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Magical Girls are very common characters in anime, manga, and videogames, that has now become a popular type of heroine to use in media from North America, Europe, and Australia. These heroines initially started as normal heroines that gained magical powers and the ability to transform into feminine superheroes, but now basically anything that has similar tropes and lots of girly colors is considered a magical girl.
Known as mahou shoujo ("magical girl") or just majokko ("witch-girl") in Japanese, Magical Girls are empowered by various means with fantastic powers that both assist and complicate their lives, but manage to persevere despite this.
The genre first emerged in 1966 with the anime series Sally the Witch, produced by Toei Animation. A wave of indistinguishable anime produced by the studio in the 1970s led to what is known as majokko (魔女っ子, lit. "little witch") being used as a common term for the genre. In the 1980s, the term was largely replaced by "magical girl", reflecting the new popularity of shows produced by other studios, including Magical Princess Minky Momo and Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel.
In the 1990s, Sailor Moon introduced the concept of a "transforming heroine" who fights against forces of evil, a synthesis of elements from tokusatsu hero shows that became a staple for the magical girl series that followed. The growth of late-night anime in the early 2000s led to a demographic shift for the genre, where series with more mature themes were created and marketed towards an older male audience.
No matter how hard this may be for the Western world to believe, the Magical Girls trope has high crossover popularity in different demographics with some minor but appropriate design modifications and makes up a sizable portion of both Shōjo and bishoujo fandom.