Piper McLean is one of three main characters in Rick Riordan's "Lost Hero". Piper is a very strong female character. She is the daughter of Tristan McLean; a famous movie actor, yet she doesn't let any of the fame get to her head. Piper is also daughter to Aphrodite; the Greek goddess of love and beauty. McLean is beautiful, as expected of a daughter of Aphrodite, but she doesn't seem to notice or care for that matter. "She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself." pg.4 Riordan. Piper even cuts her own hair rather than allow her dad's personal stylist to cut it for her, so naturally it's choppy.
Piper is discovered as a demigod (half mortal, half god) and taken to Camp Half-Blood. When she arrives at camp, she almost instantly makes an enemy out of the Aphrodite cabin counselor; Drew. Drew insults her and calls her names unworthy of Aphrodite. She also immediately knows that she wants to be a daughter of Artemis or Athena (anything but Aphrodite.) Before Piper is claimed as Aphrodite's daughter, she overhears the Aphrodite cabin giggling about boys "there was some giggling from the Aphrodite cabin. God, what a bunch of losers, Piper thought." pg. 123 Riordan. When the claiming occurs, Aphrodite exchanges Piper's comfortable jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and snowboarding jacket for a white dress with an extremely low V-neck, stiletto heels, and makeup. Aphrodite even takes away Piper's pimple which she'd had so long she'd named it Bob. Piper's hair is also magically beautified. As soon as Piper sees what happened, she hates it. "Sure she looked great after Aphrodite zapped her, but she also didn't look like herself, not comfortable with the attention." pg. 163 Riordan. Later, in her cabin "she'd tried everything; she messed up her hair, washed the makeup off her face, cried to make her eyes red. Nothing worked. Her hair popped back to perfection. The magic makeup reapplied itself. Her eyes refused to get puffy or bloodshot." pg. 173 Riordan. When Piper's cabin mates told that her mother's blessing would last at least another week, she groaned and furiously continued her efforts to be rid of her new look.
Piper hates that she is Aphrodite's daughter. She hates the policies of the Aphrodite cabin. On her first day there, she learns that to be a true daughter of Aphrodite she'll have to have her rite of passage. Her cabin mates sum up the rite of passage as beginning to date someone, then tragically breaking their heart, for fun. She thinks it's just plain wrong that what the cabin does in their free time is setting up couples then tearing them down and starting over. Piper also thinks that because all the girls in the cabin are not very smart because all they care about is makeup and boys. "Just because Aphrodite claimed me, doesn't mean that I have to be an airhead." pg. 199 Riordan. When she finds herself having an inkling to care about fashion and makeup; "She'd never cared about things like that before. She wondered if it was her stupid mother, the goddess of love, messing with her thoughts. If Piper started getting urges to read fashion magazines, she was going to have to find Aphrodite and smack her." pg. 245 Riordan
She's also incredibly tough. "She's tough for a child of Aphrodite. I like this one." pg. 396 Riordan. Instead of obsessing over her beauty, she uses it as a tool to help her friends during their quest. As an example, she helps distract the Cyclopes in Monocle Motors, and she is able to persuade the Boreads to let them land in Quebec. Even her mom thinks she's tough "You have a strong will," she mused. "I'm never given much credit among the gods. My children are laughed at. They're dismissed as conceited and shallow." pg. 431 Riordan.
So in conclusion, while many think that all female characters in modern books are shallow and only concerned with girl drama, there are many notable exceptions. Piper McLean is only one of many other tough female characters out there in the modern world.