Headstrong means determined to have your own way whatever the advice. A headstrong child, headstrong and stubborn, too headstrong.
It is a criticism, and it is applied to the young far more than to anybody else — a headstrong young man, a headstrong girl — which says something about who is allowed to insist. It suggests energy and direction as well as obstinacy, which is what separates it from mere stubbornness. Note that the compound is Middle English and has not changed since.
1adjectiveheadstrongDetermined to have your own way whatever the advice.
“The headstrong girl ignored her parents' warnings and married the sailor anyway.”
synonyms: wilful, obstinate
headstrong is a quality of wilfulness.
Middle English heedstrong is head plus strong. English builds these body-plus-quality compounds freely — headstrong, heavy-handed, hard-headed.
Middle English
heedstrong
English, today
headstrong
From Middle English heedstrong, equivalent to head + strong.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire