Dear Reader,
Girls are suffering from mental distress at an alarming rate world wide.
If you would like to join me in helping to change that, may I present...
#Sheroesontheshelf
INTENTION
Empower girls and show boys that an empowered girl is not just awesome, but vital
WHY
Girls today are:
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suffering from a lack of confidence
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struggling with self-reliance and feeling strong
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succumbing to record magnitudes of violence, sadness, and suicide risk
"Girls are experiencing a level of trauma and distress that requires immediate action."
CDC Report, 2023
LET'S HELP
Thankfully, there are many things being done to empower young girls, MindUP and Girls Inc leading the race. These important organisations offer powerful tools in mental health and the rectification of female marginalisation. How can these tools be amplified even more?
INSPIRATION
“Inspiration plays an important role in enabling girls to achieve their goals and realize their potential,” says Mila Smart Semeshkina, President of the Women's Empowerment Council. “And inspiration comes from successful role models”
Sadly, Girlguiding America recently revealed that 55% of girls aged 11-21 felt they lacked access to positive female role models.(v)
"Girls ages 10–13 are sorely missing sheroes their own age to look up to. They don’t want to be just sidekicks."
HURDLES
Gender Disparity
More than two thirds of all lead characters in media (books and film) are still male. (vi)
“The fact is – women are seriously under-represented across nearly all sectors of society around the globe."
Geena Davis - Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
The 'Strong' Female Paradox
The majority of female action-adventure characters today take part in hand-to-hand combat, wield swords, shoot machine guns, and use high-tech weaponry to destroy both people and property. These aggressive 'badass' role models do not depict images of empowerment; they do not draw upon femininity as a source of power. (vii)
Is a female character with disproportionately masculine traits really empowering girls?
What kind of role models inspire girls and instil a true sense of confidence?
GIRL POWER
Three-fourths of girls age 10-19 said female superheroes make them feel strong, brave or inspired. And nearly six in 10 say female heroes make them believe they can do anything (viii)
According to Capstone (viii), the nation’s leading educational publisher for digital solutions and literacy programs for school libraries and classrooms:
Providing young girls with positive female role models - especially their own age - is imperative.
When female characters are depicted in admirable ways, providing an example of confidence, persistence, and courage, this inspires girls to also be those things, and create habits that can have a lifetime effect. (vix)
There’s something elemental to fantasy and magic storytelling that feels particularly resonant as girls and boys are forming their ideas of who they can be. (x)
MEET ROOT
Root Karbunkulus is the brave, young heroine of my magical adventure series,
The Bone Grit Historeum.
Root is the inspiration part of the girl empowerment equation.
IT'S TIME
There is no female equivalent to Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Bilbo/Frodo Baggins, Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones or any other hero phenomena throughout the ages.
Phenomena is the keyword here. There are, of course, a handful of heroines, who have had an impact societally, but none to the degree of the above, who have all reached perpetuity in the Hero's Journey canon.
Root Karbunkulus is changing that.
As a young heroine, Root overcomes incredible obstacles, always maintaining the cool factor that is imperative to keeping kids' interest. She counters violence and toxic masculinity with wits, courage and humour.
Female leadership in the Bone Grit Historeum is normalized, and Root's natural command is no exception. Boys and men are comfortable seeing their female counterparts as equals. Any resistance is based on personality, not gender.
As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(Nicholl Fellowship) puts it:
"Root stands shoulder to shoulder with the boy wizards and determined Hobbits who have come before her."
THE PLAN
AWARENESS
We are all familiar with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Did you know it raised over $220M worldwide using strictly social media? (xi)
And it is not alone. Other successful awareness campaigns verify that:
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Social media posts are the #1 drivers of charitable giving since 2020 (xii)
THE ALMIGHTY HASHTAG
#SHEROESONTHESHELF
is a
CALL TO ACTION
It is an all-encompassing declaration of change, a unique hashtag, without competition, carefully chosen to be the symbol of girl empowerment.
#rootforroot
#bonegrits
are also select hashtags from the book series that induce action and streamline directly to target.
#girlpower
is the heavy lifter with scale, averaging over 22M posts (xiii)
These combined 4 hashtags - strong, relevant, discoverable and easily remembered - cut through the noise of social media.
Shared with a message of advocacy and a link to Miist, they provide a concise path of support.
Tagging others to also voice their support will be the wind beneath the hashtag wings.
Your choice to be an ambassador for girls and women will be the lightning bolt.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Albert Einstein
BEYOND
"Miist is without a doubt, the beginning of a new phenomenon."
Readers Favorite
Join me in creating a new reality for girls
A PHENOMENON
We are superseding archaic paradigms and statistics.
We are giving girls the enduring gift of learning their power at an early age, substantially by-passing the un-learning that is attempted after years of marginalisation.
We are offering a beacon of significance and worth.
Not for a time, but for all time.
ADDITIONAL
BENEFITS
BOYS
By encouraging young boys to read/watch inspiring female characters their own age, they learn early-on to respect and celebrate girls’ wisdom, strength, and power.
They will also see that knee-jerk violence and aggression are not necessary, and that more integrative, heart-centred choices can be for them as well. (xix)
Seeing girls as allies contributes to better mental health and educational attainment among boys (xx)
WHO AM I?
As a writer and theatre director I have always showcased women, especially in comedy. But when I became a single mother to a daughter, and was given the birds-eye view of society's impact on her, I upped my game.
Empowering girls is my mission.
When pressured by editors at large publishing houses to 'age Root up' and make the books edgier, I turned from traditional publishing and published independently.
When a movie option came with the stipulation that Root be a boy, I turned it down.
As a one-woman business, without the reach of a corporate publishing house, my influence is limited to Western Canada where I live.
A partnership with you, dear reader, is the co-creation that I seek to put
#sheroesontheshelf
Thank you so much for your time.
Kamilla :)