Girls Can Do Anything - My Motivations and Hopes for the Future
This is a copy of a piece I wrote for Booktrust. You can read it on the
Booktrust website here
Girls Can Do Anything is a book about
choices.
It tells children that girls can have whatever
interests they chose, that they can pursue any career path they choose and that
their choices are as valid and valuable as anyone else’s. It is a book
that says your gender does not define you.
I hope that it is also an inclusive book, where every child can find a
character they have something in common with, be that hobby, passion, hair
colour, skin tone or body type. I wanted all children, not just girls, to be
able to find someone like them within the pages.
Getting rid of the "tomboy" label
When I was growing up, I was referred to as a
tom-boy. I even referred to myself as such until very recently. But then I read a blog post based on an
article by Sharon Suchoval entitled
Girls are not Tomboys,
They are Girls. And
it highlighted everything that was wrong with how I saw myself. I am not
particularly feminine in society’s eyes. I rarely wear make up and have never
owned a pair of high heels. In fact, I find it incredible that anyone
would choose to disable themselves by donning a pair of shoes that are
uncomfortable to the point of pain, wreck your balance and that you couldn’t
run away in if you needed to.
As a child I liked being outdoors, building dens,
grubbing around in ponds, and having adventures. These things were not
considered feminine, so the fact that I enjoyed them told me that I was most
definitely not feminine either.
I had no positive female role models. As far
as I was aware, all the important things in history had been done by men and
all the most interesting people were men. Men were stronger, more intelligent
and more driven than women. They had all the fun and adventures and made all
the decisions, while women cooked the dinner and tried to fit their careers
around their children and husbands. I believed this because that is what
society was telling me.
Of course, I know now that this was a lie.
Women have had just as strong a place in history,
it’s just that we didn’t hear about them. Either their achievements were
overlooked, or else the men they worked with shamelessly took the credit.
My parents told me that I could do anything I wanted if I worked hard
enough. And I did believe them,
but I felt that being female was an annoyance and a bother I could do without
thank you very much.
But what Sharon Suchoval’s article told me, was
that I was not a half-boy or a not-quite-girl. I was a girl who liked
doing outdoorsy messy sorts of things.
But I was still a girl. And this
changed everything for me.
Redressing the balance
Around that time, the Sport England campaign This
Girl Can was released. Here, at last, were women I could relate to.
They were strong, decisive, ambitious, driven individuals who were not
just about looks and cosmetics. They were fierce achievers - wobbly bits
and all - and it truly lifted my heart.
I also remember watching the film Interstellar at
that time and being surprised to notice that the cast was almost 50/50 male and
female, and that women had equal share of the leading roles. And I was
actually quite horrified that this surprised me. This was 2006. Surely women
had equal representation by now? Well,
the fact that I noticed it says it all, I think. This was not the norm. It was
unusual.
Women were still being sidelined and men still had
the lion’s share of the good stuff.
Well, that decided me. I knew I had to write a book for
very young children that re-dressed the balance. I wanted to tell children - and their carers
- in a very clear and straightforward way, that being a girl is JUST AS GOOD as
being a boy, that girls have the right to choose from the whole of what the
world has to offer, not just the parts that society deems suitable for them.
If a girl wants to play the drums or snowboard, or
do difficult sums, she can. If a girl wants to drive a crane, or climb a
mountain or blast into space when she grows up, she CAN.
I wanted children to know that there is nothing
about a person’s gender that dictates the things they are allowed to be
interested in or the careers they choose to enter.
Highlighting inspiring women
Not only that, I wanted to prove this to children
too. I wanted to show them women who were doing all the things we tell
them about in the book. So we created a gallery of inspirational women on
the back end papers of the book. I had
many, many discussions about who to include - and who to leave out. I was
sick of hearing about the same old fusty historical figures. Surely there were other women out there who
had made a difference, that are making a difference now. I wanted
to find ordinary people as well as record breakers because I wanted children to
grow up believing that their goals are achievable. I wanted them to know
that they don’t have to be the best in the world at their chosen career, just
the best they can be.
I hope that, in some small way, Girls Can Do
Anything will help reassure the next generation of children that it’s okay to
be whoever they are now, and whoever they aspire to be in the future. I
hope it helps demonstrate to children that there are people out there who are
just like them, with the same passions and interests and that the whole
spectrum of choice is available to each and every one of them.