by: Aurora Willis

To kick off the celebrate the Summer of Supergirl, I thought I share the story about how she became my favorite superhero. Full disclaimer this piece was originally a story for a creative writing class which is why it reads like a story. Please enjoy my super origin story.

My hands shook as I looked out at the crowd of people before me. I knew that I wanted to do my second-grade talent show, but now it was actually here, and it was my turn; I had the strongest urge to run away and find some place to hide. I remember telling my mom about the show and how I wanted to join. When I asked her what I should do, she told me, “You should bring your action figures in and tell people all about your favorite superheroes.” I practiced for weeks; my teacher even let me present to my classroom to prepare me for the big day. But after seeing act after act go before me and dazzle the crowd with music, dance, and maybe one to many renditions of “Let It Go”, I begin to feel as small and insignificant as my action figures. But then I looked down at one of the action figures I brought, my favorite one of the three: Supergirl.

Standing at only 3.5 inches tall, the figure had blonde hair, red boots that matched her red cape, a blue skirt, and a wide smile that seemed to say “Everything is going to be ok.”  Created in 1959 by Otto Binder and Al Plastino for Action Comics #252. Supergirl is Superman’s cousin; she has all his powers, but she was no sidekick. She was a hero in her own right who protected the innocent and took on supervillains on her own. At the time, there wasn’t much Supergirl media. Only a few episodes of animated shows where she wasn’t exactly the main character and one animated movie in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. However, this didn’t stop me from claiming Supergirl as my favorite superhero. After thinking about all the battles Supergirl faced and won, I found the strength to step in front of the crowd and present my talent. “This is Supergirl; she was born on the planet Krypton and is Superman’s cousin. When Kryton exploded, Supergirl was sent away in a rocket ship like Superman. But her ship got knocked off course, so when she finally made it to Earth, Superman had grown up while she remained a teenager. Like Superman, she can fly, has super strength, heat vision, and freeze breath.” I did the same thing with two other action figures: Wonder Woman and Batgirl, and by the time I was done, everyone clapped and cheered. After the talent show, it felt like I was flying. People began coming up to congratulate me on a job well done: teachers and classmates whom I had never talked to before. But just as I was about to enjoy the moment, it all came crashing down on the playground.

A girl, about my age, who I had never seen before came up to me and said something along the lines of, “I just wanted to let you know that I thought what you did was stupid and that superheroes are stupid and you are stupid; you don’t deserve to win anything.” Then, like some kind of supervillain, she just took off and in her wake left me in tears. I felt like I had fallen from a great height, and that feeling of flight was just… gone. Weeks later, it was revealed that I had been one of the winners of the talent show and had to do my performance again, but this time in front of the whole school. While I was able to do it without being as nervous as last time, by the time I finished, I didn’t feel the same sense of pride as I did the first time, the same feeling of flight. All I could feel were the words of that girl telling me I was stupid. Years went by, and memories of the talent show became like a healed scar. My knowledge and love for Superheroes continued to grow, especially for Supergirl. I read and watched everything she was in. I watched her put herself between an asteroid and a city, travel to the future, and even face down the DC Universe’s most powerful and feared villain Darkside. To me, Supergirl was the ultimate superhero. Because even after losing her entire world, her friends, and her family at such a young age, she still cared about helping people and doing good. For a time, in my little world of flying and capes, there was peace.

However, in 5th grade, my own supervillain returned. And this time, she was in my class. Every day without fail, she made me cry. She teased me about everything I liked, everything I did, but mainly she would tease me for liking superheroes. “Superheroes are for boys. Are you a boy, Aurora?” One day, after a particularly brutal verbal beatdown, I found myself thinking, “What if I gave up on superheroes? Would the bullying stop? Would the tears finally stop?” As I continued to lose battle after battle, one day my dad told me that Supergirl was getting her own live-action TV show and that even though I wasn’t technically old enough, I could watch it. I jumped for joy at that news. When the trailer came out, every time I was feeling sad or alone, I would just put it on and watch it over and over again. Then on October 26 2015, I watched the first episode of CBS Supergirl. The episode retold her origin exactly like how I described it all those years ago at the talent show. The show followed Supergirl, who had been keeping her powers a secret since coming to earth, until one day she used them to rescue a plane her adoptive sister was on. After that she takes on the mantle of Supergirl and the series follows her journey of becoming a hero. When the episode ended, all thoughts of giving up superheroes were completely forgotten; instead all I could think about was next week’s episode. From then on, the show became a kind of anchor for me.

Whenever my supervillain tried to ruin my day, I knew that every week without fail Supergirl would be there for me. Eventually summer finally rolled around and me and my supervillain parted ways. While we did end up meeting again in middle school, with the lessons I had learned from Supergirl and other heroes, I discovered a new way of fighting her, which was to not fight her at all. Instead I forgave her, and when I noticed her struggling in class, I offered her my help. By doing this I was finally able to unmask my supervillains true identity. A sad lonely kid who took their frustration out on me because they were jealous. Throughout my teen and young adult life, I have been hard on my younger self. Back then I was very gullible and naive, to the point where I actually believed a classmate had Zendaya’s phone number. I was also overly sensitive; every one of my elementary school classes had seen me cry at some point in the school year. But as I have gotten older, I have realized that my younger self was also very strong. No matter what anyone said about her or to her, she was always herself. She never hid her love of superheroes; in fact she would show it off any chance she got. At a time when kids often shrink themselves to find some level of acceptance, I found that in the things that brought me joy. For the longest time, I had thought I had lost my ability to fly the day of the talent show. But it turns out, every time I choose to live as my most authentic self, I was flying. Something I now realize I have in common with Supergirl. As in, on November 9 2021, in the final few minutes of the final episode. The series ends with Supergirl revealing her secret identity to the world so she could finally live as her most authentic self.