Written by: Amani Rizwan

Photo by: BBC One

International Women’s Day has come and gone for another year, but if we only celebrate women’s voices one day a year, we’re doing it wrong. The impact of female creators isn’t confined to a calendar date—it’s woven into the books we revisit, the films that linger in our minds, and the music that becomes the soundtrack to our lives. These ten works, spanning literature, music, film, and television, are not just brilliant in their own right, they challenge the notion that women’s stories must be rooted in struggle to be meaningful. Instead, they showcase hope, creativity, and the full range of the human experience, serving as a reminder that female-driven storytelling is essential every single day.

1. “Papicha” (2019) – Mounia Meddour

"I want to live, I want to be free. And I want to be happy."

An ambitious debut by Algerian director Mounia Meddour, “Papicha” tells the story of Nedjma, a fashion student, who is out to beat the odds. With Islamic conservatism on the rise in her town in Algiers, and armed with nothing but zeal and creativity, Nedjma stages a clandestine fashion show to prove that she refuses to be on the wrong side of history. The film is a creative, personal, and political resistance. With tasteful direction, Meddour crafts a vibrant and urgent portrait of womanhood under threat, showcasing that fashion can be just as rebellious as it is beautiful.

2. Alone With You in the Ether (2022) – Olivie Blake

“The world loved to take a beautiful woman and exclaim at the charm of her single imperfection”

Olivie Blake’s novel isn’t your standard love story. It’s about two people, one a bipolar artist, the other a time-obsessed mathematician, whose relationship unfolds in a way that feels at once inevitable and impossible. It’s a deeply cerebral, poetic, and emotionally intricate exploration of love, mental illness, and fate, written with the kind of lyrical precision that lingers long after you close the book.

3. Blue (1971) – Joni Mitchell

“All good dreamers pass this way some day. Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes"

If heartbreak had a sound, it would be Joni Mitchell’s Blue. This album is a masterclass in raw vulnerability, and it carefully balances poetic confession with musical brilliance. Mitchell’s unique voice, sometimes delicate, sometimes devastating, carries an emotional honesty that has made Blue a timeless touchstone for generations of artists and dreamers. Not to mention the fact that Blue has also been immortalized in film numerous times. Most memorably, it’s the soundtrack to a scene in “Love, Actually” where Track 8 on the album, River, plays as Emma Thompson is wrapping Christmas presents alongside Alan Rickman.

4. “Fleabag” (2016-2019) – Phoebe Waller-Bridge

“Women are born with pain built in. It’s our physical destiny. Period pain. Sore boobs. Childbirth. We carry it within ourselves throughout our lives. Men don’t. They have to seek it out.”

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag is what happens when wit, rage, grief, and existential dread meet in a North London café. This mini-series is hilarious and devastating as it turns breaking the fourth wall into an art form. Waller-Bridge gives us one of the most complicated and honest portrayals of modern womanhood as messy, lustful, self-sabotaging, and achingly human as it can be.

5. “Free Solo” (2018) – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

“Anyone can be happy and cosy. Nothing good happens in the world by being happy and cozy.”

*Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin with Alex Honnold and Sanni McCandless (photo by:* *Chris Pizzello*)

Co-directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Free Solo is an Oscar-winning documentary about Alex Honnold and his daredevil attempt to scale El Capitan — the 3,000-foot granite rock in Yosemite National Park. Honnold’s climb was made even more nerve-wracking with Vasarhely’s expert directing and story-telling skills that elevated the documentary to the next level. She managed to bring what had been a previously so-called nerdy genre into the mainstream — a rare feat for a woman in an industry still dominated by men.

6. American Primitive (1983) – Mary Oliver

“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.”

If you ever need proof that poetry can be as fierce as it is tender, Mary Oliver’s American Primitive will do the job. This Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of poems celebrates nature, solitude, and self-discovery, written in Oliver’s intimate yet quietly profound signature style. Reading her work feels like walking through a forest and suddenly understanding something about yourself you never put into words before.

7. Skin (2019) – Joy Crookes

“The skin that you’re given, was made to be lived in/You’ve got a life, you’ve got a life, worth living”.

Joy Crookes’ Skin is an album that mixes old-school soul with contemporary R&B, pairing lush instrumentation with sharp storytelling. Crookes navigates identity, love, and heritage with a voice that feels both classic and fresh. The result? A deeply personal and politically aware album that places her firmly among the most compelling new artists of her generation.

8. Messy (2023) – Olivia Dean

“It isn't working/ I'm a tidal wave of question marks/And you're just surfing”

Olivia Dean’s Messy is the musical equivalent of your most honest group chat. It’s warm, intimate, and completely free of pretension. With a voice that melts effortlessly into jazz, soul, and pop, Dean writes about love and uncertainty with a refreshing sincerity, like someone telling you their most embarrassing heartbreak story over coffee.

9. “Lady Bird” (2017) – Greta Gerwig

“Money is not life's report card. Being successful doesn't mean anything in and of itself. It just means that you're successful. But that doesn't mean that you're happy.”

Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird isn’t just a coming-of-age movie; it’s the coming-of-age movie. Saorise Ronan plays Christine “Ladybird” McPherson, a restless high school senior, intent on escaping the monotony of her dull life in Sacramento and her even duller Catholic school. While she contends with the trials of teenage independence, she also wrestles with her rocky relationship with her mother. Based on Gerwig’s relationship with her own mom, Lady Bird beautifully captures the rawness of adolescence and the lessons that come with it.

10. Rye Lane (2023) – Raine Allen-Miller

“So apparently there are two types of people in this world. The ones who wave at boats, and the ones who hate joy.”

Raine Allen-Miller’s debut, Rye Lane, takes the rom-com formula, turns it on its head, and injects it with color, wit, and a distinctly British charm. A love story set against the vibrant streets of South London, it’s fast, funny, and refreshingly modern. Like Before Sunrise, but with more energy, more humor, a Colin Firth cameo, and a whole lot more Nando’s.

Conclusion

In essence, these works stand on their own two feet. Too often, the world expects women to create only from their struggles as if their stories are only valid when shaped by suffering. Women don’t just write about hardship—they write about love, ambition, art, adventure, and everything in between. As Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women so perfectly puts it:

"Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they've got ambition, and they've got talent, as well as just beauty."

So whether it’s today, tomorrow, or six months from now, seek out, celebrate, and engage with female-led storytelling—not because it’s made by women, but because it’s extraordinary.

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