The More You Know

11 Strangely Awesome Female Firsts That You Haven’t Heard About

Ready for the sad truth? Everyone has heard the phrase “you can’t” at some point in their life. You’re not strong enough or you’re not smart enough or you’re the slowest one at tryouts, you’ll never make the team. But what’s worse is that some people actually believe it.

I somehow made it onto a travel basketball team in sixth grade, before I hit my growth spurt. I was by far the smallest on the team and I wasn’t nearly good enough to be trusted with the position of point guard, so I sat the bench a lot. But what I remember most wasn’t the games (all of maybe two that I played in), it was the practices. Everyone had to train the same way, together. Naturally, some girls would get discouraged. Our coaches, two sisters, had a solution: remove the word “can’t” from your vocabulary. We simply weren’t allowed to say that word during practice. It did wonders for my outlook and from there it was just a chain reaction.

The ladies in this slideshow may have shared different challenges but I’m certain we share one common experience: Discouragement. And as you can see these ladies didn’t let it get to them either. Shannon Eastin recently became another female to defy expectations, she will be the first woman to officiate an NFL game. With this recent news, we decided to take a look at a few other obscure female firsts.

Featured image from dipity

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