Happy 100th Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

Beverly Cleary turns 100 today! The creator of Ralph S. Mouse, Ellen Tebbits and Otis Spofford, and Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, she is most famous for giving the world Ramona Quimby and her sister Beezus. Recently, she talked about turning 100 and how old she thought she'd live to be on the Today Show. Cleary was a librarian, and got questions from young readers looking for stories of kids like them. She had felt the same way herself and decided to solve the problem herself.

Beezus and Ramona came out in 1955, but Ramona is a lot like any little kid you'd meet today. Ramona's misadventures, from putting whole eggs into a bowl and turning on the mixer because she wanted "to see what would happen" to squeezing out a whole tube of toothpaste, are the kinds of mischief kids get into.

I don't remember when I first read the books, but I was probably in 2nd or 3rd grade, around the same age as Ramona in her later books. I have two favorite stories from the books. Ramona putting her rubber doll, Bendix, in Beezus's birthday cake because she was imitating Hansel and Gretel is one. The other is of Ramona asking her father to turn on the dawnzer to have "lee light." I wasn't particularly prone to mischief as a kid, but I always wanted to have the most sophisticated vocabulary possible, and had a tendency to misunderstand things I heard. Concluding that "dawnzer" was  fancy name for a lamp is exactly the kind of thing I would have done. 

I actually think of the Quimbys more often than I'd expect. I think of Beezus when I sew, and of Picky-Picky when I carve a pumpkin. I was delighted the first time I visited Seattle to find out that Klickitat Street takes its name from an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. And I'm reminded of Ramona in her bunny ears headband when I see kids in animal hats or wearing costumes as everyday outfits. (Ramona Quimby: in the kid-fashion avant-garde.)

Ramona rocking her bunny ears, to Beezus's chagrin.

Image from goodreads.com.

Louise Belcher, from Bob's Burgers, proving that bunny ears are timeless.

Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary! 

There have been a number of pieces about Beverly Cleary's birthday. Nicholas Kristof wrote a lovely column this Sunday in honor of Beverly Cleary and the importance of her work. And there's a nice essay in the New Yorker on how well her books capture the feelings of childhood.

Gloria Steinem interviews Sally Ride

March is Women's History Month, and while we're focused on contemporary women here at Girls Like You and Me, we love learning about women's work and contributions. Last week I visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the NASA Social program to view the launch of an Atlas V rocket and Cygnus spacecraft bound for the International Space Station. I had never seen a launch before. It was awe-inspiring! 

I have a ton of photographs to sift through, and lots to share about the cool work that NASA is doing. You can check out some of my photos on our Instagram. I met quite a few women doing really cool work with rockets, robotics, and NASA's upcoming manned flight program, SLS. I got to learn about some of the work that is going toward SLS.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this interview between Gloria Steinem and Sally Ride from 1983. Sally Ride is most famous for being the first American woman in space, but did you know that she was (and still is!) the youngest American astronaut? She was just 32 the first time she went into space in 1983. Ride was a mission specialist on two missions. Unlike the first astronauts, who started off as fighter pilots, the shuttle program (and missions to the ISS) include experts in a variety of scientific disciplines as mission specialists. Sally Ride was a physicist who helped develop Canadarm, the space shuttle's robotic arm.

Sally Ride interviewed in 1983 by Gloria Steinem. The beautifully animated video is from Blank on Blank's special series The Experimenters.

Even though this interview is more than 30 years old, I think it still sounds fresh and timely. Many women have become astronauts since then, and the new class of astronauts for SLS is comprised of 4 women and 4 men.  Sally Ride talks about her love of science, not realizing she wanted to be an astronaut until the opportunity presented itself, but jumping at the chance when it did, and the aspect of the becoming an astronaut that most pulled her out of her comfort zone- it was the media attention! 

You can read more from the interview, and more about Sally Ride's story here.

Meet our founder, Julia Collins

Hi! I'm Julia Collins, the founder of Girls Like You and Me. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a book editor, then a judge, then a professor... then by the time I was in college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up working in jobs that I didn't love, all the while wondering what I should be doing with my life. I spent a lot of years feeling like I was in a holding pattern, waiting for my real career to start, even though I had several jobs and even a graduate degree all in the same field. When I heard people talk about how much they loved their work, I thought, "What are their secrets? How did they find something they love so much?" 

In the spring of 2014, I fulfilled my lifelong dream of appearing on Jeopardy!, the long-running quiz show. I had the time of my life and won 20 games, taking second-place on the all-time winners list. I got a lot of media attention (something I never would have imagined when I tried out for the show) which made me think about how we talk about smart women doing cool stuff. I concluded that a) we don’t talk about them enough and b) there are way too many women doing cool things for it to seem out of the ordinary. 

The unexpected result of being on Jeopardy! was being able to start something new! I took a while to enjoy my Jeopardy! whirlwind and think about what to do next. I still wasn't sure what I'd like to do, and became even more curious about how people found something great. I was inspired to start Girls Like You and Me to learn how those smart women found careers they love. I'm delighted to have found a reason to ask cool women lots of questions. (Because of my abundant curiosity or nosiness about other people, depending who you ask.) 

Before Jeopardy!, I worked in supply chain, helping companies have the right things in the right place at the right time. I have a Master's of Engineering in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, which means that I know how to set up and operate a supply chain. I also have a BA in American history and art history from Wellesley College. I love history because you get to think about why people do the things they do, and art history brings history to life with visual imagery. Before that, I spent a lot of time reading, participating (but not excelling) in a bunch of sports, playing the flute, and being a Girl Scout. Growing up, I was pretty awkward and very shy, which surprises people who know me as a very talkative adult.