Rise of the Female Archers

By: Emily S.

From Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games to Merida of Brave, girls all over the United States are trying their hands with a bow and arrow. After watching the hail of arrows, girls of all ages are eager to head for the archery camps to show or find their shooting ability. According to the informal survey I did at my school, 80 percent of students have a female sibling that has become hooked on archery. It isn’t because of Hawkeye from Avengers or Robin from Robin Hood that’s for sure!

The obsession over archery has even hit the newspapers! The Atlanta- Journal Constitution states that “Camps all over the state have seen a dramatic increase in the registration for archery camps.” Some of the campers are even younger than expected. The newspaper states in one article that “A second grader that was interviewed during archery practice stated that her love of archery came from her dead-center bulls-eye that she got with her first time handling a bow.” “People started calling me “little Katniss” after that.” The girl said grinning.

Girls have also been portrayed as archers in some book series. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson has mentioned that Artemis, goddess of the Hunt, uses a bow and arrows as her weapon. The books three and five in the Percy Jackson series state that Artemis recruits young girls to be in her “Hunters of Artemis” group. These girls hunt monsters in packs with bows and arrows as their weapons. Basically, it is an eternal girls’ club with no one underestimating you. Cool, right?

Female archers don’t have to be myths or movie characters to have mad skills with a bow. Take the female Olympic archers from the London games as examples. They put Robin Hood to shame.

Guys all over the state sometimes underestimate us girls at sports. However, if there are guys reading this article you should know that we kick butt!! One thing’s for sure. This truly is the rise of the female archers.