Laura was destined to set sail. She was born in a port in New Zealand. At six she sailed solo for the first time. At 13, Dekker sailed solo from the Netherlands to England and back. Which simply made her want to sail the world more.

Dekker faced many battles just to set out on her around the world voyage. At 13, when her plans to circumnavigate the globe were made public, Dutch child services were called and threatened to put a stop to the plans. After a number of court battles Laura became a ward of the courts and at 15 convinced the courts she was able to make the trip. “If Laura had drowned we would have been accused of not doing enough to protect her. Thank God she’s OK and I think that’s partly due to the safety measures we enforced as part of the condition for allowing her to go.” Said Joost Lanshage from the Netherlands Bureau of Youth Care.

Once she set sail she battled even tougher adversaries including six-meter-high waves, extreme weather and ripped sails during the voyage. Laura dodged near-collisions with cargo ships, and worried about pirates. Plus more, on top of school work.

All together Laura traveled 27,000 nautical miles in her 38-ft yacht named Guppy. She completed the 518-day trek in St. Maarten, ending a yearlong expedition that included stops in the Canary Islands, Panama, the Galapagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora, Australia, and South Africa.

“I’ve sailed quite enough the past year and especially the past months, 2 oceans within 4 months. Probably I will start missing the sea soon enough and I want to head out again.” Said Laura on her blog.

Not the average life of a teenager for sure. Take some time this week with your SheHero and get to know Laura Dekker. Visit her blog and read about all her adventures first hand along with amazing photos and videos of her journey.

That’s was the feeling of female boxers across the globe when in 2009 the International Olympic Committee Executive Board announced that women’s boxing (the only summer sport on the Olympic docket without a female counterpart) would be added to the schedule for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.

“We are thrilled that the IOC Executive Committee has voted to add women’s boxing events to the 2012 Olympic Program. The ‘yes’ vote means that female boxers will now be able to share in the dream of standing on the world’s most prestigious sporting podium,” said USA Boxing Women’s Task Force Chair and AIBA Women’s Commission member Christy Halbert. “It’s a historic event, marking the first time that all of the summer Olympic sports will have female participants. The Olympic Games, will, from now on, truly showcase the world’s best talent.”

That was in 2009. Now it’s 2012 and those Olympic Games are just a few months away. The Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) is considering requiring female boxers to wear skirts. The reasoning behind this is so that the women will stand out from the men.

As if sitting down to watch Women’s Boxing might not be enough.

Adding women’s boxing to the Olympics sent a positive and incredible message to girls and young women everywhere, but if the AIBA does pass this rule and force these women to wear mini-skirts while fighting it all but diminishes that message.

“Boxing is mental, so if you go in there and you’re not comfortable, it could mess with you,” said Christina Cruz, who will be competing for the sole flyweight position on the U.S. women’s Boxing team. “I think it should just be optional. We should be able to fight in whatever we’re comfortable in. What they want to do is they want to be able to pick out the men from the women, because we are fighting like the men now. But when we take off that headgear, that’s what makes us what we are.”

Sit down with your SheHeroes and talk about why forcing these female boxers to wear skirts is silly. Then take a moment to look at these Olympic hopefuls and introduce your SheHero to these amazing women who are hoping to make their way to London this summer and into history.

This theory was taken a step further in research done closer to home that went beyond politics and right into the effects of gender quotas in areas of science, technology, math and engineering (STEM). But currently, especially here in the United States, women are still consistently underrepresented in corporations, STEM careers as well as politics.

Yet women’s educational achievements have been surpassing men for years. In 2009 57% of all enrolled college student, were women. Theories attribute the reason for the disparity between women as students and women in the field’s corporations, STEM careers, politics and more must happen for one of two reasons.

1. Discrimination, pure and simple.
2. Women are less interested in being competitive than men.

Well there is a new study out that focuses on the second reason and how there is actually a lot of validity to it. The study has found that with policy based initiatives women’s participation increases. The study involved 360 undergraduate students broken into groups of 6—three women and three men. It focused on three different methods of affirmative action in a number of math competitions with rewards.

1. A quota system was implemented, requiring that a certain proportion of the winners be female;
2. The highest-performing woman was given preferential treatment in one, while in the other, if a tie occurred in the competition, the woman was always selected;
3. The competition was repeated until a certain fraction of the winners were women.

This poses an interesting look at the cycle we keep finding ourselves in. Girls can’t be what they can’t see. What they can’t see what they can be, if there are no women already there.

So again I pose the question, do you think there is a place for gender quotas or stronger affirmative action laws regarding gender? Is that the key for inspiring the SheHeroes of tomorrow?

“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