June started off with a weeklong celebration of the publication of our book Girls Garage: How to Use Any Tool, Tackle Any Project, and Build the World You Want to See! Girls Garage Book Week (June 1-7, 2020) delivered new content every day, capped off with a sidewalk event on Sunday where our community picked up signed copies of the book!
June 1 – Introducing the Book
Hear Emily (author and Girls Garage Executive Director) read the introduction to the book. While this “event” is less than two minutes long, consider it your formal invitation to join a worldwide movement of fearless builder girls.
June 2 – Book Preview
We canceled the live Q+A and virtual walkthrough of the book that we had planned for 10am. You can read more about this decision in our newsletter. You can get a look inside the book in our story, A Sneak Peek Inside the Girls Garage Book.
June 3 – Bay Area Book Festival Panel
Caroline Paul, author of The Gutsy Girl, and Emily Pilloton discussed their books, how girls can lead a daring life of adventure, and the importance of grit and self-reliance. The conversation, part of Bay Area Book Festival’s 2020 Virtual Fest, was moderated by 13-year-old builder girl Tej Wong. Girls, Guts, and Gadgets premiered on YouTube live on June 3rd.
June 3 – Good Morning America
Emily went live from Girls Garage to share the book, show our programs, and introduce our right-angle birdhouse project! Viewers caught the segment on air around 8:40 am, but if you missed it, you can watch the clip online. Bonus, the Girls Garage book towered on a jumbotron in Times Square!
June 5 – Workshop at TED Conference
This year, TED morphed into an eight-week virtual conference where Emily hosted a discovery session on developing a builder’s mindset. Attendees of the online conference completed a series of paper model-making exercises to flex their maker muscles with Emily’s guidance. You can work through these prompts yourself – grab your scissors, paper, and tape, and click the button below.
June 6 – Meet the Girls in the Book
Our book includes 15 profiles of awesome builder women, and three of them are girls from our teen programs! Simone, Erica, and Quetzalli are accomplished builders who have contributed to multiple projects for our community. Catch their candid reactions to seeing themselves in print.
June 7 – Signed Book Pick-up Event
Our local community was able to order a signed copy of the book fresh off the presses for curbside pick-up at Girls Garage. Plus, Kate Bingaman-Burt, the artist who drew all of the illustrations for the book, created an art poster for debut at the sidewalk book event! The 11×14 print features ten essential tools risograph printed in two colors.
We’re so excited to share this book, which represents the past seven years of our programming and will inspire generations of girls and women!