Unconventional Female Lead

The character makes a lot of hideous faces, which is quite funny, though her normal face isn't as ugly as everyone seems to think it is in the manga. Still, it's nice to have a female lead that isn't treated as physically attractive in the story. People who come to like her do so because of her awesome personality and the fact that she's a total badass. Bonus points for tough girls who don't have tits flying all over the place, defying physics, during fight scenes.

Sadly, this piece seems to have been dropped completely. However, you can still get a full experience from what's there. I wish there were more, since clearly this sort of female lead is so rare, but it was nice while it lasted, I guess.

At any rate, the main girl is considered ugly, but while she starts out as demure and withdrawn because of it, it turns out she has a personality and a will to put the hot but stuck up male lead in line. Too bad it ended just as it was getting good.

Wasn't sure about this one at first, but it's growing on me. There are some things that rub me the wrong way, but it's by far the most positive story as far as how other people treat the main girl. She does get teased a bit, but she mostly has a lot of support. Most of the story isn't just about her trying to get by with how "ugly" she is. So, fingers crossed that it just gets better from here.

Maybe this doesn't count, as it's autobiographical, but I don't care. I love it. You so rarely see female characters portrayed with genuine mental illness, and I feel so much for this woman. Her character, and the real mangaka behind it. I would be all over this even if it were fictional, so I feel like it's worth recommending to other people looking for something outside of the typical, rinse and repeat hot/cute/pretty-but-doesn't-know-it manga chick leads.

Just started updating again, but I haven't had a chance to catch up since the 2015 updates. Kinda iffy on whether or not it fits just because it's a body swap story. But it's still enjoyable so far. I hope they don't end it with the girl getting her body back and the other girl being ugly and hated.

Only applies to the last two stories, Chapter 3 and 3.5. Sadly, these are oneshots, so you don't get much time with any of them. Chap 3 lead is a stuffy, plain, older woman. 3.5 is a heavy girl with a kinda jerky boyfriend. Both have happy endings, but there were some things that bugged me about each. Still, this fits the criteria on this very short list. I wish they weren't so hard to find.

Since I'm grasping at straws for how few unconventional female leads exist in manga, I'm putting this here because SUPPOSEDLY the lead is chubby. She's actually drawn exactly like all of the other characters, but I guess it's the same basic point. Maybe she'll gain weight throughout, since the story is all about her eating food. I don't know, we'll see.

The female lead is considered masculine in appearance to the point where people can't see her as a girl.

Girl realizes she's only skinny because she's never actually eaten good food. Proceeds to get fat. This is pretty obviously an example of the "feeder" fetish, so that kind of grosses me out, but it's treated as sweet, rather than sexual. It's very short, but it definitely counts as an unconventional female lead, even if the story wasn't anything amazing.