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“...people do their best work when they feel supported.”
“...maybe the real shift happens when we stop waiting for help from the village of the past… and start learning to build a new one.”
Amy Bauer is a veteran birth professional, writer, and grandmother devoted to helping families navigate pregnancy, parenting, and the changing seasons of motherhood with confidence and connection. She is the founder of Hoosier Doula Network where she trains and mentors doulas while advocating for relationship-centered, informed care, and the creator of Pocket Doula, an innovative app designed to bring experienced guidance, practical support, and steady encouragement directly into the everyday lives of modern mothers.
With more than three decades of experience supporting families and attending many types of births, Bauer brings both professional insight and lived perspective to her work. As a mother of a large growing family who now watches her daughters step into motherhood themselves, she writes with warmth, honesty, and a deep belief that no parent should feel alone.
ones we don’t talk about)
By Ashley Franklin, Kid Life Editor
Every March we celebrate the same names. Rosa Parks. Harriet Tubman. Eleanor Roosevelt. Amelia Earhart.
And they deserve it; these women changed the world. But there are so many other women who did incredible things and never got the credit. Women whose names we should know. Women whose stories deserve to be told.
Here are a few I'm teaching my kids about this year.
You've probably heard about Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus in 1955. But did you know that nine months earlier, a 15-year-old girl did the exact same thing?
Her name was Claudette Colvin. She was a high school student in Montgomery, Alabama. When a bus driver told her to move to the back of the bus, she said no. She was arrested and charged with breaking the law.
Claudette's case actually went to court and helped end bus segregation. But because
she was so young, civil rights leaders decided Rosa Parks should be the face of the movement instead.
Claudette didn't get famous. But she was incredibly brave. At 15 years old, she stood up for what was right even though she knew she'd get in trouble.
I want my kids to know that heroes come in all ages even teenagers who are scared but do the right thing anyway.
In 1921, a young Black woman named Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. And she didn't do it in America she had to go all the way to France because no American flight school would teach her.
Bessie grew up poor in Texas. She worked as a manicurist and saved every penny. When she finally learned to fly, she came back to America and became a stunt pilot, performing daring tricks in air shows across the country.
She refused to perform at any event that didn't allow Black people in the audience. She wanted to open a flight school for African Americans. She dreamed of a world where anyone could fly, no matter their race or gender.
Bessie died young in a plane crash at age 34. But her legacy lived on she inspired generations of Black pilots who came after her.
I tell my kids about Bessie because she didn't let anyone tell her what she couldn't do. She found a way.
You might have heard of Katherine Johnson from the movie Hidden Figures. But even after that movie, a lot of people still don't know her story.
Katherine was a mathematician who worked for NASA. She calculated the flight paths for the first Americans in space. Astronauts trusted her math more than they trusted computers. John Glenn literally said he wouldn't fly unless Katherine checked the numbers herself.
Katherine's calculations helped send astronauts to the moon. But for years, she didn't get credit. She was a Black woman working in a time when Black women weren't supposed to be in those rooms, doing that work.
But she did it anyway. And she did it brilliantly.
I want my kids to know that Katherine's brain changed history. That math matters. That being smart and working hard can take you to the stars.
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She led
her people through difficult times, working to improve healthcare, education, and housing for thousands of Cherokee families.
She grew up poor and faced discrimination for being Native American. But she never stopped fighting for her community. She believed in the strength of her people and worked tirelessly to make their lives better.
Wilma once said, "I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves."
And she did exactly that.
When we only talk about the same few women every March, kids start to think that only a few women were special enough to make a difference.
But the truth is, there are so many women who changed the world. Women who were brave, smart, creative, and determined. Women who didn't give up even when things were hard.
Our kids deserve to know their names. They deserve to see themselves in these stories to know that regular people can do extraordinary things.
Read books about women whose names you don't know yet. Visit museums. Watch documentaries. Ask your kids' teachers to go beyond the basics.
And when your kids ask, "Why haven't I heard of her before?" tell them the truth. "Because her story was forgotten. But we're remembering her now."
These women deserve to be remembered. And our kids deserve to know the full story of all the women who built the world we live in today.
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