Positive representations of LGBT people, history, and events in school curricula can help LGBT students feel more valued in schools and can also provide role models for students interested in STEM fields, as we know from GLSEN’s 2013 National School Climate Survey. This LGBT History Month, we are proud to celebrate Sally Ride’s life, and we look forward to reading Tam O’Shaughnessy’s forthcoming children’s book!
Ride’s first shuttle lifted off two years before I was born. But in second grade, I discovered her through the book Sally Ride: Shooting for the Stars. I carried it around in my backpack for months and wrote her name down when teachers asked us to list our heroes. The idea of her pressed into my mind with almost gravitational force: a woman, an astronaut; it was possible, here was proof.
Before I read the book, astronaut existed only as a concept—as fuzzy as the helmeted faces that I couldn’t resolve from my perch on the swingset. But here in this book was someone. Someone like me—or, more accurately, someone I could imagine myself being like.
worriesconstantly