With Captain Marvel, Anna Boden has become the first woman to direct a live-action movie that grossed over $1 billion.

Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel has soared to blockbuster success, becoming the first female-led superhero film to pass $1 billion at the box office! It has also made history as the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to feature a female solo lead. While the film's themes of perseverance and discovering your own power have spoken to a wide audience, this lead character is particularly meaningful for girls and women, who rarely see themselves as the heroic lead of a superhero film. Continue reading → Continue reading

Our top picks of girl-empowering gifts perfect for an Easter basket or anytime you're looking for a special small present!

With Easter on its way, many members of our community are looking to fill their Mighty Girl's Easter basket with a few unique and empowering gifts — after all, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks are fun, but the right inspiring toy or game could be a hit all year long! With that in mind, we've put together a selection of 50 of our favorite Easter gifts for Mighty Girls of all ages. From toddlers to teens, you'll find a variety of intriguing gift options that will encourage her interests — or foster a new one! — and all of them are affordably priced and small enough to fit into an Easter basket.

If you don't find just the right thing in this blog post, our Girl Empowering Easter Gifts Collection has over 300 suggestions for your Mighty Girl to enjoy! Continue reading → Continue reading

Over 150 photos of Mighty Girls standing up for girls and women's rights at the historic Women's Marches held worldwide on January 21.

Millions of people took to the streets at Women's Marches around the world on January 21, 2017 in an unprecedented show of solidarity and support for the belief that women's rights are human rights. At the 914 Women's Marches that were held in all 50 states and over 60 countries, girls and young women participated in vast numbers. This day gave these girls an unforgettable life lesson about the power of their own voice in creating change – and the responsibility of every citizen to use that voice to stand up for their rights and the rights of others.

In this blog post, we're showcasing just a small fraction of the incredible photos of Mighty Girls at Women’s Marches worldwide that have been shared with us. Thank you to the many people who have shared their march stories and photos on A Mighty Girl's Facebook page. And, most importantly, thank you to everyone who participated in a Women's March – while the fight for girls and women's rights will continue, our voices on this inspiring day of action were powerful and sent the clear and unmistakable message: "We're not going away."
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By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

While there are dozens of great new Mighty Girl books getting published every year, there are also many girl-empowering stories that have been passed down for generations! Times may have changed, but these classic characters still speak to the girls of today just as they did to their grandmothers.

With that in mind, we're showcasing our favorite classic Mighty Girl stories. These are books that you’re likely to remember from your own childhood — in fact, you may have even been first introduced to them because an adult you know loved them as as child!

Of course, there are so many of these classic stories that it was hard to narrow down our list, so with that in mind, we’ve split our list of favorites into two parts. In this post, we’re highlighting our twenty favorite stories from 1950 and earlier and we follow-up with a selection of our favorite modern classics in our post Beloved Books, Part 2: Twenty Mighty Girl Modern Classics.

The classic stories featured below have already been passed down through multiple generations — now is a great time to introduce them to a new generation of Mighty Girls! Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Dolls and figurines have been favorite pretend play toys for hundreds of years, but there are a lot more choices now than there were in the past! Today, dolls and action figures can represent historical figures, popular book, TV, and movie characters, or people from around the world.

If you’ve been looking for a unique doll or exciting action figure for your Mighty Girl, we’ve put together a collection of some of our favorites! From Mighty Girl role models from history to comic book stars, from children’s book characters to paper dolls, there's a new best friend awaiting every child!

For even more empowering dolls and action figures, check out the Dolls / Action Figures section of our 2014 Holiday Gift Guide or our full selection of over 400 options.

To learn about more of our favorite toys of all varieties for Mighty Girls, including science, building, and pretend play toys, check out our Girl Empowerment Toy Blog Series or visit our 2014 Holiday Guide. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

With all of the amazing girl-empowering books out there it might seem like book lovers are easy to buy gifts for, but what if you want to get them something other than more titles for their library? Fortunately, there’s a whole world of gift options to help your Mighty Girl -- or the adult book lovers in your life -- celebrate their love of books, literature, and reading.

You could find the perfect literary-themed T-shirt or a beautiful book-themed poster. Maybe she’s crazy for a particular book character or she just loves to play with words and stories. This blog will provide you with some inspiration for almost any reader, whether she’s still enjoying story time on Mom or Dad’s knee or she’s sharing her childhood favorites with a new generation of Mighty Girls.

For more books, toys, and other resources to encourage your Mighty Girl's interest in storytelling and creative writing, check out our blog post on Fantastic Adventures and Amazing Tales: Encouraging Creative Writing and Storytelling.

To learn about more of our favorite toys of all varieties for Mighty Girls, check out our Girl Empowerment Toy Blog Series or visit our 2014 Holiday Guide. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

August and September are big months for new children's book releases --- which means there are lots of newly published titles starring Mighty Girls! From terrific new picture books to engrossing teen fiction, there have been some excellent books hitting the shelves in the last two months. To help you learn about the standouts and to whet your appetite for the release of our special feature on the best Mighty Girl books of 2014 at the end of the year, we’re sharing a few of our favorite new releases. Whether your Mighty Girl is 3 or 13, we’re sure you’ll find something she’ll love!

If you'd like to learn more about any of the books featured in our post, just click the title of the book to open its A Mighty Girl page. There, you can read reviews, learn about related books, and order your favorites for your kids.

To check out our previous round-ups of Mighty Girl book releases, check out our special features: 2012 Year In Review and 2013 Year In Review.

Be Patient, Pandora by Joan Holub, illustrated by Leslie Patricelli (age 1 - 4)

“Do not open the box, Pandora!” warns Pandora’s mother, so she doesn’t...but she does touch it, lean on it, sit on it, even jump on it! Unsurprisingly, the box soon flies open, ruining the big batch of cupcakes hidden inside. Fortunately for Pandora, one little cupcake, representing Hope, is still in the box for her and her mother to share. This simple adaptation of the myth of Pandora’s Box, part of the new Mini Myths series, features simple, fun text and hilarious illustrations.

Ladybug Girl and the Dress-Up Dilemma by Jacky Davis, illustrated by David Soman (age 3 - 5)

Ladybug Girl is back, and Lulu has a big decision to make — what to be for Halloween! She tries on lots of different costumes, but none of them seems quite right. She hopes for inspiration as her family goes pumpkin picking and takes a hayride, and she finds it in the form of a little girl who needs a helping hand. Maybe the perfect costume has been right under her nose the whole time! Fans of Ladybug Girl will love this book about being true to yourself. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Since 1970, Earth Day has grown from a one-time event involving 20 million Americans to an annual global day of awareness involving more than 22,000 organizations in 192 countries. On April 22 and throughout the month of April, people everywhere focus on the wonders of our amazing planet and the need to protect it.

In preparation for Earth Day, A Mighty Girl will provide a variety of resources that parents and educators can use to introduce environmental issues and concerns to children. We begin our new blog series with this post showcasing girl-empowering movies with an environmental theme. These films showcase the beauty and fragility of the Earth and both the fictional and real Mighty Girls and women who have worked to protect it.

So curl up with your Mighty Girl and share one of these great films; they’re sure to get her thinking about how she could change the world. Continue reading → Continue reading

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

“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