Way back when (where the value of when equals March 4th, 2008), the talented Mia Nutick debuted the amazing new chimera_fancies: pendants of various sizes, painted in gorgeous and sometimes glittering colors, featuring tiny poems constructed from the printed pages of old books. It was recycled creativity at its finest and the poem-pendants she crafted were nothing less than revelatory.

I was lucky enough to land one of the most beautiful early examples of her art: the black and red-glittering flower-kissed pendant that proclaims "wicked girls saving ourselves." Yet even though Wicked Girls came to live only with me, its influence has been vast.

On May 9th, 2008, seanan_mcguire wrote a song inspired by the poem-pendant, entitled, naturally enough, "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves." It is, in a word, amazing, and you don't have to take my word for it. You can listen to a recording here or even watch a video of her performing it live at Duckon 2009 with Vixy & Tony and S.J. Tucker! (Seriously, listen. You need to, even if you don't know that you do.)

The concept of wicked girls saving themselves is one that's very inspiring to me and close to my heart (and I don't just mean when I'm wearing the pendant, hah). For all intents and purposes, I've been a wicked girl for most of my life and definitely had to save myself a time or two. Poem-pendants and beautiful songs that encourage this behavior simply enrich my life. I dare say that's true for more girls than me.

Seanan recently engaged in penning some apocryphal verses to her song, because she's crazy and always plays the best party games. As she says in the title of that post, the world is in need of wicked girls. That sparked something inside me and so an icon meme was born. And so, for your pleasure, I present to you the birth of a new line of "Wicked Girls" icons, starring some of my favorite wicked girls:

001

002

003

004

005

006

007

008

009

010

In order, this particular run of Wicked Girls icons stars: Toby Daye (from Seanan McGuire's forthcoming Rosemary and Rue!), Ofelia from Pan's Labyrinth, Coraline from Neil Gaiman's Coraline, Emma Frost of X-Men fame, Alice from Resident Evil, Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean, Elphaba from Wicked, Flying Snow from Hero, September from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and Sorrow from The Orphan's Tales (the latter two being by Catherynne M. Valente, of course).

Comments are keen! If you use, feel free to credit talkstowolves. And I am totally open to requests!