Alice Paul Tapper's new picture book encourages girls to "Be bold, Be brave, and Raise Your Hand!"

Alice Paul Tapper was on a fourth grade school field trip when she noticed that most of the girls quietly stayed at the back of the group, while the boys clustered at the front and raised their hands to answer questions. After she realized how often she and many other girls didn't speak up in class for fears of getting an answer wrong and being embarrassed, Alice decided to launch a campaign to encourage girls to have confidence, take risks, and be leaders — and support other girls in doing the same. With the help of her Girl Scout troop, she created a new Raise Your Hand pledge and patch program, and soon girls around the country were taking a pledge to raise their hands in class. Now, the 11-year-old Mighty Girl is bringing her message directly to girls with Raise Your Hand, a new picture book telling her story and encouraging girls to "be bold, be brave, and raise your hand!" Continue reading → Continue reading

The Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility is located in the West Virginia native's home state.

"Hidden Figures" mathematician Katherine Johnson played a critical role in NASA's early space program — now, the space agency is honoring her contributions by renaming a NASA software facility after her! The Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility , located in Johnson's home state of West Virginia, is the home of NASA's IV&V Program, which is dedicated to "contributing to the safety and success of NASA’s highest-profile missions" by improving the software used for a variety of space launches and flights. "I am thrilled we are honoring Katherine Johnson in this way as she is a true American icon who overcame incredible obstacles and inspired so many," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in an announcement. "It’s a fitting tribute to name the facility that carries on her legacy of mission-critical computations in her honor." Continue reading → Continue reading

The Mighty Girl winners of this year's Newbery, Caldecott, and other top children's literary awards.

The beginning of the year isn't just awards season for movies: it's also the time when many literary organizations name their picks for the best books of the previous year! The American Library Association has a selection of prestigious awards that recognize children's and young adult titles — and in 2019, many excellent Mighty Girl titles are among the award winners. Continue reading → Continue reading

13-year-old Lily has raised over $7,000 to send girls to school by selling handmade fabric lovebirds.

When 9-year-old Mighty Girl Lily Miller learned it would only take $5 to send a girl in Nepal to school for a month, she was determined to find a way to help. So Lily recruited her younger sister Maizy and her mother Terry to help her make fabric scrap lovebirds to sell and Lily’s Lovebirds was born! Five years later, sales of her lovebirds — which also make lovely holiday gifts — have allowed the now 13 year old to donate over $7,000 to help other girls like her go to school. “Girls that go to school educate their children to go to school which makes the world a better and more peaceful place,” Lily explains. “I hope that one day I will see more girl presidents and great leaders in the world, but it all starts with going to school.” Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's 2018 Halloween Gallery is now live! A small sample of the many hundreds of photos submitted can be viewed in our Halloween Highlights blog post.

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos of their Mighty Girls in costume to our 2018 Halloween Gallery! We were awed by the creativity and variety of the Mighty Girl costumes submitted to the gallery. As we've always said, Mighty Girls know that their costume possibilities are limited only by their imaginations and with costumes ranging from ones based on favorite superheroes to ones inspired by historic role models, these Mighty Girls clearly know no bounds! Continue reading → Continue reading

25 Mighty Girl Halloween Costumes Celebrating Mighty Women

A popular theme among the over 2,000 photos of Mighty Girls in costume submitted to this year's A Mighty Girl Halloween Gallery were costumes that honored a pioneering woman from history or present day. In this blog post, we've showcased 25 of these Mighty Girl's incredible costumes and, to help you and your Mighty Girl learn more about the amazing women depicted, we've also linked to our character collection and biography section where relevant in a "Teachable Moment" feature. Continue reading → Continue reading

A team of volunteers provides women and children escaping domestic violence everything they need to have a beautiful, comfortable new home — for free!

In Nashville, Tennessee, a unique program provides women and children escaping domestic violence everything they need to have a beautiful, comfortable new home — for free! Re-New at the YWCA, which is run entirely by volunteers, has furnished nearly 200 homes for over 400 survivors of violence, allowing them to make a fresh start. Before the families move in to the homes, volunteers come to decorate, move in furniture, and stock bathrooms and kitchens with necessary supplies; they even provide a crock-pot simmering with the family's first meal in their new home. "It's an invaluable experience for a woman who's gone through brutal abuse," says Christan Lyons, one of the women who received a Re-New home last year. "It felt like a reward for having the courage to walk away." Continue reading → Continue reading

New data finds parents pay girls half the allowance paid to boys.

The gender pay gap starts much earlier than most people imagine with new data showing that parents, on average, pay boys twice as much for doing chores per week than girls. The chore app BusyKid analyzed 10,000 families in their database and discovered that the average boy earned $13.80 in weekly allowance, while the average girl received only $6.71. The results highlight how traditional 'girls' work' is viewed by parents as being less valuable than that often assigned to boys — and raise awareness of the concerning messages girls receive from an early age about what their work is worth. "It was interesting and shocking to see how much of a difference in pay there was between boys and girls in our network," says BusyKid CEO Gregg Murset. "I think this is an important wake-up call for parents to be cognizant of what they are paying to make sure they are being as fair as possible. I don't think any parent would intentionally pay differently based on gender, but clearly, it's happening." Continue reading → Continue reading

Our top picks of girl-empowering toys for all ages!

Several times a year, we release special guides for our supporters, including our annual Halloween Costume Guide, Holiday Gift Guide, and Books of the Year. By popular request, this year, we've prepared a special guide for Prime Day 2018 showcasing the best deals for the Mighty Girls in your life.

With Amazon offering over 100,000 deals for this year's Prime Day, it can be challenging to find the best deals for your family. To help make it easier, we've sorted through all of the options to find the most empowering and high quality toys and gear for kids of all ages, babies through teens. From building sets to arts & crafts to pretend-play toys, there's something that every Mighty Girl will love! Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of Mighty Girl superhero books for National Superhero Day!

When danger threatens, Mighty Girl superheroes get ready to don their capes and masks and set out to save the day! While superheroes like Wonder Woman have been around for decades, in recent years writers, illustrators, and publishers have realized how many girls around the world have been waiting to see superheroes who look like them. And between long-time favorite superhero characters, new reimaginings of existing stories, and original characters whose stories are all their own, there have never been more choices for girls of all ages!

In this blog post, we're sharing our favorite superhero stories starring girls and women, from early chapter books to trade paperbacks collections of comic series to prequel novels telling untold parts of a character's story. These stories are full of action and adventures, with Mighty Girl superheroes who rely on brains as well as brawn when it's time to fight for justice! Continue reading → Continue reading