Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the female protagonist of his literary trilogy Millennium (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest).

Lisbeth Salander was born on 30.04.1978 and is a hacker working as a private investigator for the Milton Security security firm. She is 1.54 m, spindly and usually wears her red hair short and deep black. She usually wears boots, tight jeans and a leather jacket, preferably all in black. She is under legal guardianship, because, according to the authorities, she wouldn’t be able to look after herself due to a childhood shaped by violence and sexual abuse.

Her father was a Russian spy, who came to Sweden through Germany, where he had absolute diplomatic immunity. He was therefore free to tyrannize his family. Especially his wife, who he abused both physically and mentally. However, this was ignored because of his immunity from the authorities. Lisbeth always tried everything to protect her mother, unlike her twin sister, Camilla. She only tried to please and impress her father, thereby ignoring the abuse he subdued both mother and daughter to.

At the age of 12 Salander set her father on fire using a Molotov cocktail, which she threw into his car after he had brutally beaten her mother again. She was then put in a children and adolescent psychiatry in order to maintain appearances. A short time later, her mother was put in a home, since she was drained of all physical and mental powers due to her husband’s abuse.

Salander's character is described as "(the) new face of feminism". Judging by her style, Salander would probably fall somewhere between the goth and punk categories. She is also an extreme smoker with bisexual tendencies. She is extremely intelligent and has a photographic memory. She is an expert in computer issues and in the field of hacking. She always works under the pseudonym "Wasp”.

Lisbeth Salander has been practicing boxing since she was a child. Though extremely intelligent, Salander has great problems in social and personal interactions. She is very introverted and has problems trusting people and making friends. Signs of Asperger's syndrome are clearly visible in Salander’s case, as intended by author Stieg Larsson. These emotional problems are as result of her difficult childhood. Her pathological loathing of men is also a consequence of this, Salander not hesitating to use extreme violence against men.

Lisbeth Salander has a pierced eyebrow, a pierced tongue and a pierced nose, a pierced belly button and pierced ears. She also has several tattoos, distributed over her entire body. A large part of her body is adorned with a huge dragon that crosses the back and kisses a wasp on the neck.

The second main character in Larson’s books is journalist Michael Blomkvist, who tries to investigate the mysterious 44 year long disappearance of a girl together with Lisbeth Salander in the first volume of the trilogy, thereby becoming an investigator himself and later almost to the victim.

Lisbeth Salander’s methods, used in her daily investigations, are very unconventional and highly illegal. However, her success speaks for itself, so that her boss Dragan Armanskyin, from the Milton Security detective agency is not very curious about how she has reached her conclusions. As a private investigator Lisbeth Salander goes beyond what is permissible when it comes to a successful investigation and her limits are equally widely set in private life.