Rad Girls Can: Stories of Bold, Brave, and Brilliant Young Women

From the colorful graphic design on the book to the wide array of subjects, Rad Girls Can is not only visually stunning, it is also wildly important. Statistically, the achievements and historical impacts of men, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), are documented and taught three times as often as those of women. In sports, male athletes are celebrated and lauded far more often than women. Even in Hollywood, men have longer, more public careers while women are often considered less employable after a certain age.

That’s what makes Rad Girls Can so, well, rad. Featuring stories on fifty different girls and young women throughout history, the text shows that girls have always worked to impact the world around them, even if their stories get told less often. The book opens with Misty Copeland, an African-American woman who changed what a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre could look like. Her story lays the foundation of the book, which shows the barriers broken, the ceilings shattered, and the limits surpassed by the other featured subjects. Subjects like Joan of Arc, who became the patron saint of France over 500 years after she was burned at the stake, and Janet Mock, an author LGBTQ rights activist who often shares her own story of coming out as transgender in high school.

The best part of the book, though, comes on page 92, where young readers are encouraged to include their own story of what they have already accomplished, or what they hope to do, in their own rad lives.