Via Latimes.com:

The love for Princess Leia Organa was strong among the “Star Wars” professionals, fans and professional fans attending the “What Princess Leia Means to Me” panel on Sunday at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim. Panelists and audience members took the occasion to share the many ways the iconic character has influenced their lives.

The panel, moderated by Jennifer Heddie, a senior editor at Lucasfilm, featured actress Catherine Taber, artists Cat Staggs and Katie Cook, author Christie Golden and Lucasfilm creative executive Rayne Roberts.

For a number of the panelists Princess Leia was the first example they encountered in media that showed women could have agency.

Princess Leia was “the first female character I remember that wasn’t the one that needed to be saved,” said Staggs, a comic book artist whose “Star Wars” related work includes illustrating trading cards and art for StarWars.com. What stood out to her about Leia was the fact that “she took charge.”

For Taber, the actress who voices Padme Amidala in the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” TV series, Leia’s significance is that she sent the messages to girls watching the films that “you need to be the masters of your own life.” A message, she added, that girls even now need to hear.

Panelists discussed how the existence of Princess Leia also affected the roles available to them while they were growing up playing with boys during their formative years.

When playing “Star Wars” with other children, because of Princess Leia, “I wasn’t stuck in the closet waiting to be saved,” said Golden, a sci-fi and fantasy author whose resume includes a few “Star Wars” novels.

Staggs agreed, adding that “it was fun to play a character and not be pigeonholed as the damsel in distress.”

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