“On February 1, 2012, thousands of sports educators, coaches, athletic directors, recreation directors, association members, sponsors, students, and parents across the country will show their support of the Day and of this year’s theme, “Title IX at 40: In it for the Long Run.”

Athletes like Martina Navratilova, Candace Parker or Jessica Mendoza who played or are still playing are making a difference, overcoming difficult circumstances, breaking records and making things possible.

Despite the stunning advances made in the 40 years since Title IX was enacted, high school girls still receive 1.3 million fewer participation opportunities than do boys, and evidence suggests that the money spent on girls’ sports programs lags significantly behind the money spent on boys’ programs.”

It seems timely that this day would fall right now, as girls and women in sports has been on my mind lately. For us here in California where I live we are just now starting baseball season. Practices at least, games will start the first week in March. This is the first time my son is playing on a team with no girls on it. There are girls in our league, just not very many. So there are only a few teams that end up with girls on the roster. I’m always happy to see the girls that do play, play. And often times they play better… But I always wish there were more.

I’ve talked about here on the SheHeroes blog about the obstacles and that young girls once faced trying to break the Little League glass ceiling here.

But sadly enough as we celebrate the start of another baseball season as well National Girls & Women In Sports Day, I’m disappointed to find that in some places Little League still holds a glass ceiling as strong as it was in the 1950s.

Places like Allen, Texas.

7-year-old Anna Kimball played on a youth Baseball team with her younger brother until recently when she was kicked off the team. For being a girl.

Anna’s mother got the call last week that though Anna is one of the better players on the team she was being kicked off because the coach was moving this group of 7 year old into a more competitive league. A league that doesn’t allow girls.

“I can’t believe that’s she 7 and already having to face this,” Anna’s mother, Tami Kimball told KDFW. “She’s already having to hear someone say, ‘Because of who you are, because you were born a girl, you’re not allowed to go do something.’”

I’m not sure which bothers me more, the fact that this league doesn’t allow girls or the fact that the coach decided this group of 7 year olds need to be more competitive even if it meant giving one of his better players the boot.

But as sad as I am to hear about something like this happening, I’m happy to see Anna and her mother going public with this and all the support I’ve seen online for them. Let’s hope that this is not actually the end of this story…

And while we’re thinking about it, and thinking about National Girls & Women In Sports Day, remember to give a little extra shout this Baseball season to the girls you see step up to the plate. Because the only reason they’re able to step up to that plate is because of girls like Anna. Girls who were told they couldn’t play.

Girls, who played anyway. Because play baseball, is what ball players do.

The need for more positive role models for young girls is not exactly news to us here at SheHeroes. In fact, you could say that need is the biggest part of why SheHeroes came to be in the first place. Which is why when see studies that show, in black and white, the impact positive women role models can have on girls, we want to share it.

A recent study co-authored by MIT economist Esther Duflo, was published in Science Magazine. The studied looked at families with children ages 11 – 15 in 495 villages in the West Bengal Region in India where quotas for female representation in politics have been set in place since 1993. The study examined the differences in attitude towards education and achievement in these areas against areas where there are no female leaders.

In the areas where female leaders are a normal part of the local government the study found that parents had the exact same educational expectations for their daughters as they did with their sons. The girls in these areas girls are 25% more likely to achieve the same level of educational as their male peers. They also found that parents of girl to have his in these areas are 25% more likely to have higher education goals for their daughters than in other areas.

This was in huge contrast to the areas where men hold all the local government positions. In those areas the study found parents are 45% less likely to want their daughters to graduate. And the girls themselves were 32% less likely to want to complete their education at all.

Is your SheHero exposed to female role models in power? My own SheHero is pictured here with California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

“We think this is due to a role-model effect: Seeing women in charge persuaded parents and teens that women can run things, and increased their ambitions,” Duflo, a co-founder of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), said in the news release. “Changing perceptions and giving hope can have an impact on reality.”

In a handful of European countries gender quotas are not only commonplace in politics but on corporate boards as well. Here in the United States it’s still met with a heavy resistance.

But studies like this one show that in areas where gender quotas are in place, over time (in the case here close to twenty years) they can work in changing the attitudes of not just girls themselves, but families in general.

What do YOU think? Would gender quotas in politics, corporate boards and in areas of STEM help or change the attitudes of the next generation of SheHeroes? And how do you expose your SheHeroes (and Heroes) to positive female role models?

Tami is a 106-pound junior  (yes, weight matters when its wrestling) who wrestles exclusively against boys and is 9-1 on the season and ranked sixth in her division. She recently won her first tournament.

Tami started wrestling in the 5^th grade after being inspired by her brother who wrestled. And though it took some pleading, her mother finally gave in and let her wrestle, now 6 years later Tami is a force to be reckoned with.

In an interview with a local paper Tami said that she’s felt right at home on the team since her first day. None of the boys have ever given her a hard time for being a girl. Her coach (who has coached a handful of girls before) says Tami works just as hard, sometimes harder than the boys trying to prove herself.is

Tami’s story shows not only can a girl compete with the boys, and win, but that there are teams like her North Andover team where the boys and coaches can be open and welcoming to a teammate without treating her any different because she’s a girl.

But Tami isn’t the only SheHero making a name for herself on the mat. Cristta Hartinger is a former cheerleader and an ex-model at Lancaster high in Lancaster, NY. This past fall Cristta finally won herself a spot on the Lancaster High wrestling team after being denied a spot on the squad a year earlier.

Last year Cristta’s mother was told that Christta couldn’t wrestle on the team due to “muscle mass difference” and “social/pubertal issues,” but she didn’t receive further explanation.

Christta’s mother pursued it this year point blank accusing them of discriminating and suggested that Cristta’s begin on the junior varsity team and prove herself from there. The review panel agreed and prove herself, Christta has.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, Nationwide, about 5,000 high school girls wrestled last year, nearly five times as many as a decade earlier. And while those numbers may be low, despite the states that failed to report girls’ wrestling participation, it is still a far cry from the quarter-million boys who wrestle.

But as with anything, it’s a start.

Thanks to Girls Can’t What? for the graphic!

I’m still not exactly clear on whom Lego consulted when coming up with this new line, but it was apparently not any of the moms in my real or online life.

This has given me a great deal of joy in knowing that I am not alone in my feelings of frustration with Lego, a company in all honesty, I have loved my whole life. And we continue to support and encourage the ever growing list of names on Change.org’s petition (Sign here if you haven’t already).

I have to say I dearly loved the idea to post the classic Lego advertisement from the 1980s to the Lego Facebook wall, and with all the people and orgs that followed suit it’s easy to see that we were not the only ones. But since than I have seen something else via Facebook, especially during the holiday, pictures of girls playing with the Lego’s they got for Christmas. Not the friends Lego sets, but regular Lego sets. Harry Potter Lego Sets. Pirates of the Caribbean Lego Sets, etc.

My own daughter included.

And these are not girls who are part of a campaign. Not young models or parents trying to make a statement. These are real girls playing with regular Legos, because they like them. They don’t want revamped versions.

I’ve seen people on the Lego Facebook page defend the Lego friend’s sets, and try to make light of the message all the opponents of the sets are trying to get out there. But our message to Lego, and advertisers isn’t small. And it DOES matter.

In a recent post on Pigtail Pals written by our good friend Lori Day made some fabulous observations about the harmful effect of marketing and media messages. Lori brought up a brilliant analogy.

Remember when it was legal to advertise smoking?

Think about this for a moment. Once upon a time this kind of advertising was widely accepted by the American public. It was years of research proving the harmful effects of smoking, the harmful influence of advertising smoking and small groups of parents that grew larger and larger and larger that eventually turned smoking advertising into very distant memory. In fact for most adults of MY generation, because the US broadcast advertising for tobacco became illegal in the US on Jan. 1, 1971 under the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1966, it seems strange to ever think there was a time when cigarette commercials on TV even existed.

And granted, comparing Tobacco to the Lego friends line is a stretch. BUT, this type of gender marketing and stereotyping is part of the bigger problem. And the effects are very real as seen here, and here. So it’s not just about calling out Legos. It’s not just about pink bricks and Lego figures with breasts. It’s so much more.

It’s making sure companies across the nation understand that it’s time to change. It’s about discussing with our young SheHeroes why they are better then the marketing campaigns targeted towards them. It’s about educating young women, who are soon to be young mothers about the dangers of mass gender stereotyping and marketing.

It’s about using our voice to call for change so the next generation of SheHeroes will actually see change. Real change. Positive change.

Maybe someday my granddaughters will look at some of the advertising of today and think how strange it was that marketing like that was ever accepted. Maybe. 

Created in 1987 the Fashion, Fitness and Makeup badges are now all gone from the pages of the Girl Scout handbook and a Science of Style badge is replacing them. Financial literacy, public policy and website design are other new badges for Girls Scouts this year. And to help girls develop a positive outlook on life in general there’s the Science of Happiness badge. Also included in the new batch of badges are, product design, digital filmmaking, “locavore” (local food) awareness and a Naturalist water badge.

“This is the first major update (of badges) at every level since 1987,” says Alisha Niehaus of Girl Scouts of the USA. “We kept some favorites but added new ones that will help girls build the leadership skills they’ll need for success in the 21st century.

So new badges. That was what this post was supposed to be about. Celebrating Girl Scouts for taking a small step towards removing outdated gender messages being doled out by outdated badges.

But then the great cookie boycott of 2012 was kicked off and now my post is about another message that is being sent Girl Scouts of American as they begin their 100^th year.

It is the message that we hope EVERY organization involving children (and adults for that matter should have). A message that simply says, “YOU are welcome here.”

In case you somehow missed this story that went viral last week. A young Girl Scout took to the internets to call for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies because Girl Scouts of America has openly included transgendered children into their troops.

While I was pointing fingers at the outdated badge names, Girl Scouts of Colorado were making the following statement, “If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.”

I watched the video of the 13-year old Girl Scout calling for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies because of this inclusive policy. While I watched it both my son and daughter came in and watched with me. I let them watch without giving them my opinion. I wanted to see what an 8 year old boy (who is a Cub Scout) and a 6 year old girl thought of this video without any explaining or coaching from me.

Instantly both of children were up in arms. “MOM! That’s not fair! Anyone should be able to join anything!” My son said. “Boys should be able to join Girl Scouts and Girls should be able to Boy Scouts!” My daughter agreed.

At 8 and 6 my kids have already learned the most important message anyone can learn. That we are all equal, especially children. And that excluding anyone because of gender in any situation isn’t OK.

So to Girl Scouts I say nice job on the badge overhaul, but here’s a standing ovation for sending a strong and beautiful message to children everywhere.

And for the record, you can put me down for an extra couple of boxes of Thin Mints this year. We will be celebrating diversity by buying as many boxes as our wallet will allow and not partaking in any boycott of any kind.

There are a few reasons why library time is my favorite. Partly because if there was a place with minimum chaos in an Elementary school, it’s the library and partly because I love books! The library, any library, feels familiar and safe to me. I adore spending even a little time shelving books or listening in when the librarian reads books to the kids.

But more than that, I love getting to watch the kids explore books. Especially since I get to watch the first graders discover reading for the first time. They are just now discovering this newfound superpower that is reading.

For the third graders it’s even more magical. Most of them have long moved past the mechanics of learning to read, and are moving into the joy of discovering new worlds in books. They are always looking for something new and different. Or sometimes after a topic becomes popular (dragons for instance) all of them start seeking out any book they can find having to do with dragons.

So I know what you’re wondering, what do my weekly trips to the school library have to do with SheHeroes exactly?

Well here at SheHeroes we’re helping parents, educators and kids find tools to help find and understand the importance of good role models. I like to think we’re raising awareness of gender messages in the media and more than anything I hope that through the videos and stories we tell on the blog we are inspiring girls to reach for the stars in ways they might never have thought possible.

Which is exactly what I get to do in the library each week every time a young girl comes up to me asking if I know of any good books for her to read.  I can take her to the biography section and find (even when it takes a little searching) a book about a woman I know that might inspire her.  Or maybe, depending on her reading level, Ill guide her to the Nancy Drew section, or Anne of Green Gables, maybe some fantasy by Robin McKinley, or Igraine the Brave. Or if she’s one of my favorite first graders I’ll take her through the early reader section to where I’ve mapped out books that I think show good strong female characters.

Thinking about it today after showing a third grader the Nancy Drew section for the first time, I realized that we all have opportunities to open the eyes and the minds of the SheHeroes and Heroes in our lives every single day.

And as grown women isn’t that our job? To simply point younger SheHeroes in a few different directions and let them decide which way to go? To help them find some inspiration when it doesn’t appear to them at first glance?

Yes. Yes it is. So how have YOU helped inspire someone today?

In 1776 Baret sailed out on the first French naval expedition charged with circumnavigating the planet. She was the companion of renowned botanist Philibert Commerson who had been tapped to lead scientific work on the expedition. Commerson wanted to bring Baret as his assistant but women were not allowed to travel aboard French naval vessels. So Baret dressed as a man. Though not long into the trip she was interrogated by the captain (after all it was close quarters and some men began to suspect something). Thinking on her feet Baret told the captain she was an Eunoch, and was not hassled the rest of trip.

A newly described plant species discovered by Baret has been named Solanum baretiae in her honor. Eric Tepe, a biologist with the University of Utah and the University of Cincinnati, named the species after hearing about Baret’s work during a National Public Radio interview with Glynis Ridley, author of the biography, “The Discovery of Jeanne Baret” (Crown, 2010), on the program “All Things Considered.”

Baret wouldn’t be the only one woman who dressed as a man in order to sail the high seas. Famous pirates such as Ann Bonny and Mary Read both dressed at men to sail alongside the infamous pirate Captain Calico Jack. Rachel young was another woman who lived as a pirate named Billy; her true identity wasn’t discovered until she died in an accident.

The stories of these women at sea are important because they put a female face on the whimsical history of swashbuckling sea fairing folk. Search the internet for more amazing stories of women at sea or even better visit the library.

Here is a list of some amazing books the sea-loving SheHero in your life would love,

• Bold in Her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages by DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook.

• She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by John Druett

• Women Sailors and Sailors’ Women by David Cordingly

• Pyrates in Petticoats: a Fanciful & Factual History of the Legends, Tales, and Exploits of the most notorious Female Pirates and also Some Lesser Known Women Who Plied the Seas and inland Waterways for Fortune, Adventure & Romance from Ireland, China, the Bahamas, and the Barbary Coast to the Americas by Cathy Johnson

• Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger by Klausmann, Ulrike, Marion Meinzerin, and Gabriel Kuhn.

• Female Tars: Woman Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail by Suzanne J Stark

We here at SheHeroes our no different and always look to a New Year as an opportunity to refresh our mission and think of new ways to inspire ourselves and the SheHeroes around us both young and old. One way is by coming up with a list of ways you can pledge to inspire SheHeroes and Heroes young and old.

1. Set An Example – Conquer and go after your own dreams. Nothing impacts a child more than the example set by their parents (or primary caregivers). Follow your dreams, respect and take care of yourself and be proud of who you are. If you succeed in this your children will have no choice but to follow in your footsteps.
2. Explore the world Around You – Sit down with your family and make a list of local places (or farther if that’s doable) that you would like to visit over the next year. Write them down and place it in a prominent place in the house. Make it a point to knock one place off the list at least once a month. These don’t have to be outrageous places either. Get online and do some research about the historic areas, zoos and aquariums, or new hiking/bike trails around where you live. Teach your kids adventure by simply exploring the world around you.
3. Try Something New Every Month – Another inspiring list to make with the family, you can include everything from new kinds of foods, new sports, hobbies, learn to play chess, or any activity that you haven’t tried before. And once again post everyone’s list in a prominent place and work together to accomplish these new goals each month.
4. Volunteer – Nothing inspires your children liking volunteering on a regular basis. This can be done through your school, church, Girl Scout troop, or by simply checking your city website for volunteer opportunities.
5. Speak Out – Use resources like PBS’s “Don’t Buy It: Get Smart” program to help teach your kids how to be media literate. You can also use New Moon Girl’s  “Girl Caught” stickers to help find gender bias in stores and online.
6. Inspire With Role Models – Expose your children to SheHeroes who are making things happen today. Follow our blog, like us on Facebook and use the excellent resources we have available to expose your SheHeroes to the amazing women all around us.

What things do YOU plan on doing in the New Year in your house to better the world for your SheHeroes?

But that doesn’t appear to be enough for this 9-year-old SheHero. Katie now plans on offering grants for kids between ages 9 and 16 in other states that want to start vegetable gardens for the needy. You can check out the application here.

As Katie’s website says, and her actions prove “It Only take a seedling!”

We here at SheHeroes want to applaud Katie (and everyone involved with Katie’s Krops). And we’d also like our readers out there to share Katie’s story with the kids in their life and encourage them to start their own garden and apply for Katie’s Opal Apple Grant!

Rules for the grant (as listed on the website) are:

The grant winners will receive materials to start a vegetable garden to feed people in need in their community. The winners will be awarded a gift card to a garden center in their area (up to $400), support from Katie’s Krops, and a digital camera to document the garden and the harvest. Applications for all types of vegetable gardens, such as a container garden if you live in a city, or a vegetable garden located in your neighborhood or at your school, will be considered. Applicants must be between the ages of 9 and 16 as of March 1, 2012.  Groups of kids such as classes or youth groups may apply but the applicants must fall into the age requirements. Applications must be postmarked by March 5, 2012.  All applications must be filled out completely and signed by a parent or legal guardian.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start planting!

Happy Holidays from all of us at SheHeroes!