CELEBRATING WOMEN
Teach her that she can be anything
Women Who Changed the World
Great stories to inspire you
Role models come in all shapes and sizes. They inspire through acts of brain or bravery; by standing out from the crowd or working as part of a team.
They can be of any age, background, race and, crucially, gender. But sadly many of humanity’s most inspiring figures are often overlooked.
Fortunately, educational app Women Who Changed the World is fixing that – and helping inspire a new generation in the process. Accompanied by sweet, engaging illustrations, it tells the stories of female heroes who – through their hard work, talents, smarts and bravery – changed the world for the better.
Through the app you – and your little ones – will learn about the hurdles that Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai had to overcome just for the right to go to school. You’ll be reminded of the important work done by French-Polish physicist Marie Curie, American civil rights hero Rosa Parks, and several glass-ceiling-shattering astronauts.
You’ll also learn about iconic pilot Amelia Earhart who, as well as being the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, is the inspiration behind the app.
“My daughter asked me one day, ‘Can girls be pilots?’,” explains Gemma Malet, cofounder and co-CEO of the app’s publisher, Learny Land. “I was surprised. I said, ‘Of course, why are you asking me that?’”
Despite having taught her children that girls could do anything, the more Malet thought on the question, the more she understood her daughter’s query.
“The main characters that we hear about every day, that we learn about in school, they’re all men,” she says.
Looking to reset the balance – and give everyone the role models they deserve – Malet set out to make history’s greatest women relatable to a young audience.
“It was easy to find women who have done incredible things,” she says. “The difficult part was how to rewrite the stories and adapt them to children. It’s difficult for girls to find inspiration from a woman that lived 2,000 years ago.”
As a result, all of the women featured within the app represent global, racial, ethnic and religious diversity. They are either still living or lived recently. They have inspiring jobs and interesting lives, and each woman has made the world a better place through her work.
The result isn’t just a way of educating and inspiring young minds. Women Who Changed the World is for parents and children to use together like a storybook, learning about a different history-maker each night.
Malet herself even found new role models through the process of creating the app. Although unwilling to pick favourites, she conceded that Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai was the person who surprised her the most. “She had some visionary views about the environment,” she explains.
It’s further proof that all of us – young, old, female, male – could stand to learn a thing or two.