BRAVE NEW GIRLS #STEM Anthology: Inspiration for Future Female Engineers/Scientists

Releasing Today, August 1st, 2017!!!

Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science and Scheme is a collection of 22 stories about brainy young heroines who use their smarts to save the day. Edited by author Mary Fan, the anthology’s goal is to inspire girls (ages 12+) to study science and engineering. Even better, proceeds from the anthology fund scholarships for women through the Society of Women Engineers. The first Brave New Girls anthology, released in 2015, has provided several thousands of dollars’ worth of scholarships. Hopefully, this new anthology will provide many, many more, enabling more young women to pursue STEM careers!

 

Check out this fun Book Trailer for the anthology!

 

Also visit the Brave New Girls website!

Here are a few quick links where you can purchase the anthology to inspire all the #STEM girls in your life. And don’t forget, proceeds from the sale of the anthology provide scholarships for women to study engineering through the Society of Women Engineers, so please spread the word!!!!

Amazon

Barnes & Noble  

Indiebound

Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh, NC)

GoodReads

We’ve invited two authors from the anthology, the Winged Pen’s Michelle Leonard and fantasy author Karissa Laurel, to talk about women in science and science fiction.

I’d love to know how each of you ended up being passionate about women of science? What sparked the story you wrote for the anthology?

Karissa:  In my careers, I’ve tended to pursue the artistic and creative (not that there isn’t room for creativity in science and vice versa). However, I was raised by a woman of science. My mom was a biology major in college and spent years working as a cytologist. When I was in elementary school, she decided to change careers and went back to school to learn how to be a computer programmer—this was in the mid-to-late 80s. At the time, I didn’t understand it was rare for women to make that kind of career choice. I simply thought my mom could do anything she put her mind to. She’s always inspired me, and only as I get older do I realize what a pioneer she was.

Michelle:  I fell in love with science when I took high school chemistry. Everyone else hated our teacher. She was stern, like a drill sergeant, not at all warm. But Mrs. Davis was the smartest person I’d ever met, and she was black. Her fierceness and passion for science made an immediate impression on me (picture the Beyoncé of Chemistry, without all the razzle-dazzle). I became infatuated with learning everything Mrs. Davis could possibly teach me. We became good friends, even though she remained very stern, and distant, only referring to me by my last name. I often stayed after school to help her set up the next day’s lab, or I would grade tests and homework for her. She insisted that I should become an engineer and asked my guidance counselor to help me land an after-school job to make sure I’d have enough money to go to college.

The main character in my story, a biracial fifteen-year-old named Nina Jessup, is a mash-up of my chemistry teacher and me. Nina uses the blue LED technology I developed as an engineer to fight against something that has deeply troubled me and that I’ve fought against my entire life: racism.

Mrs. Davis has long since passed, but I’ve always felt indebted to her for her inspiration. I’m not a teacher, but I’ve always wanted to do what she did for me for someone else. This story is one attempt to do just that.

What are some science-girl clichés you’d love to see squashed and do you have a book or movie recommendation that does it well?

Karissa:  The first that comes to mind is the “Velma” cliché—yes, Velma from Scoobie Doo. Women in science are often portrayed as nerdy, stiff, robotic, and cold. Despite its flaws, the new Ghostbuster’s movie with Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon made me unbelievably happy because it represented a group of women with disparate and varying personalities all brought together by their passion for science. It took the women who are usually given “sidekick” status and made them the protagonists and heroes.

Michelle:  I whole-heartedly agree with Karissa, but I also get annoyed seeing female scientists portrayed as hot scientists because it’s the twisted trope, the opposite of a “Velma,” and diminishes respect for females in the profession. I’m also not a fan of mad scientists, especially in children’s literature, because it gives kids the wrong impression about science. Hello, does anyone want their child to grow up to be an evil genius? Most scientists save lives and work passionately to make the world a better place. Hidden Figures is a wonderful example of a movie/book showing the obstacles real scientists, especially women and minorities, face every day in their quest to advance knowledge for society and to protect our Earth and all its precious creatures. Those are the stories about scientists that kids need to hear.

Now, a bit of fun.

Time machine to travel back and forth in time or ability to stop & restart time at your will?

Karissa:  Dozens of books and movies have taught me that messing with the past or future is dangerous, and it’s impossible to calculate the consequences. Maybe killing Hitler before he came into power, or saving JFK from assassination, might have made the world a better place. But how are we to know it wouldn’t have made it worse in some way? I think I’d like to be able to stop and restart time. Now that I’m a mother with a teenager, it seems like the days are flying by. He’s growing up too fast, and I’m growing older too fast. I’d love to be able to slow time down, on occasion.

Michelle:  I’m with Karissa in believing that messing with the past could have unintended consequences, but I would do anything to be able to flash back to 1938, right as nuclear fission was discovered, to prevent the development the atomic bomb. The devastation at Hiroshima would be erased. I’d love to be able to stop and start time too. I could squeeze so much more reading in that way. *wiggles eyebrows.

Magical powers or computer brain?

Karissa:  I think what looks like magic is often just science that we don’t yet understand. I love that magic offers so many possibilities and would probably choose that answer, but having a computer brain, if it were big enough and complex enough, might serve the same purpose. With magic, maybe I could heal a person’s cancer. With a computer brain, maybe I could come up with a cure. Both powers come with a great need for responsibility and a strong moral ethos, however. To quote Stan Lee: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Michelle:  Scary news alert! We already have the technology to computerize our brains. So far, it’s being used mostly for medical purposes, but the possibilities are limitless and truly frightening. Magic, on the other hand? Yes, please sign me up!

You guys are the best! This was too fun.

Karissa Laurel lives in North Carolina with her kid, her husband, the occasional in-law, and a very hairy husky named Bonnie. Some of her favorite things are coffee, chocolate, and super heroes. She can quote The Princess Bride verbatim. On weekends, you can find her at flea-markets hunting for rusty things to re-use and re-purpose. She is the also the author of The Norse Chronicles, an adult urban fantasy series based on Norse mythology; and The Stormbourne Chronicles, a young adult fantasy and steampunk series. More information about those is available at her website. You can also connect with Karissa on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

Michelle Leonard was born to be a math and science nerd. After spending over ten years working with an engineering dream team developing commercial blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), she escaped the world of seventy-hour workweeks. Nowadays, when Michelle’s not tinkering on her teleporter for transporting her talented daughters to important gigs or pushing books into young readers’ hands at her local Indie bookstore, she’s turning outlandish thoughts into stories for young readers. She lives with her science-savvy husband, three inspiring daughters, and a border collie who hates numbers. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.

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