Frida Kahlo, Mother Teresa, Lucille Ball, Maya Angelou – each of these women relayed inspiration, spiritual guidance, laughter and words of wisdom to young girls. So why is it that girls don’t learn about these women in school? Why is it that little boys grow up hearing about Shaquille O’Neal but little girls don’t hear about famous female athletes like Lisa Leslie? Chances are, most girls don’t even know who she is. For too long, female inspiration has been discounted. It’s time to turn the tides; young girls need more female role models.
So when’s the best time to start instilling confidence and ambition in your little girl? How about through a bedtime story? Here are five bedtime stories that your modern, little girl is sure to love.
“Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls” tells the stories of 100 inspirational women from Serena Williams to Cleopatra. What began as a Kickstarter campaign has become a hugely successful collection of stories by women, for women.
The beauty of these stories is that they invoke the traditional “fairy tale” story by starting many of the tales with “once upon a time.” Elena Favilli, co-founder of the children’s media company Timbuktu Labs, tells The Guardian, “We are really thinking of the book as a modern fairytale that children will read at bedtime before they go to sleep … [It is important] for girls to grow up surrounded by female role models [because] it helps them to be more confident and set bigger goals.”
According to Favilli, 95 percent of the books and TV shows she and her Timbuktu Labs partner, Francesca Cavallo, grew up with “lacked girls in prominent positions.” So instead of talking about how beautiful princess are, each story also includes a portrait by a female artist, promoting the idea that these women are the heroines of their own stories. When little girls pick up these stories, they can imagine themselves leading powerful countries or rising to tennis stardom.
It is a book sharing stories of various women who understand how difficult it is to “succeed, to be considered, to be given a chance,” as Favilli says.
Much like “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls,” “Amelia to Zora” offers a collection of biographic stories about twenty-six important and diverse women in history who “changed the world.” The author, Cynthia Chin-Lee, focuses on the challenges that these women faced in order to inspire young girls to keep working in the face of adversity. While it’s important to see women succeed, we should also learn about their failures and the challenges they had to overcome.
The women featured in this book are especially important because, as the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center writes, they are “admirable, brave, cheeky women from all over the world who refused to ever take ‘no’ for an answer and made their own herstory along the way!”
The book covers a wide variety of professions in unique fields such as anthropology, sports, entertainment and journalism. For instance, “V is for Vijaya,” as in Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, tells the story of a firefighter, diplomat and the first woman president of the United Nations. Her motto was, “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.”
Overall, these stories teach young women to not be afraid to cross the boundaries set for them, to pave their own paths and to be courageous even when people doubt you. Each woman’s story reminds us that there is nothing wrong with dreaming big and being bold.
This Caldecott Award winning book tells the story of a young girl whose family comes together after their house is destroyed in a fire. The young girl, Rosa, her mother and her grandmother save a little bit of money to buy a chair that the three of them can use. The story written by Vera B. Willaims shows the power of female relationships, the importance of family over possessions and the strength to persevere against all odds.
As the School Library Journal Review writes, “In the first four tales, the chair is a character, symbolizing warmth, love, security and family to the young narrator … Martha Plimpton perfectly captures the tenderness and joy of these stories.”
Not only that, but it shows that not every family is going to be the same. It exposes children to the reality of how not every family will have a mother and a father – sometimes it will only have one parent. Despite how “different” this may seem, it doesn’t make the family any less strong.
This imaginative book was written by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow. With its “goofy rhymes” about how “I’d still like me with fleas or warts, / or with a silly snout that snorts,” this book encourages young girls to explore and embrace the quirky parts about themselves.
Additionally, A Mighty Girl calls the book an “an ode to self-esteem” and “a book that is sassy, soulful and straight from the heart.” It teaches young girls that they don’t have to be a perfect anything because they are perfect as they are.
With colorful illustrations and the repetition of the phrase “I like me,” this book is sure to inspire the little girl in your life to see themselves differently every time they look in the mirror.
This inspirational book by Brian Pinkney tells the story of a young girl named JoJo who does Tae Kwon Do. When her instructor, Master Kim, tells JoJo that she is ready for her yellow belt test, JoJo must gather the courage to prove him right. After listening to advice from family and friends, JoJo finally decides that she, alone, is the only one who can help overcome her fears.
This book teaches your little princess that she is not required to be the damsel in distress. She doesn’t have to wait for her knight in shining armor; instead, she should learn to stand on her own two feet.
Not only that, but this book, as Scholastic describes, teaches girls to “find a way to turn [their] fears into success.” Whenever your little girl is afraid, she can remember JoJo and be inspired by her courage and determination.
