emilycal

I accidentally cut myself cooking the other day and bled gold and blue.

Start earlier. By the time women get to college, many STEM majors already feel like boy's clubs. For example, I was consistently 1 of 2 or 3 girls in my 50-person engineering classes in undergrad. Nobody likes feeling like an outsider, so it makes it harder to incentivize girls to join these types of majors.

Representation is so important - show younger girls role models in STEM who are women. There's something so powerful about seeing/reading about someone who looks a little bit like you that makes whatever they're doing more relatable. Give kids books with women who are strong/smart/interested in science. Introduce them to women on YouTube who are talking about STEM. Watch TV with them who have female characters/hosts who talk about science (...like me!)

Recommendations for amazing women in STEM YouTubers: The Physics Girl Dianna Cowern, PBS's Gross Science / Brain Craft, Simone Giertz, Emily Graslie

Go Moutaineers!! I'm a big fan of the standard Alka Seltzer + film canister rocket experiment. It's fun, cheap, visual, and you can talk about pressure, Newton's 3 laws of motion, and kids always love it!

Emily's Wonder Lab was created by woman, hosted by a woman, and the show runner was a woman ;)

Participate in extracurriculars that are engineering-related so you can get some hands-on/real world experiences. Also, do internships every single summer you're in college. It's so hard to be competitive in the world of engineering if you don't do both of these things. Plus, they're fun, you make new friends, and it leads to fun adventures / opportunities to travel and make $$!