Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Danica McKellar Is Probably the Most Awesome Person in the Whole Wide World

Winnie Cooper is currently promoting her second book about math for young women, titled Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss. Her first effort, Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, was a bestseller.

One of the girls from Jezebel attended her book signing in downtown Brooklyn last night, and Danica said that she wants to show young women “that you can be that girly girl who wears four-inch heels and is good at math.”

I LOVE this.

In my past life, I studied engineering in college, and a group of us women formed a little society called the “Cute Engineering Girls Club,” or the CEGC. There were only a handful of us; young women who wanted to dye our hair blonde and wear short skirts and lip gloss and cute purses and still kicked all the boys’ asses on the physics exams. Like I said, we were a small crew, but it was empowering nonetheless to hang with other women who weren’t afraid of being fashionable and good at math. I love that Danica’s able to carry this message to young women everywhere.

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  • Thank you so much for posting this, Beet. My newly 6th grade daughter was just informed that she was going to be moving up to the ALGEBRA I class (with all 7th graders! … but that is another story!) I didn’t even know they HAD Algebra in Middle School!!!! I guess they (meaning me) make kids smarter nowadays! Anyway, I am going out and getting these books for my daughter PRONTO@!!! Thanks again!!!

  • Omg – I love this. I’m getting my Masters in Secondary Education to be a math teacher and I was ALWAYS one of those girls (short skirt, lipstick and an A on the math test). This guy I went to elementary/middle school with met my college boyfriend and said that he used to have a crush on me when we were like 10 but then I got better grades than him in math and science so he didn’t like me anymore…. Ohhh stupid boys. :)

    Go Winnie!

  • The downside to being the only girly-girl in an Engineering school class – the professor really notices if you miss a class and calls you out on it the next week. They have no idea if a guy misses class.

    The upside to being the only girly-girl in an Engineering school class – YOU get to pick who your lab/group work partners are – no nerdy boys need apply.

    And in high school, I used to do Math homework for the guys in class 2 years ahead of me in exchange for them buying my beer supply on the weekend (drinking age was 18 back then – those were the days!)

  • dude, how u gonna play me like that? This post totes just stabbed me in the back. A betrayal trifecta : math, Jezebel, dyed blonde hair. that cut me deep. whateves, im going to DQ.

  • Kelso, I read the other day that Wonder Years and Allie McBeal reruns aren’t broadcast because both contained a lot of music that’s very expensive in terms of paying royalties. Apparently both air in the UK.

  • PS to Beet – Great post. I saw Danica on the Today Show and she was a rock star with the kids. Loved it!

  • Now Winnie got hotter as she got older; met her once at a club in Connecticut… sweet, adorable, soft spoken… yes, I’m still carrying a torch :) Hot and smart, not a bad combo. And she likes sports too.

  • when i was in kindergarten my teacher pinned a note to me that said i wasn’t good at math. what the stupid biyatch didn’t realize was that i could f’ing read! i had a complex about math for so long!!

    good for her for empowering girls! yeah danica!

  • Ohhhhh man-did I ♥ The Wonder Years…and still do. :*(

    @ Kelso-They still play some episodes every once in awhile on the channel ION. About last year this time, they played 2 episodes every night starting at 10pm Mon-Fri. It was freakin awesome, I loved every minute of it! :)

  • Women should only be allowed in 3 rooms and a classroom is not one of them. Kitchen, laundry room, and bedroom.

    … I am kidding!!!! Please don’t murder me, pee on me, and then bury me in the desert in several different holes.

  • Haha, that’s awesome. Nothing better than girlygirls who are brilliant in school :P I’m not exactly a four inch heel wearing type of girl, but I am rather girly and get good grades too :D