NEW YORK (PRWEB) April 06, 2021
Graduate student and children’s book author Jamila H. Lindo debuts ‘Girls Can Be Engineers’ to start the conversation about women in male-dominated fields and to normalize the image of black women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
‘Girls Can Be Engineers’ is a beautifully illustrated story that encourages girls, especially those of color, to explore male-dominated fields. From 2017 until 2018, women of color earned about 14% of bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. Of those, only about 2.9% black women earned bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. As a civil engineering graduate with Jamaican Sephardic background, Lindo recalls being the only black female student in some of her classes. Lindo feels that the solution to this issue is to offer children’s literature that inspires young girls of color now.
“It is also crucial that we change the stereotype that STEM fields are reserved for men only,” said Lindo.
In ‘Girls Can Be Engineers,’ readers follow a young girl in search of a career for Career Day at school. Every time she focuses on a career, she finds that they are mainly male-dominated. Her mom, who happens to be a structural engineer, jumps in and shows her that she can do anything regardless of her gender. Through her character set, Lindo contributes to the mission of diversifying children’s literature by including characters of various backgrounds.
Lindo holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with minors in Environmental Engineering and Religious Studies from Manhattan College. Currently, she is a graduate student at Columbia University. Lindo hopes that her books can inspire girls, especially those of color, to explore STEM fields.
In less than two weeks, Lindo has gained the support of almost 200 backers for her book through Kickstarter and is now offering preorders of the book through her website. More information can be found at Kickstarter and https://www.jhlindoauthor.com/.
