By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Do you remember having your period for the first time? Were you relieved, scared, confused? Did you know what was happening, or were you told after the fact? Did you think you could bleed to death or make people sick, or believe that you couldn’t swim or go to gym class? Did you hear someone make joking references to women being “on the rag” and think, “I’ll die of embarrassment if anyone knows?” Did you feel like you were prepared?

In a world that is increasingly public about all sorts of previously private topics, menstruation is still a taboo subject. What information girls do hear around them is often negative or incorrect, and even school health classes that discuss the subject often focus on the “nuts and bolts” without ever touching on the real, practical experience of a monthly cycle. As a result menarche — a girl’s first period — is still likely to be disconcerting for her.

But parents, mentors, and friends of Mighty Girls can turn this milestone of womanhood into a much more positive experience. By providing lots of accurate information, real-life experience, and practical advice, girls can learn to view their menstrual cycle in a totally different way: as an important element of their female nature and as a key sign of coming adulthood. In this blog, we’ll help you turn a girl’s first period into an empowering experience. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

It’s played by 250 million people in over 200 countries, and in many nations, it’s the most prominent women’s team sport. Women’s soccer games have been recorded since the late 19th century, and today, 177 nations have national women’s soccer teams. Best of all, the future looks bright for women’s soccer: girls’ soccer leagues continue to thrive, with gender representation among youth soccer players almost exactly 50-50. With such an incredible love of the Beautiful Game out there, it’s no wonder that many Mighty Girls have been eagerly awaiting the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup!

To celebrate this event — and the love of girls and women everywhere for the sport — we’ve collected some of our favorite books, toys, posters, and clothes celebrating the great game of soccer. We hope that these resources will have your Mighty Girl dreaming of her favorite game long after the World Cup is won.

In addition to our recommendations below, there's also a guidebook to everything going on during the 2015 Women's World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015: The Official Book. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Moms can be an incredible source of inspiration, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use a little inspiration themselves! Stories of the incredible women of past and present aren’t just great to share with Mighty Girls: they’re also a great gift when you want to honor the place a woman has filled in your life.

If you’re looking for a good book as a gift for Mother’s Day, we feature a variety of intriguing biographies in our new blog post, including many new releases. These bios tell the stories of a a diverse range of women, from King Peggy, an American secretary who changed the future of an African village, to Nancy Wake, the SOE operative who was the Gestapo’s most wanted person in World War II, to 80-year-old world champion triathlete Sister Madonna Bruder, also known as the Iron Nun. The common thread that connects them all, though, is daring and determination. These are definitely Mighty women!

For even more adult biographies which would make excellent gift options, check out the recommendations in our previous blog post Stories of Mighty Women: New Biographies for Adult Readers.
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By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Happy Earth Day! Around the world today, people are taking action to help protect our environment. By demonstrating responsible, green practices today, we hope to inspire people to make environmentally friendly choices throughout the year.

In honor of this day dedicated to awareness and action, A Mighty Girl is sharing the stories of ten female environmental heroes. These girls and women — scientists, activists, and innovators — have each done something that makes us see protecting the Earth a little differently. These heroes are from both past and present; some of them have acted locally, while others are influential around the world; but each of them has discovered a way that we can become better caretakers of our planet. By celebrating them, A Mighty Girl hopes that other Mighty Girls will consider ways that they can make a difference too.

For resources about the environment to share with your children, check out our earlier blogs Mighty Girls Save the World: Environmental Films Starring Girls and Women and Mighty Girls Go Green: 15 Books for Earth Day.

Jane Goodall: Groundbreaking Primatologist and Conservationist

Jane Goodall with orphan chimpanzee Urahara (Photo: Michael Neugebauer)

Jane Goodall was remarkable enough for breaking into the male-dominated world of wildlife biology, and for her astonishing discoveries regarding chimpanzee behavior. However, her work to draw global attention to the protection of chimpanzee habitat, and to conservation in general, is just as remarkable! Today, just after her 81st birthday, Goodall still devotes the vast majority of her time to conservation efforts, traveling as many as 300 days a year to speak about environmental issues.

The Jane Goodall Institute, which she founded in 1977, works to help individuals around the world make informed, environmentally responsible decisions as they engage in growth and development; the Institute’s Roots and Shoots youth program, founded in 1991, began with a group of 16 teenagers and now has 10,000 groups in over 100 countries. There is no doubt that Goodall has fulfilled her self-proclaimed mission “to create a world where we can live in harmony with nature.”

If you'd like to introduce your children to Jane Goodall's incredible story, here are a few of our favorite books about this inspiring role model: The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps (age 4 to 8), Me... Jane (age 3 to 8), Who is Jane Goodall (age 8 to 12), an autobiography by Goodall entitled My Life with the Chimpanzees (age 8 to 12), and a graphic novel Primates (age 12 and up).

For more books, a documentary, and other resources, visit our Jane Goodall Collection. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Few things are as fascinating to a child as realizing that the amazing “character” and “story” she just read are true — that these things really happened, and that the person who did them was real. Not only is it a great way for kids to learn about historical figures, both famous and obscure, but it’s tremendously inspiring to know that they, too, could grow up to change the world.

So what better way to celebrate Women’s History Month with your child than with some great picture book biographies? We’ve put together a list of great picture books about figures in women’s history, which we selected based on the high quality of their writing and illustrations. We’ve also included quite a few new releases: books that you may not have discovered yet, but are sure to become a cherished part of your picture book library.

Of course, great biographies are available for readers of all ages! You can always go to our biography section and then use the menu on the left to sort by age to find the perfect biography for your Mighty Girl.

Just Being Audrey, by Margaret Cardillo, illustrated by Julia Denos: She was a child in Nazi-occupied Europe, then a movie star and a fashion icon. But most importantly, she had a spirit of kindness and compassion that shone through everything she did. This biography of Audrey Hepburn explores how a little girl growing up through a war would become a beloved celebrity and humanitarian. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist, and Carolyn Danckaert, A Mighty Girl Co-Founder

Earlier this month, we shared our top picks of 2014 Mighty Girl stories for toddlers and young children in our post, 2014 Mighty Girl Books for Younger Readers. Now, it’s time for the tweens and teens! This year’s releases range from fascinating stories of real-life women from history to thought-provoking realistic fiction to imaginative, daring fantasy and science fiction. No matter what your Mighty Girl enjoys reading, there’s a title here that will grab her attention!

For our favorite picture books and early chapter books from 2014, visit our post on the Top 2014 Mighty Girl Books for Younger Readers. You can view our entire collection of recent Mighty Girl releases in our special feature 2014 Mighty Girl Books: A Year in Review.

As with all of the books and other resources featured in our blog posts, you can click on any book link below to learn more about an individual title, read reviews, order a copy, or save a book to your wishlist to refer back to later.

2014 Mighty Girl Fiction for Tweens and Teens

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (age 7 - 12): Zita the Spacegirl is back in the exciting conclusion to this graphic novel trilogy. Wrongfully jailed on a prison planet, Zita discovers that the evil prison warden has a villainous plan! If she’s going to rescue the galaxy, though, she’ll have to plan a daring jailbreak — with friends old and new — first.

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm (age 8 - 12): Ellie is shocked when she learns that her immortality-obsessed grandpa Melvin has reverse-aged himself to 13 and will be joining her at middle school! Ellie rather enjoys connecting with her grandfather about science and discovery, until she realizes that many of the greatest scientific advances had unforeseen negative consequences.

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd (age 8 - 12): 12-year-old Felicity sees words everywhere, but Midnight Gulch is the only place she’s ever seen words like “friend” and “home”. But if she wants to convince her wandering mother to stay there, she’ll have to bring the magic back to Midnight Gulch and figure out how to help heal her mother’s broken heart. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist, and Carolyn Danckaert, A Mighty Girl Co-Founder

Every year brings great new children’s and young adult book releases, and 2014 was no exception — especially when it comes to books starring Mighty Girls! From fun fantasty to fascinating biographies, from thought-provoking realistic fiction to beautiful works of poetry, there have been dozens of wonderful releases in the past year. In fact, our 2014 Year in Review collection has topped 150 titles!

In this post, we showcase 35 of our favorite 2014 books for younger readers, including board books, picture books, and early chapter books. This wide assortment of titles feature diverse characters, engaging stories, and creative artwork that are sure to delight your Mighty Girl!

To learn about our favorite 2014 releases for tweens and teens, check out our post, Top 2014 Mighty Girl Books for Tweens and Teens. You can view our entire collection of recent Mighty Girl releases in our special feature 2014 Mighty Girl Books: A Year in Review.

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By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

When we share stories about famous women from history, adults in our community often comment that they’re amazed that they’ve never learned about these world-changing women. And, while people love the biographies we post for children and teens, many adults would also like to learn more about these inspiring women. To that end, in our first-ever post filled with reading recommendations for adults and older teen readers, we're sharing twenty books about incredible women of past and present.

Our recommendations are all biographies with the exception of one remarkable work of historical fiction, The Invention of Wings. Moreover, to help you discover a few of the amazing new biographies which have been recently released, all of our recommended books have been published in the past two years and several are brand new releases.

Since A Mighty Girl's website does not have a book section for adult readers, you won't find these recommendations on our site; however, we've included links below to Amazon so you can learn more or order individual titles.

So whether you're looking for a good book to delve into or a last-minute holiday gift for a friend, these women's stories are sure to inspire! Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Since the founding of A Mighty Girl two and a half years ago, we've shared many books with our community. While our book collection features over 2,000 girl-empowering titles, there are a number of titles that we've discovered are among the best loved by our supporters. From stories that have been beloved by generations of Mighty Girls to recent releases that have quickly become community favorites, these are the books that have been consistently popular with A Mighty Girl's community.

In this post, we're sharing 40 of these community favorites. From a board book for toddlers to hefty novels for teen readers, we've included options for Mighty Girls of all ages. Of course, there are many more girl-empowering classics that you can also discover on our website. In two blog posts, we also recently showcased 20 Mighty Girl Classics from before the 1950s and 20 Mighty Girl Modern Classics from the 1950s to the 1980s.

As with all of our posts, you can click on any book title below to learn more about the book, including read reviews, or order a copy. We hope that one of these community favorites will soon become a favorite of your own Mighty Girl!

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By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Dolls and figurines have been favorite pretend play toys for hundreds of years, but there are a lot more choices now than there were in the past! Today, dolls and action figures can represent historical figures, popular book, TV, and movie characters, or people from around the world.

If you’ve been looking for a unique doll or exciting action figure for your Mighty Girl, we’ve put together a collection of some of our favorites! From Mighty Girl role models from history to comic book stars, from children’s book characters to paper dolls, there's a new best friend awaiting every child!

For even more empowering dolls and action figures, check out the Dolls / Action Figures section of our 2014 Holiday Gift Guide or our full selection of over 400 options.

To learn about more of our favorite toys of all varieties for Mighty Girls, including science, building, and pretend play toys, check out our Girl Empowerment Toy Blog Series or visit our 2014 Holiday Guide. Continue reading → Continue reading