Mae Jemison was the first woman of color to travel to space on a joint mission between Nasa and the Japanese space agency. She’s a trained medical doctor, engineer, social scientist and… dancer! We love how diverse Mae’s interests are. She makes a great role model for girls because she has embraced her multi-dimensional self and accomplished such incredible things in a field historically dominated by men.

We ❤️the picture book Mae Among The Stars. It’s a great way to share her story with children. March is women’s history month! From Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls to Little Leaders to Hidden Figures, there are so many ways to learn about incredible women from history these days. We thought we’d kick off women’s history month by sharing three women that inspire us every day.

And… there’s a theme. Let’s see if you can guess it.

Ellen Ochoa was the first Hispanic woman to travel to space. Ellen studied engineering at Stanford University and specialized in developing optical systems. While in space, she helped build a new wing on the International Space Station, by operating the Discovery’s robotic arm.

Ellen is featured in the bilingual board book The Solar System with Ellen - El Sistema Solar con Ellen.

We’ve big fans of Sally Ride and our founder actually had the pleasure of taking a class with her years ago. Most people know that Sally was the first American woman in space, but she was also one of only five women selected to be in NASA’s mission specialist class of 1978—the first time they accepted women into the program at all. Sally’s a great example of a groundbreaker—someone who followed her dreams, even though there was nobody quite like her in her field at the time.

Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space features some great photos of Sally’s life and When I Grow Up: Sally Ride is a good choice for older kids (7+) to read on their own