Growing up, Sylvia Earle’s mother encouraged her every step of the way. She filled her teenage daughter’s impressionable head with hopes and dreams of someday becoming a teacher, a nurse or even a glamorous stewardess. This was pretty much the status quo for women during these times. But Sylvia had much bigger aspirations for herself. Throughout her nearly eighty years on this planet, a great deal of which has been spent below the surface of the sea (over 7,000 hours actually), she’s made incredible strides not only as a woman, but as an explorer. Her accomplishments have hardly gone unnoticed. She was Curator of Phycology at the California Academy of Sciences from 1979 to 1986 as well as a research fellow at Harvard University from 1967 to 1981. The wildly successful oceanographer, author and National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence, dubbed “Her Deepness”, was the recipient of a TED prize in 2009, which she utilized to start “Mission Blue” protecting oceanic “hope spots” around the world. Netflix released a documentary under the same title, “Mission Blue”, highlighting Dr. Earle’s life, career and the new project. Last year, she was awarded Nat Geo’s Hubbard Medal for her efforts in ocean conservation and exploration. In the Netherlands’ Order of the Golden Ark, she is a Knight. Now this month, Earle has been named one of Glamour Magazine’s “Women of the Year” as well as receiving their lifetime achievement award for her explorations. Now before you go spouting off about how this is merely a feat of hyper-commercialized female-oriented propaganda, hear me out. The Glamour awards have been around for over a decade honoring extraordinary women from a multitude of fields. Some of the fields are expected: entertainment, sports and music, as well as business, science politics and medicine. Furthermore, the magazine shines a spotlight on these inspirational women for young girls and women alike. Personally I think it’s wonderful to provide these sorts of role-models via such outlets that are highly visible to the younger generation – I’d much rather see a girl fawning over Sylvia Earle than some sinewy, overly photo-shopped under-aged model, sparking a lifetime of body image issues any day. As a female aquarist myself, I admire Earle a great deal. The enchanting woman has gone on to explore nearly every aspect of oceanic science and she’s a crusader in the fight for marine conservation and preservation, dauntlessly taking on political hot-button topics such as pollution and over-fishing.… More:
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