A colleague and friend shared a meme the other day that popped up in my social media feed. It was an adorable little girl, hair scraped back into a ponytail, flexing her yet-to-be-developed muscles and wearing a t-shirt that said, “I’m not a Princess, I’m a Scientist!” At first glance, I loved the message. We teach little girls that their only job is to be sweet and cute. With the push towards encouraging more young girls in STEM, this this seemed like a small step that might get us there. But the more I chewed it over, it started to scratch at the back of my mind. I realized it highlighted a fundamental flaw:
I’m not a princess, I’m a scientist
Well….Why can’t she be both?
I have a lot of opinions about the way we perpetuate the myth on how a scientist “should” look. I’ve written about several of them before – and if you’ve been following for awhile, you know that I have gotten many comments over the years about the ways in while my style doesn’t really jive with the whole Scientist Thing.
And something as innocuous as a t-shirt, designed to empower little girls to believe they can be anything they want…in many ways actually removes their choices. It’s conveying a subtle message (on top of many other subtle messages they receive on a regular basis) that there is a dichotomy. Pick a side: Princess or Scientist. Glitter or Mud. Dresses or Discovery. And I strongly feel that therein lies the problem: if we tell little girls they have to choose, the very fact that they love pink and glitter and twirling will very likely make them come to the conclusion that they probably aren’t really a scientist after all.
I want to be the first to stand up and say,
Hi, I’m Kara.
I’m a Princess and a Scientist.
Imagine standing in front of a room full of little girls and telling them they get to pick Door #1 or Door #2. If they pick Door #1, they can wear the fairy princess dress, but things like math and inquiry and discovery stay at the threshold. If they choose Door #2, they have to leave their fairy wands and imagination inside before they can to go and explore the wild kingdom of their backyard, where mud and adventure awaits. It’s like throwing down the gauntlet at the tender age of 4 and 5.
They like their fairy wands (umm…same). They love their dress up clothes and getting to play with makeup like the grown ups do and teetering around the kitchen in their mom’s heels. They also like building towers out of legos and casting spells and running science experiments to see if they just stir hard enough, can they get oil and water to mix? And with something as seemingly insignificant as a t-shirt, you’re putting a crossroad before them: to be a scientist, you (apparently) have to leave all of the Princess floo-fla at the foot of the Scientist Path. They ain’t never gonna let you in with all that sparkle.
I want to let you in on a secret: they totally will. You just have to hold your head high and wear the pink regardless. You have to rock the glitter and the heels and march right on past the neigh-sayers and the ones who tell you you don’t fit in. And here’s the real reason why:
Because you just never know which little girl is watching.
Iwork with a lot of little girls…most of whom look at me wide-eyed when I first walk in, resplendent in a full skirt and heels. I see them quietly take it all in. Probably not even aware of the message it sends. Their eyes taking in the pouf and the appliqué, starting with the phrase, “You’re a scientist??”
Then, their eyes widen further when I get down to business, showing a presentation of our work in the field or rolling up my sleeves and getting elbow deep in an anatomy lesson. And there’s this magical shift that happens. As at they leave, I can see them tug on their mom’s jeans and excitedly whisper. “Mom, she’s a scientist!”
And that subtle shift of phrase, imperceptible to anyone else in the room. That’s the kind of shift that I hope can one day change the world.
There is so much nuance in the messages that young people are getting – and it would be naive to think we can control them all. But, if we can start to change the landscape and acknowledge the variability inherent in what a scientist is and should be and should look like, we might start to see more and more little girls being able to identify with all that Science and Discovery has to offer. We might just see a veritable army of Princess Scientists, ready to cast spells and collect frog spawn and discover and twirl and feel free to celebrate every aspect of themselves.
Can you imagine how awesome that would be? I’m a baker and a dragon slayer. A creative director and a ballerina. A pro wrestler and a lampshade designer. Why put ourselves into these narrow boxes that limit all of the facets to ourselves? And why do it to those little girls who are just finding their inner princess-meets-warrier.
Because they are so much more than either.
xoxo
Outfit Details:
Skirt: Pickled Vintage (similar modern or vintage here, here, & here)
Necklace: gift, Jewellery For World
Belt: Alannah Hill (similar)
Handbag: Jess James Vintage (similar here & here)
Shoes: gift, Miss L Fire (similar)
Lip Color: Dior Rouge 634
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