{"id":3566,"date":"2016-09-14T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T09:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/wp\/2016\/09\/14\/bugsr4girls-applied-entomology-with-a-twist\/"},"modified":"2019-11-14T21:38:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T21:38:53","slug":"bugsr4girls-applied-entomology-with-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/2016\/09\/14\/bugsr4girls-applied-entomology-with-a-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"BugsR4Girls \u2013 Applied entomology with a twist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By B. Staffan Lindgren (@bslindgren)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have always thought of myself as extremely fortunate and blessed to have made a career in entomology. The main reason is that 99.9% of all entomologists I have met and come to know over the years have been extremely nice people. Like most entomologists, I was interested in animals (which in my case included insects and spiders) at a young age. Many of my friends probably considered me a bit odd, but that\u2019s as far as it went as far as I recall. Unfortunately, that is not always the case as this story reveals.<\/p>\n<p>The other day I (along with a large number of people on Twitter) got to witness this kindness in action in a way that warms my heart. Nicole Spencer, a concerned mother, sent a request to the Entomological Society of Canada (ESC) regarding her young daughter, Sophia, who happens to love insects and wants to become an entomologist when she grows up. Sophia\u2019s interest has somehow led to teasing and outright bullying in school, however. Fortunately Sophia\u2019s mom understands the importance of nurturing her daughter\u2019s interest, as did my mother even though I kept spiders in jars in my bedroom. Nicole\u2019s and Sophia\u2019s heartfelt letter was passed on to Morgan Jackson (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BioInFocus\">@BioInFocus<\/a>), who promptly posted a tweet on behalf of the ESC (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanEntomologist\">@CanEntomologist<\/a>) asking entomologists to help out. This tweet, which displayed the letter, included the hashtag #BugsR4Girls, and it quickly went viral.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A young girl who loves insects is being bullied &amp; needs our support. DM your email &amp; we&#39;ll connect you! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BugsR4Girls?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BugsR4Girls<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kjtfSJSlre\">pic.twitter.com\/kjtfSJSlre<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ent Soc of Canada (@CanEntomologist) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanEntomologist\/status\/768857189922537473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 25, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2692 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/escsecblog.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/facebook-share.jpg?w=172\" alt=\"facebook-share\" width=\"172\" height=\"300\" \/>Within a very short period, Morgan had amassed a list of 100+ people willing to assist, along with a number of additional offers from non-entomologists. An offer even came from celebrity Dominic Monaghan, British actor and host of the television program <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wild_Things_with_Dominic_Monaghan\"><em>Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan<\/em><\/a>. You can get the gist of it all from the <a href=\"https:\/\/storify.com\/BioInFocus\/bugsr4girls\">Storify that Morgan put together<\/a>. The huge response led to interest from media, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/ishmaeldaro\/leave-sophia-alone?bffbcanada&amp;utm_term=4ldqpgu#4ldqpgu\">Sophia and her mom were featured on Buzzfeed Canada<\/a>, where the whole story is revealed. It hasn\u2019t ended there. Another <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lfpress.com\/2016\/08\/27\/bugsr4girls-goes-viral-after-ontario-girl-teased-for-fascination-with-bugs\">media story came from LFPress<\/a>, and Sophia&rsquo;s story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/canada\/2016\/09\/05\/entomologists-rally-to-boost-little-girl-teased-for-her-love-of-bugs.html\">even made the front page of the Toronto Star<\/a>!\u00a0In addition, numerous tweets have been posted with or without the hashtag, and above I have reproduced 3 (but there are so many more that you really need to look for yourself). I also posted about this on my Facebook Page, and the story was shared by others there. The comments from this one really says it all!<\/p>\n<p>I mentioned non-entomologists. Here is <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@CRThomasPhD\/an-open-letter-to-the-girl-who-inspired-bugsr4girls-998e74826f88#.ip4ucsf7x\">an open letter to Sophia (called Beatrix in the letter because the author didn\u2019t know her name at the time) from a science communicator<\/a>.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2693\" src=\"https:\/\/escsecblog.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/bug-chicks.jpg?w=217\" alt=\"bug-chicks\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the one hand this is a story about a little girl who has big dreams. On the other hand it is a story about the future of women in STEM. Sophia has dreams about becoming a scientist, but both she and her mother are uncertain of what possibilities are out there. Many other young children are in the same boat, I\u2019m sure. But the journey starts at home with parents encouraging children to believe that they can be or do whatever they set their minds to. Last Friday I listened to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/thelifegame\/canadian-scientist-maria-issa-fought-for-recognition-in-male-dominated-profession-1.3732293\">CBC Radio show with Maria Issa, a Canadian scientist who started in life just like Sophia by daydreaming and watching lady bugs<\/a>. In spite of the odds being stacked high against her success, she made it, but many are discouraged, which later affects their self-confidence. My experience is that there is no gender difference in ability \u2013 in fact women mature sooner and are more focused than men IMHO. And the increasing number of brilliant female scientists in entomology is a case in point. Luckily for Sophia, she has an encouraging mother. Whether or not she becomes an entomologist is not the point. The point is that she believes in the possibility.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2694\" src=\"https:\/\/escsecblog.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/llavaneras.jpg?w=218\" alt=\"llavaneras\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\" \/>For me, Sophia\u2019s story is a wonderful, multifaceted teachable moment. With all her new friends, Sophia will do just fine. I wish her all the luck in the world.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2695\" src=\"https:\/\/escsecblog.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/whiffin.jpg?w=257\" alt=\"whiffin\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By B. Staffan Lindgren (@bslindgren) I have always thought of myself as extremely fortunate and blessed to have made a career in entomology. The main reason is that 99.9% of all entomologists I have met and come to know over the years have been extremely nice people. Like most entomologists, I was interested in animals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,473,525,493],"tags":[526,527,528,509,529,530,531],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canadian-entomology-fr","category-blog-fr","category-fun-fr","category-outreacheducation-fr","tag-children-fr","tag-entomology-fr","tag-media-fr","tag-news-fr","tag-outreach-fr","tag-social-media-fr","tag-twitter-fr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5758,"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esc-sec.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}