Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

At the end of March, 2020, during the Covid pandemic, my daughter was sent home from college, along with everyone else and she continued her classes online. One of her courses was about public statues and she asked me if I would like to sit in on it. It sounded interesting to me, so I said, “yes.” I really enjoyed the class, but all of the statues depicted men. Were there any statues of women?

I did a google search and found out about the quest for the first statue of women in New York City’s Central Park.  But one group of people kept popping up again and again, both in articles and videos. They were a troop of 10-year-old Girl Scouts working to make that statue a reality. The Girl Scouts teamed up with an organization called Monumental Women, and they spent four years advocating for the statue. That’s a long time for young girls to stick with a project! It sounded to me like a great topic for a children’s book. One that kids would surely relate to.

But there was a caveat. Although there were loads of articles on the Girl Scouts’ fight for a statue of women in Central Park, they only revealed that the Girl Scouts sold cookies and marched. That was not enough information to write a 32 page book. Since the Girl Scouts campaigned for the statue of women in the recent past, there were no books with source material, like there might have been for a struggle that occurred further back in time. I needed to interview the Girl Scouts and troop leaders to find out whether or not there was enough material for a story. I dug through the articles until I discovered the names of the troop leaders, searched for their emails, and contacted them, requesting an interview.

I created a list of questions. But it was from the conversations with the Girl Scouts and troop leaders that went beyond my pre-planned questions, that I garnered the most valuable and unexpected information. From one of the recorded zoom interviews, I learned that the Girl Scouts not only fundraised and spread the word, but took the initiative to speak to the mayor of New York City about the statue, testified before the New York City Public Design Commission, wrote and performed an original play about suffragist Susan B. Anthony, created pins, cards, and signs, and dressed up as suffragists from long ago at an event to support the cause. The Girl Scouts also told me of the field trip their troop took to a museum, where they first found out about the lack of statues of women in Central Park. This information did not appear in any of the articles. It’s a vital piece of their story because it served as the catalyst for their campaign. One of the troop leaders even provided me with a video of the whole play the girls put on. This was a great source for me to really make the reader feel as if they were right there in the audience, by including actual songs and dialogue in the book.

Don’t be afraid to stray from the script. You never know what gems you might uncover.

It’s important to be open to trying every avenue when researching, no matter how slim the chances of gaining valuable information might seem. The worst that could happen is you might walk away with nothing to add to your story. But sometimes, you might be pleasantly surprised.