International Women's Day is getting the ultimate Google Doodle treatment. The doodle, which will show up as a slideshow on the Google homepage on March 8, celebrates storytelling, family, and, above all, 13 women who changed history.
The star of the doodle is a young girl whose grandmother is reading her a bedtime story. As you click through each scene, you'll be immersed in the girl's imagination, watching her join the story's heroines on their epic adventures and discoveries.
"My personal perspective was that since last year's doodle was a glance into the future, this might be a nice way to take a look back at women in history on whose shoulders we stand," Olivia Huynh, the Doodler behind the story, told Refinery29 in an email. "Who hasn’t wanted to go back in time and high-five their personal heroes?"
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Some of the women, including artist Frida Kahlo, astronaut Sally Ride, and suffragist Ida Wells, are more easily recognisable than others. But as Google notes in a blog post about the doodle, "Although some of the women showcased in today’s doodle aren't household names, each made a mark in her own way. They pursued a range of professions and passions and come from diverse cultures and backgrounds."
You'll meet women who revolutionised travel, archaeology, civil rights, dance, medicine, and law, from Egyptian pilot Lotfia El Nadi to Indian choreographer Rukmini Devi. Also included are tennis player Suzanne Lenglen, Korean judge Lee Tai-young, English mathematician Ada Lovelace, South African singer Miriam Makeba, Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi, Soviet scientist Olga Skorokhodova, Turkish archaeologist Halet Çambel, and Argentine doctor Cecilia Grierson.
"I really just hoped to capture the feeling of being inspired and moved by the lives of strong women who came before us, and all the ones who surround us now," Hunch said of her goals in creating the doodle.
While each of the 13 women has been featured in their own individual doodle previously, this is the first time that all are coming together — from their respective countries and time periods — in one celebratory doodle. Over the coming days, familiarise yourself with their stories and share them with others.