I’m a mature woman and am a collection of every age I’ve been since awareness. It’s not hard to revisit those ages through a book.
I root for Harry, but I also feel his pain, and that off other characters. But I can say the same about the Twi characters beyond Bella. So I have no problem relating, but do sense a difference with storytelling POV,

Was it Travis Prinzi who suggested that Harry is a Gothic hero–or male heroine? *Twilight*’s first person narration is typically Gothic.

Robert Pattinson said at one point that the pull of the *Twilight* books is that they are very intimate. They are the personal fantasy of an individual woman that somehow made it to publication. He described reading them and thinking “oh, I shouldn’t be reading this.” *If* that is true, and if Bella is an authorial self-insert, then *Twilight* invites the reader to step into Bella’s shoes exactly as the author has.

I love the *Harry Potter* books, but I wouldn’t describe them as intimate. And while I think we are meant to root for Harry, I think we’re invited to root for Harry’s *cause*, more than for him personally. In the end, it isn’t just about Harry, it’s about Lupin and Tonks and Snape and Fred, who give their lives, and Molly and Neville and Luna, etc., who live their lives, in order to make the world a better place.

“I think Melissa sums it up very nicely “Bella is very much about you being her, and you being in her world, and experiencing what she’s experiencing- which is so attractive for young girls. And with Harry it’s more about that he’s got this lion heart. That’s he’s out there just to do what’s right because he thinks it’s what you should do, and you route (sic) for him. And it’s more about routing (sic)for him than actually being him.”

I wonder if this opinion reflects the different POV storytelling–Bella in first person, Harry in third-person omniscient. Does the reader “feel” more with Bella? I don’t. But then, I’m not a teen.