Who’s Inspired You? A Shoutout for International Women’s Day

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, Oracle + GirlGeekX asked me to share a story of a woman who’s inspired me as part of their #HerStoryContest. So I did in this video.

If you’re thinking it *has* to be Tina Fey (because TINA!)… well, NOPE. I dug deeper to tell *this* story…

Watch the video above. Or here’s the scannable version, if you’re a reader more than a watcher:

Beryl Markham was born in England but grew up in Kenya.

She was the first person to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic… from East to West. She wrote about it in her memoir, West with the Night.

I read her memoir while I was commuting into Boston to my first job after college (hey look! I found an old train ticket in it!)

After she’d published it, her ex-husband claimed that he — and not Beryl — was the true author of the memoir. But Beryl didn’t stand for that. She produced a manuscript she’d submitted to her publisher before the ex and she had even met.

So, Beryl Markham is Women’s Day Hero Status for two reasons:

• for that flight, of course. But also,
• for standing up for herself when people tried to disrepect and discredit her, and for not allowing anyone else to claim her story as their own.