My favorite quirky girls in contemporary teen lit include:
Emily in Tips for Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend and Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) by Carrie Jones
Tess in Lost It by Kristen Tracy
Alice MacLeod in Alice, I Think and the books which follow it by Susan Juby
Zoe in A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
Frankie in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
My favorite quirky fellas from contemporary teen lit include:
Charlie in A Little Friendly Advice by Siobhan Vivian
Parker in The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
Some of my all-time favorite books have utterly fantastic headstrong characters:
Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
Turtle from The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Please refrain from mocking Anne's hair color or tugging on Turtle's braid.