Lara Croft, as a brand, means many things to many people. For some, she is considered to be a feminist icon. To others, she’s merely a piece of cheesecake for cyber geeks to lust over, a virtual bimbo. In other instances, she is thought to be one of the most important British ambassadors of all times.

Now that she is turning 20 years old, the time has come to take a trip down memory lane and look back on how Lara Croft became a true game changer. While she was born during the heights of the Britpop boom and became one of the main pillars for Cool Britannia, there were many feminists who took umbrage with her overtly sexual image.

However, this did not slow her journey and she even became a movie star, spawning a franchise of Hollywood stars that were headlined by none other than Angelina Jolie. She has also been featured on numerous magazine covers and starred in multiple adverts, but she got her beginnings in the humble English city of Derby.

The video game developer responsible for the creation of Lara Croft, Core Design, was created in 1988 and their small team believed that it was their duty to shatter the popular stereotype that female heroines could not sell video games. The main market for video games was thought to be men and boys, which made it difficult for developers to market a female protagonist.

Toby Gard, a member of the Core Design team, came up with the idea for Lara Croft and used musician Neneh Cherry and the comic book character Tank Girl as the primary sources of inspiration. Toby believed strongly in the appeal of Lara Croft and even though the idea experienced a high volume of naysayers in its original form, he had the courage to push forward and stick with it.

Lara Croft’s initial launch just so happened to coincide with the rise of the Spice Girls and this is certainly no coincidence. She became a symbol of a powerful movement and while there were many who believed that she was designed to appeal to pubescent boys, she found an audience among women and girls who felt underrepresented in the gaming marketplace. According to research, four out of every ten female players were female.

Her continued presence in modern pop culture proves that women have a more powerful voice in the gaming industry than previously realized and that they are able to decide for themselves what a female heroine should look like (and how she should dress). The fact that it look so long for a heroine like her to come along is perplexing in retrospect and thanks to the forward thinkers at Core Design, we no longer have to imagine a world without her.