You can't be a strong or cool woman and be represented except in a harsh way, looking mean and cold and hard. It's like reverse sexism.

All I wanted was to be independent. I think the most important thing in life is to be able to do what you want to do—and I am.

Whenever I get a free period, I set off to the college library and work systematically through the Dewey system, taking each book off the shelf one by one and adding, in black biro, ’/she’ and ’/woman’ to every ‘he’ and 'man’. I do this for the whole...