Inspired by the curiosity of Isaac Newton?
Get the picture book on Amazon →Women scientists for kids: 7 trailblazing women who changed science
Most science books look the same. A white coat. A man. A lab.
Your kid deserves a wider view. Because the history of science is full of women who discovered new elements, rewrote the laws of physics, and calculated routes to the moon, often while being told that science wasn't for them.
The women scientists for kids on this list deserve a place on your child's bookshelf, in your dinner table conversations, and in the way they understand what a scientist can look like. Each one changed something fundamental. Each one was told, at some point, that she couldn't.
If you're already building a "scientists are heroes" collection at home, the History's Heroes Isaac Newton picture book is a great place to start. Find it here →. It's written for ages 4–8 and reads like a story, not a textbook.
Marie Curie — the scientist who discovered two elements
What she discovered
Marie Curie discovered two elements: polonium (which she named after her home country of Poland) and radium. She coined the word "radioactivity." She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, one in Physics in 1903, one in Chemistry in 1911, and remains the only person to win in two different sciences.
She did most of this work in a leaky shed in Paris.
What to tell your kid
"She discovered something invisible that glowed in the dark. Scientists had never seen anything like it before, and her discovery is still used in medicine today."
If your child asks why the shed matters: because she was refused a proper lab. She built her research anyway.
Why it matters for girls in STEM
Curie applied to study science in Poland in the 1880s. Women couldn't attend university there, so she went to Paris. She graduated first in her physics degree. Later, when she won her first Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy initially wanted to honor only her husband Pierre. He insisted her name be included.
She kept working. She won a second Nobel Prize on her own, nine years later.
Rosalind Franklin — the woman behind the double helix
What she discovered
Rosalind Franklin took Photo 51 in 1952, an X-ray image of DNA so precise it was the clearest evidence anyone had produced for the double helix structure. Watson and Crick used her image (without her knowledge or permission) to build their model of DNA. They received the Nobel Prize in 1962. Franklin had died in 1958, and Nobel Prizes aren't awarded posthumously.
What to tell your kid
"She took a photograph that helped unlock the secret of how life works. Someone else got the credit. But scientists know who really did the work."
That's a real conversation. Kids understand fairness before they understand biochemistry.
Why the story matters
Franklin's story isn't just a science story. It's a story about who gets recognized for their work and why. It opens up conversations about fairness and why history sometimes gets things wrong. For older kids in the 4–8 range, it's a story about trying your hardest anyway.
Mae Jemison — the first Black woman in space
What she did
On September 12, 1992, Mae Jemison flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour and became the first Black woman to travel to space. She was also a physician and engineer. She earned a medical degree from Cornell and worked as a Peace Corps doctor in West Africa before NASA accepted her astronaut application.
She applied once. They said yes.
What to tell your kid
"She looked up at the stars her whole childhood and decided she'd go there. Nobody who looked like her had gone before. She went anyway."
That's enough for a four-year-old to hold onto.
The Star Trek connection (kids love this)
Jemison grew up watching Star Trek and was inspired by Lt. Uhura, a Black woman on the bridge of a starship, played by Nichelle Nichols. Later, after returning from space, she appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Second Chances" (Season 6, Episode 24).
If your kid likes space or has ever seen Star Trek, this connection lands immediately.
Katherine Johnson — the mathematician who sent astronauts to the moon
What she did
Katherine Johnson was one of NASA's "human computers," mathematicians who calculated flight trajectories and orbital mechanics by hand. She calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard's 1961 Freedom 7 mission, the first American in space.
When John Glenn was set to become the first American to orbit Earth, he refused to fly until Johnson personally verified the numbers the electronic computers had produced. "If she says they're good," he said, "then I'm ready to go."
She ran the numbers. He flew. The mission succeeded.
What to tell your kid
"She did math so precise that astronauts trusted it more than the computers. She calculated the path to the moon."
The Hidden Figures angle
If you've seen the film Hidden Figures, Johnson is one of the three central figures, played by Taraji P. Henson. It's an accessible entry point for older kids and parents who want more context. The film takes some liberties, but Johnson's core contributions are real.
Jane Goodall — the scientist who lived with chimpanzees
What she did
In 1960, Jane Goodall went to Gombe, Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees. She had no formal scientific training at the time. She later earned a PhD at Cambridge without an undergraduate degree first.
What she found rewrote the books. Chimpanzees use tools (she observed them stripping leaves from twigs to extract termites, a behavior previously thought unique to humans). They have distinct personalities. They form long-term social bonds and show signs of empathy and grief.
She also documented that chimps wage war, a finding that surprised even her.
What to tell your kid
"She sat very, very quietly in the jungle, for years, until the chimps forgot she was there. Then she learned their names."
That image works for young kids. Patience as a scientific tool.
The conservation message
Goodall spent her first 30 years studying chimps. She's spent the next 40 years advocating for them. She's in her 80s and still travels the world. For kids who love animals, her work opens a door to thinking about both discovery and responsibility.
Hedy Lamarr — the movie star who invented the technology behind Wi-Fi
What she did
Hedy Lamarr was one of the most famous movie stars in Hollywood in the 1940s. She was also an inventor. During World War II, she and composer George Antheil co-patented a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system in 1942, designed to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for the enemy to jam (U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387).
The military didn't use it. Decades later, the underlying technology became foundational for Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi.
She never received any royalties. She died in 2000.
What to tell your kid
"She was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and in her spare time, she invented the technology your Wi-Fi is built on."
Why this one surprises people
This story breaks the mental model of what a scientist looks like. Lamarr was famous for her appearance, and still produced a patent that changed the way devices communicate. It's a useful story for any child absorbing a narrow image of who "does science."
Chien-Shiung Wu — the physicist who proved a fundamental law wrong
What she did
Chien-Shiung Wu was an experimental physicist working at Columbia University in the 1950s. In 1956, two theoretical physicists, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, proposed that the Law of Conservation of Parity might not hold in all situations. The theory was elegant. Nobody had proven it experimentally.
Wu ran the experiment. It was extraordinarily difficult, requiring cobalt-60 atoms cooled to near absolute zero. Her results confirmed Lee and Yang's prediction. The law was wrong.
Lee and Yang received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. Wu was not included.
Her nickname in the scientific community: "the First Lady of Physics."
What to tell your kid
"She ran an experiment so precise and difficult that it proved one of the laws of physics was wrong. Scientists called her 'the First Lady of Physics.'"
Her legacy
Both Wu and Curie were women who did foundational science and were passed over for the field's highest honor. Wu's work was different in kind from Curie's (she was an experimental physicist where Curie was a radiochemist), but the pattern was the same. That's worth talking about with kids who are old enough to notice.
If you're starting to build a small scientist shelf for your child, the History's Heroes Isaac Newton picture book is a natural first read. It's the same idea: a real scientist, a real story, told in a way kids ages 4–8 can hold onto. Find it here →
How to bring these stories to life at home
You don't need a lesson plan.
Start by asking "what problem were they trying to solve?" before you explain the discovery. Marie Curie was trying to understand why certain materials emitted energy on their own. Katherine Johnson was trying to get a human being into space and back without dying. Jane Goodall was trying to understand animals that nobody had really watched before. The problem first, then the answer. Kids engage differently when they've already guessed.
Find one picture book about one of these women. Your library almost certainly has books on Goodall, Curie, or Jemison. Let your child pick the scientist they found most interesting and find a book together. Ownership matters: kids engage more when they chose the story.
After a short video clip, ask: "What do you think they were feeling?" Not "what did they discover?" Kids answer that and move on. "What were they feeling when nobody believed them?" holds longer. Emotion is memory.
Where the story starts: picture books for young scientists
The best way to make scientists feel real to a young child is to read about one before bed. Not a facts sheet. A story.
That's what we built History's Heroes for. Our Isaac Newton picture book tells the story of one of the most curious minds in history, in a way your 4–8 year old can follow, laugh at, and ask questions about. It's the kind of book that ends with "tell me more."
The women in this post deserve the same treatment, and we're working on more. In the meantime, the Newton book is a great way to start reading about real scientists together.
Find the Isaac Newton picture book here →. Available on Amazon and ships fast. Kids who love science, history, or just good stories tend to love it.
History's Heroes makes children's picture books about real scientists and historical figures, designed for ages 4–8. Visit historysheroesbooks.com to see what we're building.