Vampire Diaries: Why creator L.J. Smith writes strong female characters

“I want to create role models for teenage (and even younger) girls who read my books.”

The Vampire Diaries is a YA vampire fiction series of novels created by L. J. Smith. The story centers on Elena Gilbert, a young high school girl who finds her heart eventually torn between two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. The Vampire Diaries was also developed into a 2009-2017 supernatural teen drama TV series.

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Lisa Jane Smith, known professionally as L.J. Smith, has written more than two dozen books for young adults. In addition to the Vampire Diaries, she has also written the bestselling Night World series and The Forbidden Game series, as well as the Dark Visions trilogy.

Her books, which combine elements of the genres of horror, science fiction/fantasy, and romance, are populated with young and apparently-young human and supernatural characters locked in dark vs. light, good vs. evil conflict. A dark antagonist typically attempts to seduce a heroine into the darkness, and in some cases is instead reborn into the light. The popular Night World series adds a recurring reality-altering conspiracy theme, enlivened with “romantic soul mate scenarios.”

On her website, author Smith explains why her fiction includes strong female characters: “Because I want to create role models for teenage (and even younger) girls who read my books. If you look at the books, just about every heroine has a future career or goal in mind (even fickle Elena Gilbert is determined to one day return to the Dark Dimension and help free the slaves).”

She points out that some of her characters, like Rashel Jordan of The Chosen, and Jez Redfern of Huntress (both from the Night World series) are already immersed in their careers as vampire-hunters. Poppy North (also Night World, as are the next few girls) has an ambition to travel the world, and Mary-Lynnette Carter wants to become an astronomer. Hannah Storm wants to be a paleontologist (although these days she’s probably got her hands full helping to run Circle Daybreak.)

“Some of my characters don’t start out as strong girls,” Smith says. “They start out as shy, introverted or gentle girls, like Cassie Blake of The Secret Circle, or Jenny Thornton of The Forbidden Game. Then the story is about how they become stronger, through their terrifying experiences and their concern for other people. Strange Fate has this kind of a heroine, Sarah Strange.”

At another section on her site, Smith explained that the main reason for what she writes is that she was a shy girl when she was young, and went through all the pains of being teased—and of only remembering in the middle of the night that perfect cutting remark she could have made to the jerk who had bullied her the previous day at lunch.

“Now that I can create my own worlds, and get them put into print,” she said, “I can strike a blow for myself and all the other shy girls as well. My shy girls manage to think of cutting remarks at just the right time. More, they discover that they are really heir to some great magical legacy, and that they get more powerful every day as they learn to trust themselves and believe in their instincts.”

Why L.J. Smith writes urban fantasy

“I suspect it is because it was fantasy literature that had the most influence on me when I was a child and adolescent. I’ve often said that as a child I was certain that magic must exist, and that I would find it.

“But by the time I was twelve or thirteen I realized that if I wanted magic I was going to have to make it for myself. I was already a writer by then—I’d started with poetry when I was four or five, and showed my work to teachers by age 6. But I was a storyteller from a much younger age than that.

“As far as I can remember, I always had several stories going on in my head and many of them partially written down. My first two published books were only ‘urban fantasy’ in the sense that C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia are. But my first bestsellers were the next books I wrote, The Vampire Diaries.

“Once I got started with vampires and witches and so on, I got so many letters (yes, snail mail—this was the old, old days) asking me to write more that I did write more.”

What she thinks of how different the Vampire Diaries show is from the books

“I still wish that someone as talented as [TV showrunner] Kevin Williamson would come along and tell the story the way it is told in the books, but that doesn’t dull my appreciation of the version that is out.”

About the Vampire Diaries novels

The Vampire Diaries books focus on Elena Gilbert, a young high school girl who finds her heart eventually torn between two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. This YA vampire fiction series was created by author L.J. Smith.

The books in The Hunters trilogy were written by a ghostwriter. Smith had signed a “work for hire” for the original Vampire Diaries trilogy, so Alloy Entertainment owns the series. Alloy is a book packaging and television production unit that produces books, TV series, and movies. Among the TV series produced by the company are Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, The Originals, and The 100.

The Salvation trilogy was written by ghostwriter Aubrey Clark. She also was called to write The Secret Circle series, also created by L.J. Smith.

The Stefan’s Diaries series includes six novels based on the TV series. Although credited to Smith, these books were ghostwritten.

The Vampire Diaries book series

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The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries

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About the Vampire Diaries TV series

The Vampire Diaries was a 2009-2017 supernatural teen drama TV show developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name created by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on the CW, airing 171 episodes over the course of eight seasons.

The pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries attracted the largest audience for the CW of any series premiere since the network began in 2006—the first season averaged 3.60 million viewers. It became the most-watched series on the network before being supplanted by Arrow.

The popularity of the series provided a base to launch other TV shows, web series, novels and comic books. One spinoff was the TV show The Originals, which ran 2013-2018 on the CW. That led Legacies (2018-2022), which also aired on the CW.

According to TV Fanatic, Plec is even now working on the next phase of the Vampire Diaries universe. After three different series and 17 seasons, people thought the Vampire Diaries world was closing down with the exit of Legacies. However, she told Entertainment Weekly that the franchise is far from finished. “There will be another one. We’re going to take a beat, but yeah, there’s more ideas. There’s more to do.”