Awesome Thoughts from our Blog

When I was three, I came running into the living room all bright-eyed with the excitement that only having my mother’s complete attention can bring, and invited her in the most delighted manner, “Come see the fascinating mess I made!”

Poor Mom. I had poured all the spices out onto the kitchen floor and had drawn pictures in what was probably $100 worth of seasonings.

Mom, I’m really sorry.

My 19-month-old daughter makes a beeline for the “sand hole” in the yard every time she walks out the front door. No matter the weather, she sits herself down and splatters her entire body with a mixture of dirt, mulch, sand, and grass, usually soaking her socks and shoes, along with most of her lower body. Just watching her get that messy makes my skin crawl, imagining how it must feel to be that filthy.

My daughter is my fourth child. The three older kids also still like to play in the sand and dirt, but not with the reckless abandon that she, a tiny toddler barely talking, so clearly enjoys. 

Halloween is coming, and it’s got me thinking.

I’d like to conduct a thought experiment. Will you play along for a minute?

Imagine that there is a new superhero in popular culture that is all the rage.

Imagine this superhero is male and wears a spandex suit of green and a shimmering cape of gold.

Wow. What a difference a year makes.

One year ago, we posted our first blog post. We explained where we’d been for the past eight months, where we wanted to go, and how we were going to get there. We announced, for the first time publicly, that we planned to launch a Kickstarter in early February of 2015.

Dr. Cindy Keeler is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

I am often asked how I became a theoretical physicist. How is simple: I went to school for many years. Why is actually the interesting question.

Over the next few months, we'll be featuring guest posts and interviews with a variety of women around a variety of topics related to Princess Awesome. Gina Dobson is the founder of the childrenswear company, Sunrise Girl.

Do you remember that free-flying feeling you had as a child when you jumped on a swing, pumped your legs as hard as you could, leaned back, and shot up into the sky? Your stomach would rise and fall. Higher and higher you would sail, feet pointing at the clouds, feeling strong, capable, and free.

Natalya St. Clair is the author of three TedEd talks on the mathematics of art, music, and language.

Mathematics and Studio Art may seem like an unexpected pair of majors, but I never had trouble combining the two. I always knew that I wanted to be an artist. I can even remember telling my first grade teacher that I wanted to grow up to be an artist. I also had a fascination for astronomy and physics, which helped me describe the world in a way I could understand it.

Over the next few months, we'll be featuring guest posts and interviews with a variety of women around a variety of topics related to Princess Awesome. vaneSSa is The Math Guru!

Hello, hello! My name is Vanessa. I am the founder/director of learning and inspiration of The Math Guru, a boutique math and science tutoring studio in uptown Toronto which I started almost four years ago! Why did I decide to do such a thing, you ask? Well, when I was in high school, I actually failed Grade Eleven math twice. Twice! Like many people who haven’t found their educational guru, I hated math - until one day, I found mine.

Deena Skolnick Weisberg is a Senior Fellow at the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

I’m a developmental psychologist, and my research studies how young children grow and develop. So I know, both from my own experiences growing up and from my academic studies, how important it is that all children feel that all their needs and wishes are respected. Sometimes these needs and wishes seems contradictory to adults or even to other children, like being a boy and liking pink, or being a girl and wanting to play hockey. But these needs and wishes are experienced by children simply as things that they like and that make them happy, and should be respected as such.

Over the next few weeks, while our Kickstarter is running, we'll be featuring guest posts and interviews with a variety of women around a variety of topics related to Princess Awesome.

Courtney Hartman has truly created an inspiring company in Jessy and Jack.  Based in Seattle, Washington, Jessy and Jack is dedicated to making this world a better place for children.  Their absolutely adorable designs breathe life into a child's wardrobe with vibrant colors and happy characters - like my kids' favorite, Emily and Ernie (moose and dog!). Jessy and Jack uses 100% cotton and water-based inks, affirming a commitment to caring for the environment our children will inherit. The company gives back by donating a basic t-shirt to charity each time they make a sale.

Over the next few weeks, while our Kickstarter is running, we'll be featuring guest posts and interviews with a variety of women around a variety of topics related to Princess Awesome.

[It's Rebecca here.]

This summer, I'm getting a new sister.  My brother is marrying this amazing, smart, talented woman named Emmi. She is a theatre director. She founded and runs a magical realism theatre festival in Chicago called Something Incredibly Marvelous Happens. She was a math major at Northwestern University. I asked her if she'd write a little about her experience being a woman in math and theatre. Thank you, Emmi! 

Over the next few weeks, while our Kickstarter is running, we'll be featuring guest posts and interviews with a variety of women around a variety of topics related to Princess Awesome.

Back in November, we spoke with two nine-year-old girls, A and K.  Along with presenting their (adorable, insightful, candid) commentary, we asked them to write about how choose what to wear and how their clothes make them feel in their own words.  Reproduced exactly are their answers.  Thanks, A and K!