A Mighty Girl's top picks of children's books about female Olympians, from gymnastics greats to soccer stars!

With the Tokyo Olympic Games about to begin, Mighty Girls around the world will be looking on — and dreaming of standing on the podium to claim their own gold medal one day! A century ago, only 65 women competed in the Olympics, making up only 2.5% of Olympic athletes; at this year's Tokyo 2020 summer games, almost 49% of competitors are women, setting a new record for women's participation at the Olympics. It's never been a more exciting time for women in sports or for girls who dream of going to the Olympics someday. Continue reading → Continue reading

10-year-old Grace Turner-Cox is running the equivalent of a marathon a week for 20 weeks to raise funds for a charity helping kids with craniosynostosis.

10-year-old Grace Turner-Cox's baby cousin Henry was diagnosed with a rare birth defect after his birth last May — so the Mighty Girl from Basingstoke, England is running the equivalent of a marathon a week to raise money for a UK charity helping kids with craniosynostosis! Grace came up with her fundraising idea at Christmas and she's already completed six marathons and hit her first fundraising target of £1,250 (about $1,750 US) to help support the work of Headlines Craniofacial Support. Now, she plans to continue her runs every week until Henry's first birthday in May, completing the equivalent of 20 marathons. "I might only be 10 years old," says Grace, "but my motivation to run to support this amazing charity has kept me going." Continue reading → Continue reading

Lindsay Sobel started her charity Shoes for Souls after seeing the widespread homelessness in Los Angeles.

When Lindsay Sobel was 12 years old, she attended a basketball game at LA's Staples Center arena and was struck by the high levels of homelessness in the area. “I noticed a lot of them were in really awful living conditions, no way any person should have to live. On top of that, I noticed a lot of them did not even have shoes on," she recalls. "At 12 years old, I was like, 'Wow, people don’t have shoes?’ It kind of put things into perspective for me." This experience started the now 17-year-old on a journey that has led her to donate over 30,000 pairs of shoes to people in need throughout Southern California — an incredible accomplishment that she says "makes me full of joy because of the fact that I’m able to help people out.” Continue reading → Continue reading

Janet Yellen was sworn in as U.S. Treasury Secretary today, making her the first woman in the Treasury's 232-year history to hold the position.

Janet Yellen was sworn in as U.S. Treasury Secretary today, making her the first woman in the Treasury's 232-year history to hold the nation's most powerful economic position. Yellen was confirmed with broad bipartisan support on a 84-15 vote by the Senate yesterday. She is now the first woman to hold all three top economic job in the federal government having previously served as the chair of Council of Economic Advisors and the chair of the Federal Reserve. Yellen's first priority in her new role will be steering the administration's new stimulus plan, designed to revive the pandemic-battered economy, through Congress and, once approved, oversee the deployment of relief aid to individuals and businesses. Continue reading → Continue reading

The original plan called for the new design to be unveiled in 2020 on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

The White House announced today that the U.S. Treasury Department will resume efforts to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. "It's important that our notes... reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman's image gracing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated during a press conference. Continue reading → Continue reading

Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn in alongside President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.

In a historic first, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female vice president in America's 244-year history alongside President Joe Biden! When he announced Harris' historic selection in August, Biden praised Harris as a “fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants.” The daughter of an immigrant mother from India and an immigrant father from Jamaica, Harris will be the first African American and first South Asian American vice president in history. Harris has said that she hopes to be the first of many capable women in her new role: "My mother would look at me and she’d say, 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last. That’s why breaking those barriers is worth it. As much as anything else, it is also to create that path for those who will come after us." Continue reading → Continue reading

The Nobel committee praised Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."

The acclaimed American poet and essayist Louise Glück has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature! The Nobel committee praised Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal." The 77-year-old Yale professor is best known for lyric poems focused on intense personal experiences, such as those involving loss, rejection, desire, and healing. She has been honored with a Pulitzer Prize for The Wild Iris and a National Book Award for Faithful and Virtuous Night, as well as serving as the Poet Laureate of the United States for 2003 to 2004. In announcing the award, the Nobel Prize committee chair Anders Olsson, praised Glück's unique voice, observing: "It is candid and uncompromising, and it signals that this poet wants to be understood — but it is also a voice full of humor and biting wit.” Continue reading → Continue reading

Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna's development of a groundbreaking method for editing DNA which is widely considered the greatest breakthrough in the biological sciences since DNA was first discovered!

Emmanuelle Charpentier, left, and Jennifer A. Doudna after receiving the Japan Prize for "outstanding achievements in science and technology" in 2017.

Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry this week for their development of a groundbreaking method for editing DNA which is widely considered the greatest breakthrough in the biological sciences since DNA was first discovered! Doudna, an American biochemist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Charpentier, a French microbiologist and the director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin, Germany, discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors, a tool that allows scientists to "snip" the DNA of organisms, allowing for easy and precise genetic modifications. The pair are the first women to jointly win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and represent the sixth and seventh women in history to win the chemistry prize. "This technology has utterly transformed the way we do research in basic science," asserts Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. "I am thrilled to see Crispr-Cas getting the recognition we have all been waiting for, and seeing two women being recognized as Nobel Laureates." Continue reading → Continue reading

Dr. Andrea Ghez became the fourth woman in history to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

Dr. Andrea Ghez was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics this week for her discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy! The astrophysicist, who is the Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine Professor of Astrophysics at UCLA, shares half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel of UC Berkeley; the other half recognizes Roger Penrose, a professor at the University of Oxford who proved that black holes must be a physical reality. Ghez was delighted to receive the award, particularly because she is only the fourth woman in history to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics. "I'm thrilled to receive the prize and I take very seriously the responsibility associated with being... the fourth woman to win," Ghez said after the announcement. "[And] I think today I feel more passionate about the teaching side of my job than I have ever. Because it's so important to convince the younger generation that their ability to question, and their ability to think, is just crucial to the future of the world." Continue reading → Continue reading

Once a 'Rosie the Riveter' during WWII, today 94-year-old Mae Krier is making Rosie-themed face masks to help fight the pandemic.

When Mae Krier was 17 years old, she took a job at a Boeing factory in Seattle in the midst of World War II, joining millions of other American women filling critical labor shortages at factories and shipyards after the male workers left to fight overseas. Today, at 94, she's stepped up to help the country overcome another crisis by making fabric face masks to help prevent the spread of coronavirus — and, to pay tribute to the heroic women of WWII, her masks are in the polka dot fabric of Rosie the Riveter's iconic bandana! "This virus is actually like another war, and we’ve gotta pull together if we’re gonna conquer it," Krier asserts. "We did it, and we can do it." Continue reading → Continue reading