Girls are smarter than boys; everybody knows it. There are actually studies that show girls are smarter than boys because they mature faster. So, why are there more men than women in the world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)?
It’s because boys hog the STEM cool factor. Tesla’s Tech Girl Army!
Boys have hijacked all the cool stuff. Take a look at the aisles in a toy store. The “boy aisles” are filled with stuff like, robots, remote-controlled helicopters, and building sets, while “girl aisles” are filled with lame, pink crap. All of the cool, sci-tech adventure heroes are guys: Anakin Skywalker, Indiana Jones, James Bond, even Bill Nye… the science guy. When’s the last time you saw a woman think her way out of an impossible, hot-lava-rising-nuclear-bomb-about-to-go-off-you’re-the-only-one-who-can-save-the-day situation?
My name is Tesla Fong. Welcome to my space. I’m a thirteen-year-old Sci-Tech girl and I’m putting on my hacker headphones (Green Day helps me think) and hacking the code to redefine sci-tech as ” cool girl stuff.” My mission is to un-glaze the eyes of every girl in the world. When someone mentions STEM, I want girls’ eyes to widen in anticipation and sparkle with wonder, because STEM topics are all about adventure.
Girls can build radios to talk to astronauts in orbit, work at a hot startup writing code, or pioneer the understanding of epigenetics. Not all of the sci-tech featured in this column will be “girl only” (even though boys are not as smart as us, they still do cool stuff), but it’s all aimed at getting girls exited about STEM.
Girls should never stop being girls (I wear a pair of pink vans), because girls rock. But, in order for a girl to truly blossom she needs a strong STEM.
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