By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. We are all familiar with the names of these famous and remarkable women. But what of the lesser known queens of black history? If only we were all as familiar with names such as Claudette Colvin, Wilma Rudolph, Viola Desmond, Effa Manley, or Molly Williams.

February is well known as Black History Month in the United States and Canada. Schools, libraries, organizations, and individuals across the continent take time to honor black Americans and Canadians and their essential role in our nations’ stories throughout the second month of the year.

At A Mighty Girl, our take on this important celebration will be to focus on Black Herstory -- the too-often forgotten female half of black history -- by sharing the stories of both contemporary and historical tales of girls and women of African descent through our Facebook page and blog posts.

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By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Welcome to our new blog series, Mighty Careers! In this series, we’re going to celebrate careers that your Mighty Girl may be dreaming of pursuing one day. In each blog, we’ll profile a career role model and provide recommendations for books, toys, clothing, and even room decor to help inspire your Mighty Girl in her aspirations. Whether she’s three or thirteen, there will be resources to help her learn more about her dream job, imagine herself living it, and let the world know what she hopes to be when she grows up.

In the first blog post of the series, we’re focusing on a career field that is popular with many Mighty Girls: astronaut! There’s something about space that captivates many kids, but it's often difficult to find resources that feature girls and women as astronauts.

To make it easier, we've pulled together a series of great fictional books and biographies about female astronauts and space scientists. We've also included recommendations for great pretend play or learning toys to foster her interest in space and astronomy. And, of course, since no space-crazy Mighty Girl’s wardrobe would be complete without a nod or two to her love of the stars, we've also sought out a collection of space-themed clothing.

So take a look at what’s out there to help your Mighty Girl’s dream of space grow! Even if a career in space isn’t in her future, she’ll always remember that you encouraged her to reach for the stars.

For more ways to encourage your Mighty Girl to aim high, check out the other entries in our Mighty Careers series.
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By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Lots of kids, both girls and boys, love having their own special friend and, with that in mind, we’re showcasing ten of our favorite Mighty Girl dolls and action figures from our extensive collection of empowering dolls.

This selection features dolls that are diverse and dynamic, just like your Mighty Girl, and offer a wide range of both nurturing play and pretend play opportunities. After all, her new best friend should be as amazing as she is!

For more great options, check out our Dolls / Action Figures section, which is divided into separate categories for Dolls, Action Figures, and Stuffed Animals. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

A few days ago, we announced the release of our special feature on the top 2013 Mighty Girl Books with a blog post featuring our favorite 2013 releases for younger readers. In today's post, we're showcasing twenty of the fantastic girl-empowering tween and teen books released this past year!

Our selection features new authors as well as returning ones, and both stand-alone books and volumes of some of our top Mighty Girl series. No matter what your Mighty Girl enjoys reading, she’ll find something to intrigue her here!

Of course, this is just a small sample of the many wonderful books released in 2013. Narrowing down our favorites was truly tricky, so you're sure to discover more great titles in our complete 2013 Mighty Girl Books.

And, if you'd like to discover more recent releases starring Mighty Girls, check out our round-up of the top Mighty Girl stories from last year in our special feature on the 2012 Mighty Girl Books: A Year in Review.

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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 Communications Specialist

“Children are born true scientists. They spontaneously experiment and experience and re-experience again. They select, combine, and test, seeking to find order in their experiences — ‘which is the mostest? which is the leastest?’ They smell, taste, bite, and touch-test for hardness, softness, springiness, roughness, smoothness, coldness, warmness: they heft, shake, punch, squeeze, push, crush, rub, and try to pull things apart.”

— R. Buckminster-Fuller

Do you remember a time when learning how the world worked was fascinating? Many of us lose that sense of wonder, even if we regain it later. But fading interest in all things science isn’t the inevitable progression of childhood! You can help your Mighty Girl maintain her love of science with a little time, effort, and some great science toys.

In this blog, we highlight a few of our favorite toys for different age groups that promote an interest in science, technology, engineering, and the natural world. You can also visit our entire selection of nearly 300 empowering STEM-oriented toys in our science / technology toy section. Continue reading → Continue reading

Doctor Who was a popular theme for Mighty Girls this Halloween so in celebration of the long-running British science fiction television show's 50th anniversary today, we present our A Mighty Girl tribute to the immortal time traveler!

If you're new to the program, one of its unusual features is that the lead character, the Doctor, periodically "regenerates" into a new body and a new actor takes on the role. The new season marks the character's 11th regeneration and, before actor Peter Capaldi was announced as the newest incarnation of the Doctor, there was much speculation that a woman could take on one of the most famous roles in television.

Actor John Barrowman, who played Captain Jack Harkness on the show, endorsed the idea, stating “We’ve had great guys playing the role. The character of River Song was so popular in the last part of the series and it [had] such an impact -- why shouldn’t we have a female doctor?” Helen Mirren, who was widely floated as an excellent choice for the role, added, “I think it’s absolutely time for a female Doctor Who. I’m so sick of that man with his girl sidekick. I could name at least 10 wonderful British actresses who would absolutely kill in that role.” Continue reading → Continue reading

This year, we've received a huge number of photo submissions for our Halloween album and we're awed by the creativity and variety of these Mighty Girls' amazing costumes. 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!

In this post, we've showcased a small sample of these incredible costumes -- to browse the over 700 photos submitted, visit the 2013 A Mighty Girl Halloween Album. And, to help you and your Mighty Girl learn more about the wonderful characters and historic figures depicted, we've also linked to our character collection and biography section where relevant.

If you missed our earlier post highlighting creative Mighty Girl costumes from 2012, check out our blog post, A Mighty Girl Halloween: 50 Mighty Girls in Costume.

And, if you're seeking girl-empowering dress-up clothing or costumes anytime of year, visit our extensive costume collection with options for all ages from infants through adults in A Mighty Girl's Halloween Costume Guide. You can also find Mighty Girl stories for many of the upcoming holidays, including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas, in our Holidays & Celebrations collection.
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