Girls Can Do Anything, Gallery of Inspirational Women
Scholastic UK, Ali Pye and I are delighted to bring to you Girls Can Do Anything - a celebration of all the wonderful things girls can choose to do with their lives. Of course, everyone can do these things, but we really wanted to make it clear that all of life's choices are available to girls as well!
In the book, we tell readers about some of the things girls can enjoy, including what sort of jobs they might do when they grow up. We tell readers that, when they grow up, girls can be firefighters and builders, police officers and lawyers, sports people, musicians, writers and many other things and that while they are still children, they can learn and develop the skills that these jobs use.
In the book, we tell readers about some of the things girls can enjoy, including what sort of jobs they might do when they grow up. We tell readers that, when they grow up, girls can be firefighters and builders, police officers and lawyers, sports people, musicians, writers and many other things and that while they are still children, they can learn and develop the skills that these jobs use.
But simply telling a child they can do these things is not
enough. Children want evidence that what
we are saying is true. If we tell
children that women can be builders, but their personal experience tells them
otherwise, they will not believe us. In Girls Can Do Anything, I didn’t want to
just tell children, I wanted to provide evidence that real girls have grown up
to become real women who do all these things and more.
This is where the idea of the Gallery of Inspirational Women
came from.
At the back of the book, we have created a gallery of 15 inspirational women, and over the next two weeks, I'll be publishing a series of blog posts about each one, telling you why she was chosen.
I thought long and hard about who to include, and had many discussions with Sophie Cashell, my editor, on the subject. After a lot of debate, we eventually whittled a very long list down to 15 people. Ali Pie created illustrated portraits of them all and we placed them in a gallery on the end papers at the back of the book.
At the back of the book, we have created a gallery of 15 inspirational women, and over the next two weeks, I'll be publishing a series of blog posts about each one, telling you why she was chosen.
I thought long and hard about who to include, and had many discussions with Sophie Cashell, my editor, on the subject. After a lot of debate, we eventually whittled a very long list down to 15 people. Ali Pie created illustrated portraits of them all and we placed them in a gallery on the end papers at the back of the book.
So how did we decide who to include and who to leave
out?
I was very keen not to wheel out the same old historical
figures that children learn about in school because I wanted children to know
that there have been more than a handful of women that have made a difference
to the world they live in. I wanted to choose people from a wide variety of
backgrounds - people of different nationality, age, ethnic origin,
ability/disability. I wanted to choose
contemporary role-models as well as historic ones. I wanted to introduce readers to ordinary
heroes as well as extraordinary ones in order to make their accomplishments
feel achievable to ordinary children.
Girls Can Do Anything is out on 2 August and from Monday 23rd July, you'll be able to visit the gallery on my website where you'll find links to all the blog posts as they go live.
Note that there are eight additional women who
feature in another gallery within the pages of the book. These are women who have made outstanding
contributions to medicine. I have not included them in this list, but perhaps
after reading the coming posts, you might be inspired to find out more about these
other eight women for yourself.
Our first woman is Claudia Gordon:
Our first woman is Claudia Gordon:
First deaf African-American attorney in the US
Speaking out for others in difficult times is a challenging and brave thing for anyone to do, not least if you are a child. Who dares to face up to bullies, or tell an adult when someone is being badly treated? Who is brave enough to offer friendship to someone who is marginalised or despised by the rest of their community?
In the adult world, this is the job of a lawyer - someone like Claudia Gordon. But Claudia Gordon is not just any lawyer. She was the first deaf African-American attorney in the United States, which means she has had to work harder than most to achieve her ambitions. She now uses her position, skills and knowledge to support others, including deaf and disabled people.
I chose Claudia Gordon to feature in the Girls Can Do Anything gallery of inspirational women because I want to show children that women can succeed in any chosen career and that the country you were born in, the colour of your skin or your ability to hear sounds need not stand in your way.
Find out more
order your copy here.
Find out more
order your copy here.