I wrote this book during a very challenging time in my life. We were caring for a beloved family member who was dying. During those dark months, I found great comfort in reading about these girls and women who struggled—who had to fight just to survive, to be heard, and to follow their dreams. Life felt hard, but I also felt like I wasn’t alone. As I was writing, I felt surrounded by friends who were there with me at the computer, holding me up, giving me some of their strength.
I was terrified at first by the prospect of finding forty-five more girls to write about. Was it even possible? Of course it was possible! History and our current world are full of amazing girls and women doing amazing things. It’s been a while since I wrote the last Girls Who Rocked the World, and a lot has changed since then. We’ve seen the Arab Spring (a series of antigovernment protests in the Middle East and North Africa that took place from late December 2010 into early 2011), and the women and girls of Afghanistan fighting back against the Taliban. We’ve seen the rise of social media and a whole slew of girls making their voices heard there, as well as starting businesses and stepping into what used to be adults-only territory (magazine publishing, fashion design, mogul-hood!). And there have been some amazing new sports stars who’ve broken all kinds of records. To my surprise and glee, I found way more girls than I could use! Guess I’ll have to write another sequel.
The biggest challenge this time around was finding women and girls from ancient history, especially nonwhite women. The reason, of course, is that white men wrote history, so history is full of white men. Women? Girls? Not so much. Even famous women like Cleopatra have very little recorded about them, and their childhoods even less. For some of the ancient women I included, I had to fill in the blanks a bit. The good news is that I was able to include tons of amazing nonwhite girls who are making history right now. White men are no longer the only ones writing the history books these days.
My favorite part of writing this book was uncovering more incredible stuff about the girls and women I thought I already knew, like politician Hillary Clinton, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, and writer Beverly Cleary. Four-year-old Hillary punched a neighborhood bully! Venus and Serena started playing tennis in Compton, outside Los Angeles, as gangs fought around them and even threatened them! Beverly Cleary was a reluctant reader when she was a girl, but one special teacher recognized and nurtured her phenomenal talent! I grew to love these women even more after digging into their childhoods and discovering the hurdles they overcame.
I was also thrilled to learn about new girls I had never even heard of. Rock climber Ashima Shiraishi is the best female climber in the world, and she’s only sixteen! Nepalese author Jhamak Ghimire writes award-winning poetry with her toes! Soccer star Nadia Nadim began honing her foot skills in Afghanistan, where it was illegal for girls to even play soccer. Adventurer Sarah McNair-Landry dogsledded to the North and South Poles as a teenager. These girls and many more were glorious surprises to me. After writing each chapter, I would call a girlfriend and say, “Do you want to know who my new favorite person is? You won’t believe this!”
And I found just as much inspiration from the girls who answered the question “How will you rock the world?” Girls just like you are already thinking about the impact they want to make. Girls from Texas and Oklahoma to Illinois to Alaska and Oregon. Girls like Wendy below, and all the girls featured in the book. They’re all going to rock the world!
You girls out there reading this, I hope these stories will fire you up as they fired me up. I hope these stories show that you don’t have to wait until you’re a grown-up to go after your dream, to begin changing the world. Why wait? You might as well start now. And it doesn’t have to be something huge. Hillary Clinton started out running for middle school president. And she lost! Mindy Kaling started out watching a lot of TV and imitating skits with her BFF. Bethany Mota and Tavi Gevinson started out making videos in their bedrooms.
It doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. It starts with you having a passion for something.
Ask yourself, What do I love? What makes me happy? What interests me? Then ask, What small step can I take toward doing that thing? That’s what all the girls in these pages did. They started taking steps toward their dream while they were still girls—just like you!
Like the Nike slogan says, JUST DO IT!
HOW WILL YOU ROCK THE WORLD?
I will rock the world by becoming a doctor. I will help people all over the world. I will also help research treatments on how to actually end diseases. I want to travel the world. I want to help everyone from young to old. I want to help people with their situations, big or small.
AGE 15