Hello my name is...
Hi!
My name is Vanessa and I love science. I have a crazy fascination with astronomy and more generally how things work. Ever since I was in year 5, I have always been the one who wanted to know that little bit more or the one who would ask one more question than I probably should and I started to realise that very few others were like that.
So I'm writing to all you girls who have that 'weird' interest Pythagoras or who are closet experts in Kinetic theory, To the girls who deal with numbers the way other girls walk in 6 inch stiletto heels (Shout out to the girls who can do both!).
Being a girl in today's society is so hard because so much is expected of us. We are expected to look like what society deems beautiful and to think in the way that girls are expected to think because we are supposed to leave all the real thinking to the men... right? WRONG!
Some of the most powerful minds in human history have been from women and likewise some of the most amazing discoveries that have revolutionised science in ways that were not even dreamed possible.
One of the greatest examples of this: Marie Curie who was born into a poor family and was the youngest of 5. Her family lacked money which meant she couldn't go into formal higher education (Sound familiar to anyone?) but when she was offered the opportunity to attend university in France, she took it. She learned that she had a love for Maths and Physics and later moved on to make some of the most important discoveries into radioactive elements that have made huge contributions against cancer, discovering both Radium and Polonium and winning 2 Nobel prizes for her work. Talk about humble beginnings, right?
What's my point? Media, advertising and so many things that we see on a daily basis teach us that girls should be Cooks, Teachers, Carers and so many other professions and don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for people in these professions but how often are there any STEM subjects in there? Almost never. And this puts us girls in a difficult position and keeps us in this box that limits us. Have you ever heard the saying think outside the box? Well I completely disagree with it, I think that as a generation we need to break out of the box completely because sometimes that is the only thing limiting us.
I'll leave you this to think about:
Picture an Engineer, what do you think of? Now hold that for a moment and wonder why.
Stay Curious,
Vanessa x
Note: For those of you who don't know, when I refer to STEM, I'm not talking about a part of a plant. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths :)
My name is Vanessa and I love science. I have a crazy fascination with astronomy and more generally how things work. Ever since I was in year 5, I have always been the one who wanted to know that little bit more or the one who would ask one more question than I probably should and I started to realise that very few others were like that.
So I'm writing to all you girls who have that 'weird' interest Pythagoras or who are closet experts in Kinetic theory, To the girls who deal with numbers the way other girls walk in 6 inch stiletto heels (Shout out to the girls who can do both!).
Being a girl in today's society is so hard because so much is expected of us. We are expected to look like what society deems beautiful and to think in the way that girls are expected to think because we are supposed to leave all the real thinking to the men... right? WRONG!
Some of the most powerful minds in human history have been from women and likewise some of the most amazing discoveries that have revolutionised science in ways that were not even dreamed possible.
One of the greatest examples of this: Marie Curie who was born into a poor family and was the youngest of 5. Her family lacked money which meant she couldn't go into formal higher education (Sound familiar to anyone?) but when she was offered the opportunity to attend university in France, she took it. She learned that she had a love for Maths and Physics and later moved on to make some of the most important discoveries into radioactive elements that have made huge contributions against cancer, discovering both Radium and Polonium and winning 2 Nobel prizes for her work. Talk about humble beginnings, right?
What's my point? Media, advertising and so many things that we see on a daily basis teach us that girls should be Cooks, Teachers, Carers and so many other professions and don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for people in these professions but how often are there any STEM subjects in there? Almost never. And this puts us girls in a difficult position and keeps us in this box that limits us. Have you ever heard the saying think outside the box? Well I completely disagree with it, I think that as a generation we need to break out of the box completely because sometimes that is the only thing limiting us.
I'll leave you this to think about:
Picture an Engineer, what do you think of? Now hold that for a moment and wonder why.
Stay Curious,
Vanessa x
Note: For those of you who don't know, when I refer to STEM, I'm not talking about a part of a plant. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths :)
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