Pretty Brainy Has Brought Girls STEAM with a Purpose, Confidence + Resilience, Patience + Persistence, Prototyping over Perfection, Collaboration + Teamwork, Self-Compassion + Empathy

And Now It Is Time for Us to Say Thank You + Goodbye

To Our Beautiful, Brainy Community:

You have made possible programming at Pretty Brainy that our team has augmented, since 2022, to include professional and academic self-advocacy, full-force self-defense, and the community and human connections that have the power to save lives. We have called these programs Essentials.

In the world as it is, it is essential that girls and young women know how to effectively self-advocate, find healthy communities in which to belong, and, when called to, defend themselves and their lives. Your part in this work has helped girls and women show up more prepared for science, technology, engineering, art + design, and math. Thank you.

A group of young women standing confidently in an engineering lab with a quote stating: "The world needs girls gutsy enough to stand up for themselves and others" -Katie Arnold, mentorThe Essentials programs have become core to our mission to genuinely empower girls in STEAM — whether that empowerment unfolds in 5th grade science or undergraduate engineering, building technology or building a path forward after a setback. As one donor dearly phrased it, the focus at Pretty Brainy has become the whole girl. And through this expansion, Pretty Brainy accomplished its mission far beyond what I envisioned in 2008 when I began designing and marketing STEM- and women’s history-inspired T-shirts.

Never is there a real moment when the learner “can’t do” math or science. There only are moments when the person in the role of teacher has not set up the conditions for a student to be able to successfully learn. For 18 years our team has worked to create the conditions for actual learning to unfold. Never could we have done this without stellar mentors, program partners, parents, and you. More of what we have presented through Essentials needs to happen in the world. Given this fact, no longer is it sustainable for Pretty Brainy to do it all. This October, exactly 18 years after launch, Pretty Brainy will shutter the studio and close the lab. This website, prettybrainy.com, will remain in place as a community resource and legacy. Our findings from 18 years of what works well for girls in STEAM I am sharing with select nonprofit organizations, K-12 educators, and postdoctoral students. You have made the discoveries, the outcomes, and the legacy possible.

Thank you for being our community of wise women and men.

My Best to You —

HEIDI A. OLINGER
Founder, Pretty Brainy, Inc.
Empowering Girls to Gain STEAM