I am proud step Mum to the awesome girl monkeys. They are daft, fearless and filled with fizziness and one of my tasks is to make sure I don’t get in the way of them taking those traits through to adulthood.
The media they consume is so important to their self image. They take what they see seriously. A diet of feeble princesses in need of rescuing is harmful bullshit. It’s not exactly helpful to boys too. The husband and I look out for books with a feminist or empowering slant. (I look forward to the day when we can just look for books as we accept that women are equal but hey.)
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty is brilliant for this. Rosie is a young engineer who hides her talent when she’s laughed at. Her great-great Aunt Rose steps into to show her that failure is part of the creative process. The illustrations by David Roberts fascinate the monkeys and they recite the book along with me. It’s a brilliant introduction to the history of women in World War 2 and it gives them a sense of the gumption needed to get on.
It’s bliss to read, divine to look at and all joining is fizzy, fizzy, fizzy!