerating within the confines of my own mind- I mean, Sookie Stackhouse is blond, though she's the town pariah due to her telepathic kookiness and Ever Bloom of Evermore (series title: The Immortals) is blond, a book which, by the way I was enjoying til I got to the endish part, then I was like "yeeeaaah . .. chick, you totally lost me on this whole 'the power of love' trip"- I'm not hatin', it's just my opinion. But then, I saw the commercial for the WB's upcoming series The Vampire Diaries. At first I thought it was different from the L.J. Smith series of the same name, which I read and adored when it first came out. Then I heard the names of the main characters and I realized that it was the very same. Problem . . . in the books, Elena, the female lead, is a blond. In the tv series, she's very darkly brunette.

I mean seriously . . . I know I sound angsty and touchy, like I'm being overly sensitive, but . . . I can't help it, this is how I feel. It may seem odd, but growing up, I had trouble relating to characters that didn't bare any physical resemblance to me at all. Now, no, I don't mean I was expecting to ever find a character that was a dead ringer for me, but hey, I'm a shortish, average-to-curvy blonde with hazel eyes and pale skin . . . how the hell am I supposed to be able to relate a 5'9 statuesque Mediterranean chick, or a skinny African American chick who's only problem is that her rack is so huge guys always forget that her eyes are on her face and how the world perceives them, which in turn affects how they relate to the world around them?

A lot of people would say it's like Disney when they were making up for Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty being blond by having every other female lead afterward be of another hair color . . . but hello? Snow White predated both of those fairy tale retellings, and she had jet black hair, so . . . what was the deal with that, anyways? And it's not like female movie leads back in the day were predominantly blond, either, they were varied, just as it should be. So . . . what gives with all the angst-ridden blond hating?

Okay . . . and that was Freya's rant for this week.