The Aviatrix - Bessie Coleman
I learned about Bessie via the wonderful ‘Things You Missed in History Class’ podcast, and I’m honestly surprised I hadn’t learned about her sooner. Bessie was the first African American to hold an international pilots license, a tremendous feat considering no flight school in America would agree to certify her. Instead, she worked hard and saved for years to go to France and learn with an instructor abroad. Upon her return to America, now a registered and talented pilot, she began putting on air shows. She was a huge draw, and was known to her fans as ‘Queen Bess’. Despite her growing fame, she still dealt with daily discrimination due to her race and gender, and in response became an early icon of the civil rights movement.
For more on her and her story, I highly recommend listening to the episode about her on ’Things You Missed in History Class’. If nothing else, it’s a wonderful tale of someone who worked hard and never let her situation get in the way of her goals.
The Film Maker - Sofia Coppola
It didn’t take long for me to decide who my first post should be about. I’ve loved Sofia and her work since I was in middle school obsessively watching movies and dreaming of a life behind the camera. My career goals have changed since then, but my admiration for Sofia hasn’t. She introduced me to her dreamy girl-world, to Trip Fontaine, to Phoenix, to champagne with straws, and to the idea that movies can be just as hazy and unresolved as real life. I grew up near one of her father’s vineyards, and used to daydream about sitting around a table with the plethora of talented Coppola cousins being decidedly classy, then breaking out our dance moves to some cheesy French-Pop later in the evening.
This idea for this blog started while sitting in a coffee shop in SoHo with one of my best friends. We were staring out the window watching what seemed to be a parade of wondrous women pass by. Some were toting kids in animal costumes, some were covered with flecks of paint, some were stone-cold babes, but all of them possessed some magical quality that made me want to know more about them.
(But in a totally have-a-conversation-over-brunch non-creepy way…)
So I’d like to dedicate this to all the hard-working, clever, kind, interesting, creative, funny, intelligent, determined, confident ladies out there,
be my best friend?
