New York, New York

Fearless Girl Statue

Wall Street has a new heroine, a bronze statue of a small but fierce girl.

For 28 years, a bronze bull was the star of Wall Street, the statue everyone came to see and snap photos with. But in March 2017, the neighborhood got a new heroine, a small but fierce girl defiantly staring down the bull. An overnight sensation, she’s here to stay at least until 2018.

The Fearless Girl, a bronze statue created by Kristen Visbal, was installed for International Women’s Day, standing right opposite the iconic Charging Bull statue in the Bowling Green park in downtown Manhattan. At just 4 feet and 250 pounds, she’s no competition in terms of size, but her fierce hands-on-hips stance and upturned face show that she’s more than a match for him.

Commissioned by a financial services firm to advocate gender diversity on corporate boards, the statue in the city’s Financial District became a runaway hit, with thousands flocking to the site to get a photo with the heroine of the hour, and mimicking her pose. An online petition to make the statue a permanent fixture was started and received over 28,000 signatures by the following week. Her superstar status led to city authorities announcing that she would stay at the site until 2018.