She inspired a whole generation of girls to pick up the sax

A 2017 article in the Financial Times found around 97% of trumpet, trombone and tuba players in America’s top orchestras are male. But Lisa Simpson didn’t let a silly thing like gender bias in music keep her away from the sax. And it made a difference – In 1996, the New York Times ran a story exploring the phenomenon of primary school aged girls asking the play the saxophone because of the Lisa Simpson effect. They quoted sax teacher Cynthia Sikes, who remarked that “When the show started, I got an influx of girls coming up to me saying, ‘I want to play the saxophone because Lisa Simpson plays the saxophone.’ I had no clue who this Lisa Simpson was. I was relieved to find she had a permanent gig over there.”

In addition, show creator Matt Groening told the paper that his fan mail regularly included pictures of girls holding up their saxophones. Yay, Lisa!