Content Introduction 3 1 Best All-Around Florence Nightingale 4 2 Most Creative Duo Lillian and Frank Gilbreth 6 3 Best Secret Keeper Mary Golda Ross 8 4 Most Likely to Think Outside the Box Sarah E Goode 10 5 Most Techie Hedy Lamarr 12 6 Most Caring Helen Rodríguez-Trías 14 7 Most Well-Rounded Ruth Graves Wakefield 16 8 Most Adventurous Jeanne Villepreux Power 18 9 Best Start-Up Idea Sarah Breedlove 20 10 Trendsetter Catherine de Medici 22 11 Best Writer Wang Zhenyi 24 12 Life of the Party Ruth Handler 26 Your Turn 30 Consider This 31 Glossary 31 Index 31 2
Introduction We are celebrating girl innovators Innovators are people who invent things They come up with new ways to do things They’re trailblazers Trailblazers make things happen They do things first But it’s not easy being a girl innovator Many people think that women shouldn’t work Things are changing though What took so long Throughout history women have shown that they’re smart They’re creative They’re strong The girl innovators in this book rise to the top They paved the way for today’s girl innovators Do you like to do things differently Are you a problem solver Do you see failures as opportunities to learn If you said yes to all three you have the qualities of an innovator Here’s to you and all the girl innovators in our lives 3
1 chapter Best All-Around Florence Nightingale 4
I attribute my success to this I never gave or took any excuse Florence Nightingale The Best All-Around award goes to Florence Nightingale Nightingale was British She was born in 1820 She reformed nursing Reform means to improve Nightingale worked during a war The hospitals were dirty Sickness was spreading Nightingale used science She used pie charts Pie charts are a way to show information Nightingale showed how more soldiers died from poor conditions in hospitals than in battles She made changes She cleaned hospitals She created better services She checked in on soldiers She cooked special foods She created a laundry to keep things clean She started a library and a classroom She wrote reports She trained nurses Her work saved many lives She turned nursing into an important job 5
