While playing video games with my daughter the other day, she confided in me that she’s decided to embrace the Dinasaur-lover that she truly is. Yep, she’s a dino-loving nerd and she’s proud of it. Since she started Middle School, I’ve noticed the pressures on campus and the trends on social media that influence girls her age to be something that maybe is not true to who they really are. Some are modern things that I can barely keep up with and spend late nights up Googling. But others are the same old standards:
Only nerds like math.
Dinosaurs are for boys.
Girls don’t game.
This got me thinking about sources of influence in my life that I can name off the top of my head, who I find inspiration from, and can tell my daughter about when I need to make a solid Mom point next time the subject comes up.
The first name that popped into my head was Cindy Crawford. I’ll never forget the article about her that I read as a young girl. She was top of the ultra-famous “Super Models” of my day, but she was more than just a pretty face. I read that she was valedictorian of her High School class, and received a scholarship to study Chemical Engineering (with Mathematics) at Northwestern University! Her pretty face inspired me too, because she had a mole on her cheek as I did, and she didn’t let anyone talk her into getting rid of it. Smarts, beauty, and being true to herself.
As I became an adult I remember two strong beautiful women flipping the red carpet game in Hollywood, and encouraging girls to let the press know that women can answer more complex questions beyond “Who are you wearing?”. Comedian Amy Pohler and Meredith Walker started an organization called Smart Girls that challenges girls to “Change the World by Being Yourself”. So for instance, if you’re a girl who likes Dinosaurs, then go for it!
I remember watching an episode of Liv & Maddie on Disney Channel with my daughter, where Liv had to walk a red carpet and she decided to challenge the usual questions coming at her from the press. She pushed back when asked a shallow question, and instead offered to answer a more meaningful one. My daughter Izzy was in kindergarten at the time, but she was definitely paying extra attention to that part of the episode. She understood it. It was important.
Now my kids are much older, but I have Mom-friends whose littles are able to watch shows with positive brainy female role models even at the pre-school age, like Eureka from EUREKA! on Disney Junior who’s a little girl who tells kids “If you can dream it, you can do it!”, and of course Doc McStuffins who wants to be a doctor like her mother.
My daughter has fully embraced her love for dinosaurs now and she’s even researching universities that have the best programs in Herpetology. Yes, that’s the study of reptiles and amphibians. (No, I didn’t know that before she told me either.) And finally after years of reminding her that she actually is good at math, every time she would say she’s bad at math, she’s finished this school year with an “A” in math! She now admits out loud that math is actually kind of easy. She says she just gets it.
Wow. I’d say she totally gets it.
Thanks to the smart women in Hollywood who are inspiring us, and to the ones who have created inspiring characters on screen. When we see them, we know you get it too, and you are looking out for our girls.
