"Your kid doesn't just want to take risks. She needs to take risks."

"Middle school gets a bad rap," says Michelle Icard, educator and author of Middle School Makeover: Improving the Way You and Your Child Experience the Middle School Years. "Middle school can be scary. But there is a lot to love about middle school, too. One of my favorites is that middle school can offer a buffet of new experiences." When kids start acting differently from the little kid you've known for so long however, whether it's wanting to dye their hair strange new colors, wearing only black, or hanging out with a new group of friends, many parents start to worry. Icard aims to set parents at ease, asserting that, while it may seem counterintuitive, one of the best way to keep your middle schooler out of trouble is to let them take risks — with a little guidance. “Who a child will become is not a foregone conclusion, and without trying a lot of new things, how can a young person truly know who she is?” Icard asks. "Becoming an independent adult, after all, requires a lot of bravery.... Your kid doesn’t just want to take risks. She needs to take risks." Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's 2018 Halloween Gallery is now live! A small sample of the many hundreds of photos submitted can be viewed in our Halloween Highlights blog post.

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos of their Mighty Girls in costume to our 2018 Halloween Gallery! We were awed by the creativity and variety of the Mighty Girl costumes submitted to the gallery. 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! Continue reading → Continue reading

Women are vastly underrepresented in Congress but research has found they are superior at governing.

The average American likely knows that there are more men than women in the U.S. Congress, but few realize how vastly underrepresented women truly are, how progress has been stalled for an entire generation, and how poorly the U.S. fares in terms of women's representation compared to the rest of the world. As of 2018, women hold only 20% of the seats in the U.S. Congress. Not only has this percentage barely budged for years, it's essentially akin to the representation of women in Saudi Arabia, a country famous for its poor record on women's rights. On a global scale, women's representation in the US lags far behind many other countries, ranking 104 out of 193 in the world. Continue reading → Continue reading

25 Mighty Girl Halloween Costumes Celebrating Mighty Women

A popular theme among the over 2,000 photos of Mighty Girls in costume submitted to this year's A Mighty Girl Halloween Gallery were costumes that honored a pioneering woman from history or present day. In this blog post, we've showcased 25 of these Mighty Girl's incredible costumes and, to help you and your Mighty Girl learn more about the amazing women depicted, we've also linked to our character collection and biography section where relevant in a "Teachable Moment" feature. Continue reading → Continue reading

Our top picks of Mighty Girl superhero costumes from our Halloween costume collection and photos of Mighty Girls in costume shared by our community!

Who doesn't love pretending to be a superhero? Flying through the sky, using your skills, wits, and super powers to save the world is an exciting idea, especially for young children. So it's no wonder that superhero costumes are tremendously popular at Halloween! If a Mighty Girl wants to dress up as a favorite superhero, there's no shortage of Iron Man, Captain America, and Superman costumes but what if she wants to dress up as a female superhero? Costumes for even popular female superheroes such as Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl are often nowhere to be seen. And if the costumes are available, often they are either highly sexualized, with short skirts and cutouts — hardly the right outfit for someone busy saving the day!

To make it easier to find empowering superhero costumes for fans of every age, from newborns to adults, we've showcased our favorites based on characters ranging from Black Widow to Bumblebee. In addition to being fun to wear, these costumes remind everyone that the world of superheroes has plenty of strong, intelligent, and courageous female characters to inspire costumes and dress-up wear. Dressed as her favorite superhero, your Mighty Girl will feel ready to take on the world!

For even more costume inspiration on themes ranging from superheroes to animals, you'll find hundreds of costumes for all ages from infants through adults in our Girl Empowerment Halloween Costume Guide. Continue reading → Continue reading

Our favorite occupation-themed Mighty Girl costumes from our own costume collection and photos of Mighty Girls in costume shared by our community!

Halloween dress-up fun gives kids a wonderful opportunity to imagine themselves in any number of roles, such as pursuing a future career aspiration! Whether she sees herself as a doctor, firefighter, ballerina, or scientist, she can "try on" her dream job for a night -- and perhaps even spark an interest that will last a lifetime.

In today's blog post, we share some of our favorite occupation-themed costumes, including a number from A Mighty Girl's costume collection such as veterinarian, astronaut, and chef costumes. Of course, many Mighty Girls enjoy the challenge of creating their own costume, so in the second section, we highlight a few of our favorite costumes inspired by careers that community members have shared with us in previous years!

For even more costume inspiration on themes ranging from superheroes to animals, you'll find hundreds of costumes for all ages from infants through adults in our Girl Empowerment Halloween Costume Guide. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of new girl-empowering releases for children and teens.

September is always a big month for new book releases, but with so many new titles, it can be challenging to keep track of the best new Mighty Girl books. With gorgeous new picture books, inspiring tales about real-life female role models, new additions to popular chapter book series, and thought-provoking young adult fantasy, there's something new for every lover of girl-empowering literature! And, for even more options, you can find over 3,000 Mighty Girl books for all ages, sortable by recommended reader age and theme, in our main Book Collection. Continue reading → Continue reading

For the first time in history, a woman will serve as NASA's chief flight director.

NASA took another giant step for equality this week when it named Holly Ridings as its first female chief flight director! Ridings, who is originally from Amarillo, Texas, will lead the flight directors that oversee human spaceflight missions from Mission Control in Houston's Johnson Space Center.  "Holly has proven herself a leader among a group of highly talented flight directors,” says Director of Flight Operations Brian Kelly. "I know she will excel in this unique and critical leadership position providing direction for the safety and success of human spaceflight missions. She will lead the team during exciting times as they adapt to support future missions with commercial partners and beyond low-Earth orbit." Continue reading → Continue reading

Our top 60 picks of backpacks for children and teens that reflect Mighty Girls' diverse interests in a wide range of colors and designs.

Whether you're looking for a new backpack for school, need something to tote stuff for sleepovers, or want a heavy-duty, high-capacity daypack for hikes and traveling, it's important that the bag you pick can take everything your Mighty Girl has to throw at it! At the same time, backpacks are a fun way to reflect a child's interests and a tween's or teen's personality. The best backpacks are the ones that both go the distance and capture the wide array of interests of the Mighty Girls in our lives!

With that in mind, we've put together a selection of our favorite backpacks for kids, from toddlers to teens. In the first half of this blog post, we've showcased a variety of backpacks in fun, colorful patterns that cover a wide variety of themes ranging from animals to science, and then in the second half, we've shared some of our favorite backpacks featuring Mighty Girl characters, including site favorites such as Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Moana, Star Wars, The Incredibles, Inside Out, and Doc McStuffins. We're confident there's one every Mighty Girl will love! Continue reading → Continue reading

A team of volunteers provides women and children escaping domestic violence everything they need to have a beautiful, comfortable new home — for free!

In Nashville, Tennessee, a unique program provides women and children escaping domestic violence everything they need to have a beautiful, comfortable new home — for free! Re-New at the YWCA, which is run entirely by volunteers, has furnished nearly 200 homes for over 400 survivors of violence, allowing them to make a fresh start. Before the families move in to the homes, volunteers come to decorate, move in furniture, and stock bathrooms and kitchens with necessary supplies; they even provide a crock-pot simmering with the family's first meal in their new home. "It's an invaluable experience for a woman who's gone through brutal abuse," says Christan Lyons, one of the women who received a Re-New home last year. "It felt like a reward for having the courage to walk away." Continue reading → Continue reading