Sunday 29 July 2012

Welcome to ScienceGrrl 2013

Hello! This is the blog for ScienceGrrl 2013. We'll use this to write updates about the project and the production of our calendar, as an addition to our main website and Twitter feed.

If you've come across this by chance, let me explain the project. ScienceGrrl 2013 is run by individuals who came together on Twitter to discuss their reaction to this video trailer for the European Commission's "Science: it's a girl thing" project, branded a "fiasco" by the Guardian. We discussed our problems with the video and one comment came up again and again: science does not need to be sexed-up and "girlified" to be interesting and inspiring. Heather Williams led the conversation and vowed to show the online science community exactly this.

Heather asked me to help make a calendar of beautiful images showing real science. She wanted to highlight women's work in STEM subjects, but not isolate them as "female scientists" versus "male scientists". It's not a task I can do alone, and I am now working with a wonderful team of volunteers, photographers and designers to make this calendar come to life.

 Myself, Heather and the first volunteers agreed that the calendar would be used as a way to raise funds to support projects that improve access to STEM for girls and young women. This is the aim of the EC's project. A calendar alone won't do this - we have bigger and bolder aims than to just showcase science to our friends, colleagues, peers and family.

 ScienceGrrl is still developing. Every day we have more ideas about how to use the images that we'll produce to raise aspirations to pursue a career in STEM, or how we can spend the money we raise. Your suggestions are very welcome.

That's all from me for now. For more information about our project, please take a look at our website.

Louise Crane
@lulucrumble

Producer, ScienceGrrl Calendar 2013
Artistic Director, Geek Calendar 2011