Recommended Reading: An excerpt from The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 in which the author has dinner with Helen Keller.
Twain and Keller
Meet Ironheart
"I just think it'll have such a positive effect on the geek community, the black girl community, the black geek girl community... just opening the doors of your mind to what you can achieve." The newest character to wear Iron Man's suit? A 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams, reports NPR. As for your own inner geek, might they be interested in an unauthorized corporate history of Marvel Comics?
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Do Emoji Really Count?
What's your favorite form of punctuation? R. L. Stine is partial to the em-dash.
Smile More
Recommended (Frustrating) Reading: "Men Explain Submissions To Me," an eye-opening new piece from Sarah Blake at The Rumpus.
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A Sentimental Journey
E.V. de Cleyre writes for Ploughshares about sentimentality. As she puts it, “It is not enough to have a feeling and express it—we must exercise discernment, ask what these feelings we’re feeling are, dissect them, and find the language that matches how they look, feel, smell, and taste.” Pair with this Millions essay on literary sentiment.
The YA Diet
From Hunger Games's Katniss to Divergent's Tris, today's YA heroines are confident, intelligent, powerful, and always skinny. At The Atlantic, Julianne Ross argues that this scrawny stereotype ends up belittling the heroines' independence and strength. "Just as women are expected to be sexual but not slutty, pure but not prudish, heroines should be strong but not buff."
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Don’t Be Her
Want to be a female travel writer? That's great, says Jessa Crispin, just please don't be Elizabeth Gilbert.
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