turtles.

“She was just this strong, heroic woman who rode around on a horse with a sword, and I wanted to be a hero like her,“ Jessie says. “I’d tape every episode and go back and watch them and just pick apart the form of what she was doing — how she would do these flying sidekicks. And so I would kick down all the dead trees in the woods near my house.”

Jessie braided her hair and cut her bangs to look like Xena. Sometimes she took the imitation even further.

“I remember, there was a bully who was whacking his jacket at this girl who didn’t have very many friends in school,” Jessie says. “And I was, like, this little, 50 pound kid in sixth grade. I was a shrimp. And I just ran up and round-kicked him in the stomach. And he was so confused. He stopped, and he just looked at me, and he was like, ‘Did you just kick me?’ He didn’t even know. And I was, like, ‘Yeah!’ And then I just walked to class. ”

Jessie ran the plan by her mom.

“I told her, 'When I grow up, I’m gonna be the next Xena,’ ” Jessie recalls. “And she was a Broadway dancer and an actress, and she was, like, 'Well, you know, maybe you could be your own hero?’ And I was, like, 'No, no. When Lucy Lawless retires, they’re gonna need a new Xena, because obviously the world can’t be without Xena. I’ll just take her place. I’ll be ready by then.’ ”

Now her merchandise motto and mantra is “Be your own hero”.