A Mighty Girl's top picks of the books, pretend play toys, and tool sets to encourage Mighty Girl builders!

Whether you're putting together a bookshelf, wiring a light switch, or swapping a kitchen faucet, there's tremendous satisfaction in building something yourself! However, when you picture a carpentry hobbyist or a construction worker, chances are good the person you picture is male. Girls and women have often been discouraged from picking up tools, whether they're interested in trying some basic home repairs or considering a skilled trade as a career. As a result, the percentage of women in skilled trades jobs has been under 9% nationwide for decades. However, with the rise in popularity of DIY, girls are increasingly discovering that they can design, build, and fix things on their own! Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of books, pretend play toys, science kits, and clothing celebrating doctors and nurses!

If there's one thing that the coronavirus pandemic taught us, it's that health professionals are heroes! From the doctors and nurses providing care in clinics and hospitals, to the lab technicians running tests, to the researchers investigating medications and vaccines, the public developed a deeper appreciation for medical professionals and the work that they do. And that means that kids may be showing a new interest in medicine and the human body — both in their play and as a possible future career! 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

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Welcome to the next installment of our blog series, Mighty Careers! In this series, we 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. 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 this blog, we’ll be showcasing a career that can take your Mighty Girl deep into a jungle or to the bottom of a reef: wildlife biologist! Most kids love animals, but for some, seeing them in pictures or in a zoo isn’t enough. Instead, they want to watch them in the wild, living in their natural environment. But despite the prominent women who have made great strides in primatology, marine biology, and other fields, it can still be hard to find good resources featuring female characters.

In this post, we’ve collected a variety of different books featuring female wildlife biologists, as well as toys, clothing, and room decor to encourage and celebrate her love of animals. Whether she’s crazy for manatees or giraffes, lions or chimpanzees, you’ll find some great options here!

To find the first post from our new series, check out our post, Mighty Careers: I Want To Be An Astronaut. Continue reading → Continue reading

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.
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