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Move over, Hermes Conrad!
Shemika Charles: Limbo Queen
(what's a "Modern Worthy"? click here to find out!)
Annie Edson Taylor
Heroine of Niagara Falls
Annie Taylor marked her 63rd birthday in uncommon fashion: going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.Maria Toorpakai Wazir
The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight
Toorpakai, from the Waziristan region of Pakistan, pretended for years to be a boy named Genghis Khan so she could play sports. She's now an internationally-ranked squash player.Ashley Callingbull-Burnham
Pageant Winner Turned First Nations Activist
Callingbull became the first Canadian and first indigenous woman to win the Mrs. Universe pageant in 2015. She used that to launch a campaign advocating for First Nations rights.Willie Murphy
The strongest septuagenarian you've ever seen
Willie Murphy is 105 pounds. 105 pounds of pure rippling muscle that can deadlift 215 pounds and her own groceries, thank you very much. Not gonna lie. You kinda suck compared to Willie Murphy.Martha Matilda Harper
Inventor of the Hair Salon
Harper was an entrepreneur who essentially created the modern hair salon, which she grew into a franchise of hundreds of stores across the world.Cheryl Perera
A Fighter Against Child Prostitution
When she was 16, Perera took several months off from school to investigate child prostitution in Sri Lanka, even participating in a police sting. At 19, she founded OneChild to raise awareness of and combat the issue.Annie Jean Easley
Engineer, mathematician, and rocket scientist
Annie Easley was given literacy tests. Annie Easley was told she didn't go to a good enough school. Annie Easley became a goddamn rocket scientist. Annie Easley did not listen to the haters.Betty James
Savior of the Slinky
Betty James named the Slinky in the 1940s. Years later, she saved it from bankruptcy.Vera Rubin
The Astrophysict Who Shined a Light on Dark Matter
Pioneering dark matter astrophysicist and trailblazing feminist icon, Rubin once wrote "There is no problem in science that can be solved by a man that cannot be solved by a woman."Shemika Charles
Limbo Queen
Shemika Charles has broken world records for limbo--the latest for limboing under a car.Related Posts
Inge Ginsberg
As a Holocaust survivor, her poetry was too dark for some, but it was perfect for death metal.
Mary Ellis
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Jess Wade
She wrote 270 Wikipedia articles in a single year -- “I had a target for doing one a day, but sometimes I get too excited and do three.”
Miriam O’Brien Underhill
Men? Mountaineer Miriam O'Brien Underhill Don't Need No Stinkin' Men - She pioneered and argued for "manless" climbing in a…
DeDe Phillips
She was attacked while putting up a “Women who behave rarely make history” bumper sticker on her truck. No, seriously.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary
She was the first black woman in North America to edit and publish a newspaper, one of the first black female lawyers in the United States and an advocate for granting women the right to vote.
Pinar Toprak
She’s the first female composer to score a major superhero movie, with the female-led Captain Marvel.
Piera Aiello
Forced to marry a mobster, she escaped, ran for parliament and won -- while obscuring her face. But now, she's showing it freely.
Amelia Bloomer
The publisher of America's first newspaper by and for women - and someone sadly overshadowed by her more-famous contemporaries.
Nida Khan
This 15-year-old Pakistani girl who drives motorcycles, rickshaws, and garbage trucks to help earn money for her family. She is also a medal-winning boxer and a teacher.
Random Princesses
"Stagecoach" Mary Fields
Pistol-packing, liquor-swigging, 6'2" black postal carrier/babysitter of the Wild West.
Yaa Asantewaa
As an old woman, led an incredibly successful rebellion against British colonialism, known as The War of the Golden Stool,…
Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones)
This leader of the labor movement suffered imprisonment, defamation, and untold misery to battle against forces that most of us just take for granted.
Christine de Pizan
When her husband unexpectedly died, she rolled up her sleeves and became one of the greatest authors of the age to keep food on the table. She wrote passionate defenses of her gender (and military treatises!) that were centuries ahead of their time.
Anacaona
When Columbus and his crew ravaged her land, this native Haitian poet gave all to keep the peace.