Bella embodies these post-feminist ideals. By just eighteen years old, she has already gotten married and had a baby, as well as found the soul mate that she will spend the rest of her life with. Bella doesn’t worry about going to college, or achieving professional success. Instead, she worries about her ability to be with Edward and about the safety of her family. Unlike most heroines, Bella doesn’t seem to have some higher purpose for the world, but is just focused on achieving happiness in her own life.
When I think of Twilight, the image of a screaming pre-teen who wants to marry Edward Cullen comes to mind. For young Twihards, Bella is a role model. Many fans interviewed in Tanya Erzen's Fanpire go to summer camps and conventions to try live like Bella for a few days because they want to be her. There are even WikiHow pages posted on the internet titled "How to Act like Bella From Twilight." To Twilight fans, Bella is more than just a fictional character, but a representation of what they want in their own lives.
Bella is most likely a role model for these girls because she gets everything she wants in the novels. She may not have gone to college, but she chooses to settle down at a young age and live happily ever after with her soul mate. Because of this, Bella embodies the post-feminist ideals of this age. She sends the message to girls that it is okay to marry early and accept a traditional role in society instead of entering a male-dominant field to fight gender inequality. Bella’s character makes the Twilight series more than just a love story with a vampire, but one that sends a cultural message about what it means to be an empowered woman in this day and age.