I want to talk about something that’s close to my heart—celebrating women who have changed the world. You know, history doesn’t always do the best job of highlighting the incredible contributions of women, but that doesn’t mean their impact isn’t massive. And honestly, the more you dig into it, the more you realize just how much women have shaped the world we live in today.

Let’s start with someone who’s probably a little familiar—Marie Curie. I mean, can you imagine being the first person to win two Nobel Prizes? Not the first woman, the first person. Period. And she did it while facing the kind of obstacles most of us can’t even imagine. She literally changed the way we understand the world on an atomic level. Oh, and fun fact—her research eventually helped with the development of X-rays. So, the next time you don’t have to sit through exploratory surgery, you might want to thank Marie Curie for that.

And then there’s Malala Yousafzai. Her story? Absolutely incredible. Imagine being a teenager and standing up to something as terrifying as the Taliban, all because you believe in the power of education. And not just for yourself, but for girls everywhere. She’s still out there, pushing for education as a fundamental right, and the grace and courage she brings to the fight? Honestly, it’s something we can all learn from.

Let’s shift gears a little and talk about women who’ve made waves in the arts. Maya Angelou, for example. She was so much more than a poet or an author—she was a voice for the unheard. Her words have this power to reach right into you, to move you, even if you’ve never experienced what she’s writing about. She gave us permission to feel, to fight, to hope, and to heal.

And I can’t leave out Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “The Notorious RBG,” right? This woman rewrote the playbook for women’s rights in the legal system. The cases she argued—and later ruled on—paved the way for so many of the freedoms we might take for granted now. Things like equal pay, gender discrimination laws, workplace rights. She made sure women could stand on more equal footing, and she did it with this razor-sharp intellect and such quiet determination.

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention women like Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan—the brilliant minds behind NASA’s early space missions. You’ve probably heard of them by now thanks to Hidden Figures, but their contributions are still underappreciated. These women weren’t just breaking glass ceilings; they were literally sending humanity to the stars.

And, you know, we can’t ignore activists like Sojourner Truth or suffragettes like Emmeline Pankhurst. These women fought against systems designed to silence them. They didn’t have the internet or global movements to amplify their voices, but they found ways to be heard. They planted the seeds for so much of the progress we see today.

So, when we think about women who’ve changed the world, it’s not just the big, splashy names. It’s every woman who’s ever stood up and said, “This isn’t right,” or, “We can do better.” It’s teachers, nurses, scientists, activists, artists, mothers—every woman who’s ever refused to back down from making the world a better place.

And I think that’s where I’ll leave it. It’s not just about celebrating these women—it’s about continuing the work they’ve started. Because their stories? They’re not finished yet. And neither is ours.