Young girls becoming action stars

From the murderous Laura in “Logan’’ to the mysterious Eleven in “Stranger Things’’ to the audacious determination of Mija in “Okja,’’ opening Wednesday, powerful young girls are starring in mainstream action fare like never before.

Though Nancy Drew was solving mysteries in the 1930s and Buffy slayed vampires all through high school in the late 1990s, young girls are rarely shown as heroes in programs aimed at general audiences, said Mary Celeste Kearney, director of gender studies and a professor of film, television and theatre at University of Notre Dame.

“Girls have seen these figures ... but when they’ve looked to mainstream stuff and what their brothers and their dads and boys are watching, those girls are never there,’’ Kearney said. “And now they are, and that’s huge.’’

It means girls don’t have to look to grown up heroes like Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games’’ or Rey in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’’ Like 10-year-old Elliot on the flying bicycle in “E.T. the Extraterrestrial,’’ now girls are having awesome genre adventures as powerful young kids onscreen.

The Duffer Brothers said gender was never a question when it came to creating the super-powered star character in their Netflix series “Stranger Things.’’ Eleven, played by 13-year-old Millie Bobby Brown, can move things with her mind and is the fascinating secret friend of a group of preteen boys in the fictional town of Hawkins, Ind.

A second little girl is joining the cast for the show’s second season, which premieres Oct. 31.