Girl Heroes

As a response to my CoP3 dissertation in which I will be exploring the influence of fairy tales on children's perceptions of gender, I plan to create a short children's picture book about Malala's story.

Why?
Malala is an icon for bravery, courage and hope and is such an inspiration for all females (and males), children and even adults - what better way to teach kids of real bravery and courage than using the story of a real person as example?

Children's perceptions of gender-roles are highly influenced by what they read and what they watch. Social learning theorists argue that children are more likely to model themselves on same-sex individuals by paying more attention to same sex peers. 'Classic' fairy tales (which most children are exposed to from such a young age) are all based around the same principle where the female characters wait for their male counterparts to whisk them away to their happy ending. This could lead to little girls imitating and modelling themselves after the quite unassertive characteristics of female characters in these tales, instead of being active and leading their own lives - which can later affect them in their adulthood - constraining their lifetime opportunities for an education or a career or whatever ambitions they may have.

There is a potential to make a series of books based on girl heroes to continue on, maybe after graduation and Teresa thought it would be a good idea for me to research and identify more liberating stories around the world of girls who were once unfortunate or oppressed, that I could base my stories on.

Girl Effect is a wonderful source for stories that are happening every day around the world about girls who are making an effort to, or have already stood up or spoken up about what they believe in. Stories like these are the ones children - especially girls, should be more exposed to, to encourage them to act upon their own beliefs and achieve their own dreams as it is SO important!

This also opens up the opportunity to potentially work along side Girl Effect, maybe? (just thinking big, y'know) - proposing the books as a product for them to further develop girls' positive perceptions of themselves and shift how others see and value them.