Teen Trailblazers by Jennifer Calvert, Vesna Asanovic

Rating: WORTHY!

Billed as "30 Fearless Girls Who Changed the World Before They Were 20," this book, written by Calvert, and illustrated quite plainly by Asanovic was a worthy read, but it has some issues that bothered me a bit. I list the chapter headings (the girls' names) below and will voice my concerns as appropriate. In general though, this was yet another list that was disgustingly-biased to the USA (60% of those listed were born in the USA), and toward white people (almost 75%). This sends the wrong message. That said, what is there does send a powerful message to young girls about what they can do if they choose to. I just wish it was a lot more diverse.

On another topic, I thought the naming conventions were haphazard to say the least. When I saw, for example, that Jeanne d'Arc was listed as Joan of Arc, whereas Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was given her French name, I thought maybe the girls were being listed by their best-known name, but this isn't the case because for example, Susan Eloise Hinton was best known as SE Hinton (another case - as was done to "JK" Rowling - where Big Publishing™ and its associates are telling a female author they had to pose as a male in order to get sales. Hopefully that bullshit is in the trashcan these days, but I still see many female authors using only their first initials.

• Cleopatra was born in Egypt, but was part of a Greek dynasty which had ruled in Egypt for about three centuries. She was the last of these rulers and exceeded the others who steadfastly refused to speak Egyptian. Cleo spoke several languages, and made a special point for learning Egyptian, because these were very much her people. She perhaps didn't deserve the end she got, but she was pretty ruthless in her time, something this story rather glosses over. I'm not at all convinced that she ought to be an exemplar in a list of those whom modern day young women are encouraged to emulate! I prefer my own take on her in my novel Cleoprankster set in those very years when she was a young teenager, but that's just fiction. In real life, she was very much strong woman, so there is that.
• Joan of Arc tells the standard story of Jeanne d'Arc, the French girl who purportedly led armies. I think the story is less of her leading and more of her inspiring, but still, she did do the job.
• Pocahontas tells a surprisingly honest story of the Chief's daughter (except that 'Pocahontas' wasn't actually her name. Unlike those disrespectful morons at Disney studios who professionally lie about her to sell movies and dolls. No, she wasn't an "Indian Princess" and she didn't fall in love with John Smith; get a clue, Disney. There was a much more interesting story to tell about her, but clueless pandering to the lowest common denominator Disney blew that opportunity. Smith never said a word about "Pocahontas" saving his life until much later so it probably never happened given Smith's despicable penchant for tall tales and self-aggrandizement.
• Eliza Lucas was a British ex-pat who made a business out of growing indigo. She owned slaves which is bad, but she treated them fairly decently from what I understand so there is that.
• Phyllis Wheatley was a West African slave who was essentially adopted by a lonely white woman and who became renowned in her own right as a writer. Wheatley is her white name. Sadly no-one knows or even seems to care about her real name.
• Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was a French Rococo/Neoclassical artist who was working professionally while still in her teens.
• Sybil Ludington. The story is that she made a ride surpassing that of Paul Revere, traveling further and warning more people, but there are no documented references to Ludington's ride prior to a book written a century after the purported events. Maybe she did it or something like it, or maybe she didn't. We simply don't know. Very likely she did something quite remarkable and so deserves the recognition.
• Jane Austen needs no explanation!
• Sacagawea is yet another case where once again, romance over ancient American Indians has surpassed reality. This story was exaggerated, but honest enough overall.
• Mary Shelley was a somewhat overrated British novelist, but she did write her first novel - which became legend - in her teens. No mention is made of the nightmare she had which gave birth to the novel. Prior to that, she had been completely at a loss as to what to write. She began it in mid-June of the winter-like summer of 1816. The month spawned another legend too - that of the vampire, which was from some notes Byron had written and then abandoned, and which were turned into the first known vampire novel by John Polidori, who was Byron's doctor. Despite both being considered the lesser literary talents of the four of them it was only he and Mary who actually produced a novel from the challenge Byron had issued for each of them to write a ghost story.
• Anita Garibaldi was a true revolutionary; she fought alongside her husband. Awesome story.
• Margaret Knight invented the square-bottomed bag and the machine to make it and had to fight in court to recover the patent of the thing from some jerk of a guy who stole her idea! It wasn't her only invention, but it is her longest-lasting and best-known.
• Anna Elizabeth Dickinson A renowned (in her time) advocate for abolition (of slavery) and suffrage.
• Elizabeth Cochran Better known as Nellie Bly, she was a fearless journalist who went around the world in only 72 days! Take that, Jules Verne!
• Mary Pickford was an outstanding and peerless actor in her day, a superstar in an era long before superstars, and who - in one year - made 51 movies. These were very short, silent ones, but still - that's one a week near enough! She was also a cofounder of United Artists movie studios along with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and Producer/director DW Griffith. She was way ahead of her time.
• Frida Kahlo was an amazing Mexican artist who struggled throughout her life with the aftermath of injuries sustained when she was only 18 in a tram accident. She also struggled with a philandering husband. So what's new?!
• Jackie Mitchell was a remarkable baseball pitcher in the minor leagues just after the turn of the last century.
• Anne Frank was a German Jew who needs nothing said about her by me. Read what she wrote herself if you want to get a picture of this amazing girl whose loss to the world is incalculable.
• Barbara Johns was a civil rights pioneer.
• Claudette Colvin was another civil rights pioneer, this time, black.
• Elizabeth Eckford was one of the Little Rock Nine: the first African Americans to attend Little Rock Central High School and be abused mercilessly for it by racist scum. It's sad to see that era being fostered again by a racist president. The courage of this young girl and her eight associates was off the charts.
• Susan Eloise Hinton became known (as SE Hinton) was a writer while still in her teens.
• Samantha Reed Smith was a cold war peace activist.
• Emma Watson was the girl from the Harry Potter movies who went on to promote artificial looks for women by means of modeling for fashion and makeup. Why is she in this list again? yes, she's done some charity work, but really Does she belong here?
• Tavi Gevinson is a blogger and founder of Rookie as web magazine for teen girls.
• Malala Yusefzai is the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by religious thugs, and lived! She went on to become a major name in advocacy for girls' education.
• Katie Stagliano founded 'Katie's Krops', a nonprofit aimed at starting vegetable gardens wherever they can be grown, to feed the hungry. She's one of the few true heroes in this entire list.
• Emma González is a survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, and now an advocate for gun control. Good luck with that when 40% of the population like to think they can do whatever the hell they want.
• Maya Penn started a business at the age of eight!
• Jazz Jennings is a transgender rights activist.

So the list is interesting and educational and despite the bias I consider it a worthy read because it does something, but it doesn't do enough. I mean, what about including teenagers like Syrian Yusra Mardini? What about ballet dancer Yuan Yuan Tan? What about South African Anathi Mbono who learned her mother was HIV positive when she herself was only 13, and has since gone on to become an activist? What about Amika George, and activist who founded #FreePeriods when she was 17, which resulted in girls who couldn't afford sanitary products getting them for free?

There are very many such people who are not white, but who this book ignores. What about, for example, Weng Yu Ching, who's been fighting for LGBTQIA rights in Taiwan? What about Yara Shahidi, who advocates for girls’ education, voter turnout, and diversity in Hollywood? What about Marley Dias who at 13, founded #1000blackgirlbooks, which had the goal of collecting and donating a thousand books featuring black girls as the main characters which could then be distributed to other black girls to ensure they saw themselves represented in literature? What about the team of 14 South African teen girls who, as part of a high school STEM boot camp, but Africa's first private satellite? And what about Greta Thunberg, who has single-handedly raised awareness about climate change?