By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

It’s been a wonderful year for Mighty Girls in literature! In 2013, we’ve seen many new releases from favorite authors, enjoyed additions to terrific Mighty Girl series, and found amazing works from first-time authors.

Now, we’re thrilled to share the over 130 new releases from 2013 that we’ve added to A Mighty Girl! And, because we know newly released books make great gifts during the holidays, we’re sharing some of our favorites in a two-part blog series to make it easy to choose a few special ones for the children in your life.

In this blog, we'll share our twenty favorite girl-empowering books for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary school children and, in the second part, we share our favorites for tweens and teens.

Of course, this is just a small sample of the many fantastic books released in 2013. To view our growing selection, visit our special feature on 2013 Mighty Girl Books. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

When you’re parenting a Mighty Girl, one of the top priorities is often making sure that she has confidence in herself and her abilities. After all, it’s hard to be daring, smart, inventive, creative, and all the other things we love in our Mighty Girls without being confident that you can handle what comes your way!

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of our favorite Mighty Girl books for boosting confidence. Some are fiction, featuring characters that stand proudly facing the world, and others are guides to help your Mighty Girl find confidence in her day-to-day life. Whichever you pick, these books will have your Mighty Girl cheering, “I can do it!”

For parents who are looking for books to help their Mighty Girl overcome self-esteem struggles, check out our earlier blogs: 15 Self-Esteem Building Books for Mighty Girls and Ten Body Image Positive Books for Mighty Girls. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

If you’ve ever attended a baby shower for the mama-to-be of a baby girl, you’ve probably witnessed the overwhelmingly pink and princess-themed gifts that are, well, showered upon the guest of honor. In this day and age, the majority of women know the sex of their baby before she or he is born, and thus the heavily gendered gift-giving begins before the baby takes her or his first breath.

If you're looking for alternatives to stereotypical baby shower gifts — ones that celebrate the whole girl, even as they recognize and celebrate the joyous fact that she is, indeed, a girl — you'll find them in this selection of baby gifts perfect for any new mom or dad to share with their baby girl!

For more recommendations beyond those included in this post, you'll find many girl-empowering baby toys and gifts in A Mighty Girl's For Baby section. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

When your Mighty Girl was young, you probably marveled at her incredible confidence: no matter what she wore, said, or did, she did it with a big grin that said, “This is who I am, like it or not!” But as kids get older, they start to be affected by the opinions of others, especially their peers. So the 3-year-old who proudly declared, “I’m the best!” can turn into a 5-year-old who says, “Nobody at school likes me!” or “I can’t do that — it’s for boys!”

Fortunately, while it’s normal for children to have bumps in the road where they question their worth, parents can do a lot to make sure that the bumps are small and that their daughters pass them quickly! By reading books about girls who face challenges to their self-esteem — either from questioning themselves, or brought on by disapproval from others — and overcome them, parents can teach their daughters that everyone struggles with self-esteem sometimes but that everyone is valuable and special in her own way. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Jennifer de Beer, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

For many of our A Mighty Girl supporters, the season of summertime and school vacations is upon us, and along with it the typical periods of travel. Oftentimes, the process of getting to and from the destination of choice can be the most challenging part of the getaway.

Long hours in the car, on a train or plane, or even just the time waiting for the next mode of transport, can bring many an adult companion — let alone their children — to tears. Never fear: here at A Mighty Girl, we've carefully researched the best in kids' travel resources and compiled our latest collection, Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Mighty Girls On the Go!, featuring toys and activities to help break up the monotony and entertain your young traveling companions!

Occupy and engage those Mighty Girl minds with a wide range of products, specially selected for ease of transport and/or use during travel! You will find items appealing to the broad spectrum of Mighty Girl interests, including creativity, geography, math puzzles, word play, and logic/ spatial games — with a variety of formats, besides. So, go ahead and brush up on your Broadway tunes, pick out a few select titles on audiobooks (be sure to check out our Book section for great suggestions — and don’t forget the headphones!), and then dive into Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Mighty Girls On the Go! for some inspirational finds! Continue reading → Continue reading

By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

Each May the United States celebrates the history and culture of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. during Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. The month of May was selected to commemorate the diverse and important roles of Asian-Pacific Americans for two reasons. First, early Japanese immigrants arrived in the United States on May 7, 1843, and second, the transcontinental railroad -- built predominantly by Chinese immigrants -- was completed on May 10, 1869.

Asian-Pacific heritage encompasses a broad and diverse array of cultures from an expansive geographic region. All of the Asian continent, as well as the Pacific islands of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia are included in this celebration. In honor of the essential role all of these cultures play in modern-day American culture, we’ve selected a dozen books which tell different stories of Asian-Pacific American girls. We’ve organized these selections by the age group for which they’re intended, and hope that you’ll enjoy our choices as much as we do! Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, you may be looking for a few more things you can do to make Mom’s day a little more special. Music is amazingly evocative -- there are few things that can capture complex emotions so quickly -- so why not look for the perfect song to describe your relationship?

A Mighty Girl is proud to present our top ten songs for Mighty Girls and their Mighty Moms: songs that are loving, sweet, and powerful in their depiction of one of the foundational relationships in a girl’s life.

We will describe each song here, but for more details, including information about concerns parents may have about content in either lyrics or video, and to preview songs via embedded YouTube videos, please follow the links to our full entries. Each of these songs, like all of those featured in A Mighty Girl's music collection, is also available through either iTunes or Amazon.com’s MP3 download service via the links on each song's page. By using the links on A Mighty Girl, you also help to support the site at no added cost to you, and can have your Mother’s Day playlist set up in no time!

And, to discover wonderful books celebrating Mighty Moms, check out our previous post entitled: A Mother’s Day Special Feature: Celebrating Mighty Moms and Their Daughters. Continue reading → Continue reading

If you’re looking for fun clothes that reflect the full diversity of girls’ interests, visit A Mighty Girl’s newly expanded clothing section featuring nearly 450 girl-empowering selections! We’ve recently expanded our clothing collection to include, in addition to our extensive selection of t-shirts, PJs, socks, underwear, and even raincoats and boots. This selection of high-quality, fun clothing includes items for infants, toddlers, children, juniors, and adults, so the whole family can find a favorite!

Once you've entered our clothing section, you can filter the selection in a variety of ways to make it easier to find just the right thing for your Mighty Girl -- or yourself! Our age filter allows you to sort by a variety of age groups, from 0 - 2 to 13+, as well as adults. And, our clothing type filter allows you to view the collection by the different types of clothing described above.

We have divided our collection into nine categories. Our Superheroes, Character Themed, and Literary Themed categories focus on clothing featuring individuals (both fictional and real) that represent strong female characters in a variety of media. The Animals / Nature collection lets nature-loving Mighty Girls showcase their love of the great outdoors and the creatures that live within it. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

“Play is the work of childhood.” — Jean Piaget

Today is Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day, a day in which children all over the world will shadow parents or other mentors through a day at their jobs. Carolyn McKecuen, the president of the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation, shares the value of these experiences:

“Exposing girls and boys to what a parent or mentor in their lives does during the workday is important, but showing them the value of their education, helping them discover the power and possibilities associated with a balanced work and family life, and providing them an opportunity to share how they envision the future and begin steps toward their end goals in a hands-on and interactive environment is key to their achieving success.... By bringing girls and boys together, we will continue to create a more equitable world — at home, at school, in the workplace, and in the community.”

For children younger than 8, however, a day of job shadowing probably isn’t feasible. How can you provide them with some of the benefits that older kids get from a day at work? One great way is to give them pretend play toys that allow them to roleplay different careers. With that in mind, A Mighty Girl has selected ten toys from our Career / Jobs Collection of pretend play toys to feature. Each toy represents a different career that your Mighty Girl might aspire to, from astronaut to veterinarian. So, let her get down to work with some serious play! Continue reading → Continue reading

By Jennifer de Beer, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

To visit our expanded "Read Aloud" collection, visit our special feature, found in our "Best of A Mighty Girl" section, on the Top Read Aloud Books Starring Mighty Girls.

“Storytime” typically evokes images of small children seated in a ring on the floor, or perhaps a parent & child cuddled together before bed. Whisked away into a world filled with dragons and magical spells, the nuances of friendships, or glimpses into another time and place, read aloud sessions open up a world of possibilities. Often, these shared stories allow children to engage in material that would be beyond their independent reading levels.

Solid and extensive research exists on the importance and positive effects of reading aloud to young children. A recent analysis of international data, conducted by the OECD, supports the strong link between oral language development and reading skills, and even goes so far as to say that nurturing such skills at an early age is directly related to success rates in later school years. The practice of reading aloud is widely encouraged by many from Day One (if not before!), and the benefits are plentiful: increased literacy, school readiness, stimulation of language development, imagination, and memory -- the list goes on. Reading aloud also provides a prime opportunity for bonding and strengthening the connection with the children in your life. Continue reading → Continue reading