Mayim Bialik - Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart and Spectacular

INTRODUCTION

B eing human sounds so simple. After all, we are made up of about six things: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus. These six elements make up everything that we are: the cells in our bodies and the organs in our bodies and our amazing brain, which can think and calculate and feel so many things. Just six elements can do all of that! Sounds simple, right?

Wrong! Most of the time, being human doesnt feel simple at all. We may be made up of just six things, but it usually feels like we have to manage six thousand things. And as girls becoming young women, there are so many changes that our bodies and brains and emotions go through; a lot of the time, it feels like we are being asked to handle six million things. How can a body made up of just six things make up a life that is so incredibly complicated?

Well, I had an interesting journey when I was a young woman, which I think makes me a good person to talk about the complicated parts of being alive, and in particular, about being female. You see, I was an actress starting when I was 11 years old, and I had some unexpected and unbelievably exciting success as a child and teenager. I actually had my own television show from the time I was 14 until I was 19 called Blossom. It was about a girlmy character!growing up with her two brothers and her divorced dad. As an actress, I played out some of the most memorable and challenging things that happen to teenagers in front of pretty much all of Americaand many other countries that aired our show as well. I experienced things like having a first kiss, buying tampons for the first time, standing up to peer pressure to drink or do drugs and forming meaningful friendships while also experiencing these things in real life. (Embarrassing but true fact: my first actual kiss was on TV!)

I took a break from my acting career when I was 19 so that I could go to college and get an undergraduate degree in neuroscience, which is the study of the brain and nervous system. After that, I studied for seven more years to get a PhD in neuroscience. Thats a lot of school! I had one baby while I was in graduate school and then I had another baby after I got my PhD. Those were crazy times. Being a mom and a student meant juggling breastfeeding and changing a babys diaper about a million times a day while going to classes, studying for exams and writing a doctoral thesiswhich is basically a 300-page bookon not much sleep at all.

While I was raising my babies, I taught science to 9-to-17-year-olds and then I returned to acting, eventually landing a regular role as neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory. So in addition to being a scientist in real life, I play one on TV. Talk about art imitating life.

Now, you may be wondering: What does being a child actress and then getting a PhD and having two kids and being on the number one comedy in America have to do with understanding the extra special challenges of being female?

Well, it just so happens that being in the public eye as a child made me think a lot about the ways people look at females and what they expect of usits different from being a guy. I was expected to look a certain way and act a certain wayall while going from being a girl to a young woman in front of everyones eyes. It was a lot of pressure, and it led me to realize how different the world is for women compared to men.

Studying science was something I never thought I could do, because I thought science and math were for boys. It took one special tutor when I was 15 to give me the confidence to become a scientistbut most scientists are still men, so that was hard. And dating and getting married and having babies while being a scientist was also super hard, since managing all of that in any field takes a lot of time, energy and brain power, but entering a field where women arent always easily accepted presents its own set of challenges. Thats a lot to balance.

Being an actor as an adult in a world with so much technology feels a lot like being a young person today. I may be an adult, but a lot of my personal life gets played out on social media, and its really important to know what other people say about me, and there is a lot of pressure to look a certain way, especially because Im female. You dont have to be a famous actor to know what that feels like!

My hope in sharing my story and my views on being female is to provide you with a sort of road map for being you. I have long felt that being female in this day and age is far more complicated than at any other time in history, and I hope that some of my experiences can be helpful. Im a girl who didnt always fit in; Im the girl who loved science but didnt know how to pursue it; Im a creative person who loves the arts but also embraces a scientific perspective on life; and I am an independent woman who also loves being a mom. Ive spent so much of my life challenging myself to be more and do more than I thought I could be and do, and its paid off with a hectic and sometimes really challenging life, but its also a life I am proud of. I want to share my passion for becoming the best woman I can be while showing you that the choices you make can and will stay with you forever in the best possible ways. You can be strong, smart and spectacular, and I hope to show you how.

Ive read a lot of books in my life. Some talk about the science of the body and the brain. Some talk about the hard things about being a girl. Some talk about the amazing ways we have the ability to change the world. I want this book to be all of those things rolled into one: how to understand your body, how to love being a girl and how to become a young woman who is in charge of her decisions, confident about herself and ready to take on the world.

Lets go!

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