The Best Ebooks for Inspiring Your Girl Scout Troop

This installment of author Brad Meltzer’s larger Ordinary People Change the World series isperfect for telling younger Girl Scouts that they can do anything they set their minds to. I AmAmelia Earhart is written from the legendary aviator’s perspective, detailing the struggles sheovercame as one of the first women to successfully pilot planes over long distances—and howthese obstacles never stopped her from achieving her dream of taking to the skies. Try this bookout with the younger members of your troop to encourage them to keep persisting toward theirgoals, even if others say they can’t possibly achieve them.

Speaking of pursuing one’s true interests, you may want to recommend this eBook if some of your Girl Scouts find science particularly intriguing. That’s because Finding Wonders takes three outstanding women scientists—Maria Merian, Mary Anning, and Maria Mitchell—and transforms their biographies into creative, engaging reads that illustrate just how well girls and women can do in STEM-related fields. Children’s author Jeannine Atkins made sure to choose these three particular role models because of the time periods they hail from. Spanning from the17th to 19th centuries, their lives fully emphasize the often unrecognized role women have played in pioneering scientific advances. Depicting the joy of discovery in diverse fields like entomology, paleontology, and astronomy, this read is worth sharing if you want to foster a love of science in your troop.

You Throw Like a Girl can be a great eBook for members of your troop who need to be reminded that they’re just as capable as other boys their age. More importantly, it carries a crucial message: femininity is fine. We note in How to Teach Girls to Become Strong and Confident Leaders that fostering your troop’s individual interests—whether or not they’re traditionally considered masculine or feminine—can be crucial for forming their sense of individuality, and this particular eBook can help establish that. Here, Gabby disguises herself when she signs up for the boy’s baseball team, knowing her pitching skills are just as good as anyone there. She goes even further by juggling her time playing baseball with participating in what’s traditionally considered a more “feminine” activity: a beauty pageant. In the end, she proves she can do both. By sharing this book with your troop, you can inspire them to similarly go beyond their comfort zone and pursue their true interests, even if they fall outside the strict gender boundaries society upholds.

This first-ever work of children’s non-fiction from former First Daughter and activist Chelsea Clinton has boatloads of insights for older Girl Scouts—and it can be a particularly helpful read for those you feel are starting to show strong leadership skills. It’s Your World covers plenty of timely topics that your troop is likely to be concerned with, like climate change, gender equality ,and poverty. More importantly, it uses charts, graphs, photos—and insights from other kids—to show them what’s currently being done to address these problems and how they can pitch in themselves. With Clinton offering plenty of ideas for your troop to start with, this eBook can help you prove that individual actions can make a difference, and that can inspire them to always make a positive impact wherever they can.