Ramia AL BAKAIN (University of Jordan) Success is to focus on your positives, and to make your strengths stronger and stronger. Since I entered primary school, I have hoped to put a positive imprint on this world through science, which…
Fatin Aliah Phang (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia) I am a Chinese descendant, born in Sarawak, Borneo Island, and access to education – particularly science education – was considered a privilege when I was growing up. Due to racial tensions during the…
Flávia Ferreira Pires (Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil) Though my paternal grandmother was a school teacher who loves to read and write poetry, my maternal grandmother could barely read and write. Both grandmothers were from a generation where schooling was…
by GYA Executive Committee member Anna Harris (University of Maastricht, Netherlands) (Note: Many thanks to GYA Senior Communications Officer Jim Curtiss for his collaboration on this post.) Facing a paywall A few years ago while I was precariously positioned…
I was born 35 years ago in a rural community of just a few dozen inhabitants in Michoacán, Mexico. I was fortunate that my parents encouraged me to be curious, and read books, many books! When I was a child,…
It is nice to be a woman and a scientist, but it is really hard. I am a mother of two beautiful kids, a girl, and a boy. That little girl in the picture is me (at 4 years old)…
Imagine a little girl of five, in a verandah full of stuffed toys, scribbling on the wall and talking to herself. That would be my daughter, five years ago. When I caught her at this game the first time, I…
I was very lucky to be born in a place where I had great role models. When I was growing up, my mom was a biologist and a professor at university, while my dad was a university student so our…
On the day after the International Day of Girls and Women in Science 2022, I celebrated my 40th birthday. It is hard to believe that the girl who was 4 years old in the photo is now 10 times older….
Although I wasn’t necessarily sure at first I would become a scientist, I kind of always knew that through knowledge acquisition I could empower my voice and could help other girls and women do the same. I am from central…
I developed my passion for teaching through my love to write with chalk on the blackboard in grade 1. At that time, I liked the idea of writing that can be easily wiped away. I asked my parents, who were…
#ThisLittleGirlIsMe in this photo taken many years ago. Today I am a scientist and this is my tale. I grew up in South Africa in an extremely loving and supportive family who provided me with every possible opportunity to learn…