Forest Hills women work on book to inspire a generation of female leaders

  • 2018-05-10
When Sharita Manickam of Forest Hills had her daughter, she wrote a poem describing all the paths her daughter could take. A few years later, when a woman was running for president, Manickam noticed that her daughter and other young girls were excited at the idea that a woman could be president.

She and Jen Bruno, a friend, were inspired to turn the original poem into a book that illustrated all the traditionally male-dominated career paths that are open to women.

People planning on publishing a book can use local printing services to get the book into Print. Manickam and Bruno's includes 30 careers, such as judge, engineer, artist, and scientist. One feature of the book that sets it apart from others in the same category is that it features real photographs of young girls dressed up for those careers.

So far, about 50 girls have volunteered to be models for the book, Manickam told the Forest Hills Times. The pair started out working with their own daughters, both five years old, as well as the children of their friends. Word got out and other moms were soon lining up.

The pair started a Kickstarter fundraiser to bring in the money needed to actually produce the book. They set a goal of $15,000 and at time of writing had more than $20,000 worth of pledges.

They expect the book to be published by November.

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