A traveling exhibit currently in Los Angeles offers fifty-eight books for young women which star a variety of heroines. Started in Washington, D.C. by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the “Brave Little Girls” exhibit was so successful that sponsors took it to Los Angeles and will soon take it to San Francisco and Denver. The exhibit is targeted at a new generation of young women who don’t want to always read about a handsome prince saving a woman in distress. Commented Stephanie Mayse, age 11, “Boys are so much better than girls in books. The boys get to do everything. There’s not a lot of books with the girls as heroes _ it’s hard to find books like that.” Another 11-year-old, Britni Billera commented, “When I’m reading and the men tell the women that they can’t do things or they need help, I think, ïWhy doesn’t she do it anyway by herself?’ I get so upset I don’t want to read it anymore.” The exhibit features heroines such as Tatterhood, a girl who fights off hobgoblins with a wooden spoon; Mirette, who walks a tightrope and saves a high-wire master; and Princess Izumi, who rejects a marriage proposal to study caterpillars and other creatures. Old favorites such as Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking are also included.
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