05 - Kansas, Amelia Earhart

The adventuring heart of Amelia Earhart intrigues me to imagine her feelings sitting at the end of her life. What did she see? Did she feel adventure, fear, confusion? The legacy she shared with the world is remarkable and my replay of her emotions sends goosebumps throughout my arms.

Kansas quickly jumped on board to ratify on June 16, 1919.


Amelia Earhart started a journey of challenging gender boundaries and exploration quickly. Six months following her first flight, she bought her first airplane, and coined it “The Canary”.

On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change her life. “By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly.” On May 20, 1932, Ms. Earhart took off for her first flight, and the first for all women, across the Atlantic. She landed near Londonderry, Ireland after troubles of winds, weather, and mechanics. Earhart felt the flight proved that men and women were equal in “jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness, and willpower.”

Ms. Earhart began her final flight as she challenged the flight around the world. On June 1, 1937, she and her navigator took off from Miami until their final journey on July 2, 1937 from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, a mere 7,000 miles from the final destination. The location of the crash to this flight was never found, though some believe evidence has been found on a remote island in the South Pacific show evidence that they did in fact land and die on the Nikumaroro Reef.

Through her career and approachable demeanor, she promoted advancement for women in all industry. She designed style, authored books, and advocated for women leadership.

Why this woman?

Amelia is a woman of mystery of fate and curiosity. I imagine her journey, searching for the Howland Island. The risk, legacy, experience ... and feeling of failure to result in being lost either at sea or on a remote island.

But in reality, her legacy and accomplishments advanced the world of women explorers, professionals, and leaders. She never accepted a world where men and women were not equally challenged with opportunity. When told a women cannot accomplish what men already were, she became enticed with the challenge to show a woman can do anything a man can do.

She shared openly her life through public engagements and leading trends. She generated a tomboyish fashion. She was a new view to women. She chartered the advancement of women and I see a direct correlation to the new way women were perceived in society. You can just do. Without question. Without excuses.

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