13/03/2015
Nichelle Nichols, famous for her role as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on Star Trek, was an actress, a dancer, an ambassador for NASA, and most importantly, a role model at a time when African American women were usually relegated to roles as housekeepers and servants on television. In a recent CNN interview with Sheena McKenzie, 82-year-old Nichols talks about what she considers the most important message she delivered in her career: “Science is not a boy's game, it's not a girl's game. It's everyone's game. It's about where we are and where we're going.”
When the original Star Trek series ended, Nichols turned her attention to attracting more diverse candidates to NASA. “There were no women, and there were no minorities in the space program -- and that's supposed to represent the whole country?” she told McKenzie incredulously. “Not in this day and age. We just absolutely cannot have that.” So she accepted NASA’s invitation to help recruit the country’s first female astronauts and astronauts of color -- among them Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. “Sally called me to tell me that I was the way she had heard about the space program,” Nichols says. “I had gone on television and in several interviews spoke of why [women] should get involved, and they took it up and said 'she's absolutely right.'”
Today, Nichols is proud of the role she played in increasing diversity, both on television and in science. And she encourages the young people of today to continue to look to the stars: “Space travel benefits us here on Earth [a]nd we ain't stopped yet. There's more exploration to come.”
You can read Nichols’ entire interview on CNN at http://cnn.it/1qUesKd
To inspire children and teens with more stories of girls and women in science -- both in fiction and real-life -- visit our "Science & Technology" section at http://www.amightygirl.com/books/general-interest/science-technology
To encourage your Mighty Girl's interest in science, check out our blog post: "Science At Play: Top 20 Science Toys for Mighty Girls" at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=7692 or browse our entire STEM section at http://www.amightygirl.com/toys/toys-games/science-math
There is also a wonderful poster featuring short profiles on 22 notable women scientists at http://www.amightygirl.com/history-of-women-in-science-wall-poster
And, if your Mighty Girl loves to show off her love of science and technology, visit our STEM-themed t-shirt section at http://www.amightygirl.com/clothing?clothing_themes=146