In honor of Banned Books Week, we're showcasing a selection of high quality books for children and teens that have been challenged or banned.

The Diary of A Young Girl is a classic Mighty Girl book that beautifully captures the emotional life of its author, Anne Frank, as her family and friends attempted to hide from the Nazi regime. It has been translated into 67 languages and sold over 30 million copies, and is often used by schools for units on the Holocaust or to discuss the feelings and physical changes that come with adolescence. Continue reading → Continue reading

"If we cannot treat our sexual assault victims right, especially if justice has been denied to them for so many years, we certainly want to be able to treat our current survivors properly."

In 2009, over 11,000 untested sexual assault evidence kits were found in a Detroit police storage warehouse during a routine tour, some dating back to 1984. After the discovery of the abandoned rape kits, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy was determined to seek justice for the victims. She and her team started the long process of testing the kits, investigating the crimes, and prosecuting the perpetrators. Last month, after a decade of unrelenting effort, she announced that they had successfully tested the entire backlog! In the process, they identified 824 serial rapists and have won 197 convictions so far, with hundreds of investigations still underway. While Worthy is proud of the work she's done, she says it has revealed upsetting truths about how the justice system has long failed rape survivors, observing: "If we cannot treat our sexual assault victims right, especially if justice has been denied to them for so many years, we certainly want to be able to treat our current survivors properly." Continue reading → Continue reading

The U.S. Army has many examples of brothers becoming generals; now, for the first time, a pair of sisters have both been named generals.

For the first time in the U.S. Army's 244-year history, a pair of sisters have both reached the rank of general! Brigadier General Paula Lodi joined her older sister Major General Maria Barrett in the generals' ranks after a promotions ceremony in July. It's a major milestone for women in military service, who remain significantly underrepresented in the Army, particularly in the higher ranks. "Maj. Gen. Maria Barrett and Brig. Gen. Paula Lodi represent the best America has to offer," said Acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy in a statement. "However, this comes as no surprise to those who have known them and loved them throughout this extraordinary journey. This is a proud moment for their families and for the Army." Continue reading → Continue reading

In order for our Mighty Girls to learn how to stand up against bullying, they need the help of the adults in their lives. Parents, teachers, school administrators, coaches and others in the community can have a powerful impact on children's attitudes toward bullying and how they will respond if they experience or are witness to it. But it can be challenging for adults to know when typical childhood conflict turns into a pattern of bullying, and to decipher when they should step in and when they should let children resolve their own conflicts.

In this third part of our blog series for Bullying Prevention Month, we focus on resources for parents and educators that explore the problem of childhood bullying and provide strategies for raising caring, kind children and handling those times when children aren’t so kind.

For Mighty Girl books on bullying prevention for young children, check out our post, The End of Bullying Begins With Me: Bullying Prevention Books for Young Children.. For bullying prevention resources for older kids, visit our post, Taking A Stand Against Bullying: Bullying Prevention Books for Tweens and Teens. Continue reading → Continue reading

Judy Garland's Dorothy was one of the early 20th century's defining Mighty Girl characters.

There are few stories from American literature and film as well known as The Wizard of Oz! Whether you read the book first or marveled at the classic MGM movie, Dorothy Gale and her friends Toto the dog, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion have been beloved by generations. Dorothy, famously played by actress Judy Garland, was one of the early 20th century's defining Mighty Girl characters, although her determination occasionally got her book into hot water — in 1928, the book was banned from public libraries in Chicago "for depicting women in strong leadership roles"! Continue reading → Continue reading

This second-ever assessment of students' technology and engineering abilities found that girls outscored boys in all six areas tested.

In a national assessment of engineering and technology skills, eighth-grade girls outperformed boys in all six areas tested — countering the long-held stereotype that boys have a more natural aptitude for these technical fields. The recently reported results of the 2018 Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) exam, which tests both content knowledge and ability to put that knowledge into practice, revealed that girls scored higher than boys in every category, even though fewer girls take technology and engineering classes in school than boys. "The girls have done extremely well in this assessment," says Peggy Carr, associate commissioner for assessment at the National Center for Education Statistics. "Girls are outperforming boys whether they take a class or not. And when girls take a course, they also score higher." Continue reading → Continue reading

Girls' confidence drops by 30% between the ages 8 and 14.

"Now, more than ever, girls should be armed with confidence. They need to have faith in their phenomenal abilities, resist the need to please, fight back against intimidation from peers or adults, and stand up for others, and most importantly, themselves. Confident girls become confident women, and we want that status for our girls, who seem fearless and exuberant through most of elementary school, only to lose confidence at puberty. Boys and girls run neck and neck, confidence-wise, up to then, but when the estrogen-testosterone waves start flooding kids’ brains, all that changes. For girls, confidence takes a huge hit," observe Katty Kay, Claire Shipman and JillEllyn Riley.  Continue reading → Continue reading

Our favorite Mighty Girl school supplies to provide inspiration and encouragement all year long!

Who says school supplies have to be boring? When you pick up a few unique and empowering school supplies for your Mighty Girl (or yourself!), you're setting her up for an awesome year — one where she'll feel ready to take on any challenge in front of her!

To help find the perfect thing to give her a boost this year — whether she's starting kindergarten or college — we've put together a selection of our favorite school supplies, perfect for providing encouragement and inspiration all year long. From pencil cases to lunch wraps, there's something here for everyone. So take your pick and make this another Mighty year! Continue reading → Continue reading

After Nora Keegan spent three years studying whether hand dryers hurt children's hearing, she's published her research in a scientific journal.

When she was nine years old, Nora Keegan noticed that many children didn't want to use hand dryers and would often cover their ears around them. She understood from personal experience why they would have this reaction, observing that "sometimes after using hand dryers my ears would start ringing." In the fifth grade, she decided to investigate the topic further for a science fair project and started studying "if they were dangerous to hearing." Three years later, the now 13-year-old Mighty Girl from Calgary, Canada has just published the results of her multi-year study in a scientific paper in the Paediatrics & Child Health, the premiere Canadian pediatric journal. In it, she concludes that "children who say hand dryers 'hurt my ears' are correct" since, as she discovered through her research, many hand dryers operate "at levels that are clearly dangerous to children’s hearing." Continue reading → Continue reading

Six extraordinary women who deserve the "Hidden Figures" film treatment.

A few years ago, the names of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson were little known — but thanks to the blockbuster movie Hidden Figures, millions of people around the world could tell you the story of these groundbreaking African American mathematicians and the way they changed the history of American space travel! But, of course, NASA's "human computers" are just the tip of the iceberg of inspiring women of history... there are thousands of 'hidden' women whose stories would astound and inspire audiences, just like Hidden Figures did. Continue reading → Continue reading