I'm glad you asked that. Kiki is the heroine of one of the coolest films (and books) of all time, Kiki's Delivery Service. It's a Japanese animated film, for kids and adults, made by the same guy who made Totoro in the Neighborhood. Which you probably haven't heard of either. Anyway, Kiki is a witch (like her mother) and as part of her training, she has to leave home (at 13!), find a new town, and establish herself with no help from anyone. Talk about your girl power! So, she and her black cat, Jiji, leave one pretty April night, and set off for adventure. They end up in a small town (the whole movie seems to take place in some sort of bogus European-like country), where Kiki befriends the (woman) owner of a bakery and starts her own business! Kiki has some rough times, but she manages to work things out all by herself. Kiki shuns the fashion-conscious posing crowd (although she wishes she could wear something besides black), and makes friends with a woman artist who lives by herself out in the forest, an older woman living alone with her companion, and of course the aforementioned baker. There are many strong female characters in this film -- I only wish there were American films that were this girl-positive! Unfortunately, Kiki's Delivery Service is not commercially available in the U.S.
UPDATES: Totoro in the Neighborhood was dubbed and released here as My Neighbor Totoro a couple years ago. It's still readily available in video shops in the family section. The rest of Miyazaki's films (including Kiki) have been purchased for US release by Disney -- including Kiki -- the theatrical release was pretty much non-existent, but the film is available on video now. I'm not crazy about the dub, but you can't really show kids who can't read yet subtitled movies so I'm glad it's out there. Princess Mononoke has also been released here -- I haven't actually seen the US version but from what I understand it's way inferior, with some actual (albeit relatively minor) plot changes.
Also, in retrospect my comments make Kiki sound almost boy-unfriendly (due to the girl-orientation of Kikizine), which is far from the truth. There are many excellent male characters in the film -- I was just so overwhelmed by the positive female characters I didn't pay much attention to the guys in the film at the time!
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