Normal Girl Activities
Steph,
I just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks. We don’t know each other, and I’ll probably never have the privilege of ever actually meeting you. But on behalf of my 6 year old little girl, thanks for showing that girls can do “cool stuff” too.
My 6 year old, Haleigh, is the daredevil of our family. She has an older sister and a younger one, both of whom are very much in to what some would call “normal” girl activities: makeup, dolls, dress up, etc., etc. Haleigh however, has a fascination with seeing how high she can climb in a tree, how fast she can ride her bike, how far she can run before she freaks her mother out. I like to indulge and encourage her in seeing what her limits are (safely, of course), and she’s rather fearless.
On a slight aside, I’d been researching cameras for my upcoming trip out to Bonneville to drive in the ‘World of Speed,’ and came across various footage of wingsuit basejumping (GoPro footage, which apparently is your camera of choice…). A lot of the footage is of guys, and before long she asked, “can girls do that too?”
Thanks for being living proof that girls do that too. You’ve really inspired her to something. She’s currently got on her list to learn to surf, learn to “flip bikes” (a la BMX and X Games), skateboard (which is something she’ll be getting for Christmas, no doubt), and she’s now added learning to fly in a “squirrel suit.” It’s been hard to find footage of girls doing extreme sports, so she’s often under the impression she can’t do something simply because she’s never seen a girl do it. So, again, thanks. Really, truly, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.
Regards,
Warren Grannis
Dear Warren (and Haleigh!),
I just met Haleigh’s new flying partner in Cortina….!
So here’s a video just for the little girls.
🙂 Steph
good Dad
I’ve shown my daughter (10 years old) stuff from this site as well! Mine is a completely different situation though, my girl is a complete chicken. I’ll take responsibility though, single dad and only child, I’ve babied her like nothing else.Â
Compounding her problem of fear though is that she idolizes her (part-time) mother, who is vocally annoyed at having to go outside long enough to reach the car, and loves nothing more than sitting on a couch watching tv and smoking cigarettes. So until I find that elusive bad-ass partner to give her a better role model, I sneak in girl role models for her. When I say, “hey look at this crazy highline in Yosemite” you can bet it’s a girl on the line. When I show her base jumping or rock climbing pictures, females are purposely but subtly over-represented. Heck, even when it’s just telling her about a new beach to paddle to, I make sure to mention which of my female friends told me about it.
The last thing I want her to learn is that boys are supposed to be like dad (playing outdoors and having fun) and girls are supposed to be like mom (inside ignoring babies and watching tv).
So yeah, thanks for offering up an awesome example for my daughter as well!
I think tonight I’ll make the carrot cake recipe, and while it’s baking say “oh wow! look at what the girl who has that recipe does in that wing suit!”.Â
How did the carrot cake turn out? Make the apple pie next!
Um, well lets just say that I’m a much better cook than baker (way easier to successfully improv when cooking)! But I could tell that it’s SUPPOSED to be awesome! Maybe I should try actually following the recipe?
🙂