By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

Happy Earth Day! Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd in almost 200 countries all over the world as a day to support and protect the Earth. Many communities have volunteer opportunities during the entire week -- often referred to as Earth Week -- so that individuals can take part in environmental activities to help care for the Earth.

At A Mighty Girl, our Earth Week focus is on the Mighty Girls and women of the environmental movement. How have girls and women contributed to our global understanding of ecology, recycling, alternative energies, and many other environmental issues? More ways than you can count!

Below you’ll find many of our favorite books and films about real-life environmentalists to share with the eco-kids in your life! And, if you missed the first two blogs in our Earth Day series, you can learn more great fictional stories about the environment starring Mighty Girl in our post on Ten Mighty Girl Books to Inspire Young Environmentalists and about toys to teach children about the environment in our post on post on Eco-Toys, Games, and Gear for Green Girls. Continue reading → Continue reading

Today in Mighty Girl History, we remember the contributions of Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini who died today at the age of 103. Born into a Jewish-Italian family in Turin in 1909, Levi-Montalcini's years in medical school coincided with the rise of fascism in Italy and the imposition of anti-Semitic laws which limited her career prospects.

Once WWII broke out, she and her family decided to stay in Italy rather than flee overseas and she built a laboratory in her bedroom to continue her research work. It was in this makeshift laboratory that she began studying the development of chicken embryos; research that laid the underpinning of her later Nobel Prize-winning work on the mechanism of cell growth regulation.

After the Nazi invasion of Italy in 1943, Levi-Montalcini and her family were forced underground and moved to Florence where she worked as a doctor in Allied war camps after the city was liberated. Following the war, in 1946, she moved to the U.S. for more than twenty years to conduct research at Washington University in St. Louis. It was there that she discovered nerve growth factor, a protein which regulates the growth of cells; this discovery was critical to better understanding tumor growth among other conditions. Continue reading → Continue reading

Wangari Maathai was a highly accomplished Kenyan environmentalist who has been the subject of a number of recent stunning picture books. After training as a biologist in the U.S., Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental and women's empowerment organization that trains women in rural Kenya to plant trees in order to combat deforestation. Since its founding in 1977, her organization has planted over 40 million trees and trained over 30,000 women in trades that provide them with income and preserve the country's natural resources. Maathai's efforts effectively transformed the landscape of Kenya and raised countless women out of poverty. For her great contributions, Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 -- becoming the first African woman to do so.

In the past several years, four picture books have been released on the life and work of Maathai. All four are beautifully illustrated and trace her life from her early girlhood days to her founding of the Green Belt Movement and the impact her work had on the land and people of Kenya. Continue reading → Continue reading

In honor of Earth Day, A Mighty Girl would like to recognize two of the greatest female environmentalists of the 20th century -- Jane Goodall and Rachel Carson. Jane Goodall is a British primatologist and the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. She is especially well-known for her work running... Continue reading

Amalie Noether was a groundbreaking 20th century mathematician who Albert Einstein called "one the most 'significant” and “creative' female mathematicians of all time." Although Noether made tremendous contributions to theoretical physics and abstract algebra, even among the scientific community Noether is virtually unknown today. Unfortunately, this type of obscurity is... Continue reading