Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Talented Tuesdays: Marina Franklin

It's Talented Tuesday! Each week, For Nerdy Girls features a digital innovator who inspires colorful women around the world. These are individuals who should be celebrated on a global level, so we'll start by talking about these changemakers right here.




Name: Marina Franklin

Twitter: @marinayfranklin

Website: marinafranklin.com




What she does: Marina is a comedian and actor.

Why she's inspiring: Marina created Friends Like Us, "a podcast featuring women of color with very different views on Hot Topics."She and her Friends have developed a safe space for colorful ladies, especially those in the comedy world, to share their informed opinions on social justice, politics, sexuality, gender, transitioning, racism, relationships, motherhood, current events, and any other issues her guests would like to discuss.



If you would like to nominate a digital innovator for Talented Tuesdays, please let us know in the comments, or email us at ForNerdyGirls [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Talented Tuesdays: Lela Lee

It's Talented Tuesday! Each week, For Nerdy Girls features a digital innovator who inspires colorful women around the world. These are individuals who should be celebrated on a global level, so we'll start by talking about these changemakers right here.




Name: Lela Lee

Twitter: @LelaLee

Website: LelaLee.com

What she does: Lela is a cartoonist, writer, and actress.




Why she's inspiring: Lela created Angry Little Girls, a growing brand that started with one Angry Little Asian Girl and now includes comics, books, an animated series, and additional merchandise. Her diverse group of Little Girls show her audience how to freely express the strong emotions that women are often encouraged to suppress.



If you would like to nominate a digital innovator for Talented Tuesdays, please let us know in the comments, or email us at ForNerdyGirls [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Talented Tuesdays: Mia McKenzie

It's Talented Tuesday! Each week, For Nerdy Girls features a digital innovator who inspires colorful women around the world. These are individuals who should be celebrated on a global level, so we'll start by talking about these changemakers right here.




Name: Mia McKenzie

Twitter: @miamckenzie

Website: miamckenzie.com




What she does: Mia is a writer, speaker, and the creator and Editor-in-Chief of Black Girl Dangerous, an "independent, non-profit media project amplifying the voices of queer and trans* people of color since 2012."

Why she's inspiring: A black, queer feminist and award-winning author of The Summer We Got Free, Mia writes and speaks about social justice, QTPOC issues, race, gender, and identity. Her Black Girl Dangerous forum alone has "reached over 5 million readers from every populated continent on earth."



If you would like to nominate a digital innovator for Talented Tuesdays, please let us know in the comments, or email us at ForNerdyGirls [at] gmail [dot] com.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Where's My Movie?: Sacagawea

It's Where's My Movie? Monday! Each month, For Nerdy Girls features an inspirational individual who has changed the world but, for some reason, does not have her own biopic. These women are amazing human beings who should be commemorated as historical game changers in textbooks and statues and monuments. For now, we will discuss them on this internet blog.

(For comparison, Steve Jobs has been portrayed in 11 documentaries, four feature films, and one theatrical production. He created a company that sells phones.)




Name: Sacagawea

What she did: Sacagawea served both as a tour guide and a Shoshone and Hidatsa interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition. She also functioned as a native ambassador for the party's 33 white men, who were scared of the native inhabitants they would encounter as they traipsed through those inhabitants' sacred lands.


[the most accurate video representation of Sacagawea's story that I could find]


Why she needs a movie: She doesn't have film about her, but Lewis and Clark do, in which Shoshone woman Sacagawea was played by white American woman Donna Reed. All of that sentence needs to be rectified. Not only because Sacagawea lead the overrated duo and their band of merry men across the country, but because she did so at the age of 16, two months after giving birth to her son, who was conceived by the 30-something-year-old man who had purchased Sacagawea as his slave/wife. Sacagawea then spent the rest of her postpartum recovery negotiating horse trades, saving emergency supplies from a sinking boat capsized in a storm, and walking to the Pacific Ocean through the Rocky Mountains, all while carrying a two-month-old baby on her back.

For his service, Sacagawea's slavemaster/husband received $500.33 and 320 acres.

For her service--without which Lewis and Clark would be two anonymous guys from the 1800s, instead of two of the most famous trespassers in American history--Sacagawea received nothing...

...until the year 2000, almost 200 years after her death, when her image was minted on the U.S. $1 coin. Yes, one dollar. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and Andrew Jackson murdered countless human beings (and owned slaves, too!), yet their faces are on higher denominations of U.S. currency.

Coming soon to a theater near you: 16 and Pregnant and Leading a Bunch of Grown White Men Into the Woods, Including the French-Canadian Pedophile who Bought Her and Raped Her, Ain't That Some Bull-- The Sacagawea Story



If you would like to nominate a notable lady for Where's My Movie?, please let us know in the comments, or email us at ForNerdyGirls [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Talented Tuesdays: Laura Weidman Powers

It's Talented Tuesday! Each week, For Nerdy Girls features a digital innovator who inspires colorful women around the world. These are individuals who should be celebrated on a global level, so we'll start by talking about these changemakers right here.




Name: Laura Weidman Powers

Twitter: @laurawp

Website: code2040.org




What she does: Laura is the co-founder and CEO of CODE2040, "a nonprofit organization that creates programs that increase the representation of Blacks and Latino/as in the innovation economy."

Why she's inspiring: Laura created CODE2040 to change the culture of Silicon Valley. She's not just talking about the demographic change coming to the United States in two decades (which is already here). She's doing something about it by piloting programs for individuals in underrepresented groups to facilitate their success.



If you would like to nominate a digital innovator for Talented Tuesdays, please let us know in the comments, or email us at ForNerdyGirls [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Talented Tuesdays: Kimberly N. Foster

It's Talented Tuesday! Each week, For Nerdy Girls features a digital innovator who inspires colorful women around the world. These are individuals who should be celebrated on a global level, so we'll start by talking about these changemakers right here.




Name: Kimberly N. Foster

Twitter: @KimberlyNFoster

Website: Fuchsia.Media




What she does: Kimberly is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of For Harriet and COLOURES.

Why she's inspiring: Kimberly created For Harriet, "an online community for women of African ancestry" in order to "provide a thoughtful, collaborative alternative to mainstream media representations of Black womanhood."

Yes, please!



If you would like to nominate a digital innovator for Talented Tuesdays, please let us know in the comments, or email us at ForNerdyGirls [at] gmail [dot] com.