- All right, y'all,
all hour we have celebrated gutsy women in breaking the mold
and proving us ladies really get things done.
So, let's close things out
with one more trailblazing woman,
this is what I'm liking.
(audience cheering)
When most of us hear a storm is coming,
we get indoors and hunker down to stay safe and dry,
because that's normal.
That's not the case for everyone.
Just check out the photos one woman captures
when the clouds roll in.
She hunts down tornadoes.
Like the movie Twister,
except it's not a movie, it's real life.
She gets too close for my personal comfort to lightning.
It's what?
She fearlessly faces the elements, it's amazing,
that the photos are so beautiful.
She's all about storm chasing.
It's super crazy, but really cool.
But Jen, from Colorado, isn't just focused on the chase,
she's also encouraging other women
to get into weather watching, meteorology,
and science with her initiative called Girls Who Chase.
And we have Jen with us right now.
Jen, welcome to the show.
(audience cheering)
- Hi Kelly, thank you so much.
- You're kinda crazy, but I love it.
I love your kinda crazy, but how did you get into this?
Or one day when you were a kid you're just like,
"Let's go find out what happens there."
Like what?
- Yeah, no, that's a great question.
I mean, when I was young,
I was always into severe weather.
And I watched the Weather Channel all the time,
mostly instead of cartoons in fact.
- Yeah.
- And I really didn't get into it much,
until I was almost 40.
In 2018, I went on a storm chasing tour
and was immediately hooked.
And shortly after that in fact,
right near my house,
saw a storm come out of the foothills
just north of Denver.
And I was in such a rush to get out of my house,
I was still in my pajamas.
Went chasing after it
and came on a hill
and saw my first tornado.
(audience laughing)
- Like, did you hold metal up like on the side on a hill?
It just sounds so crazy.
But I mean, I think it's so exciting,
I actually love storms.
My kids hate when it rains because I go nuts.
I love rain, I love storms.
I think they're beautiful.
And they sound remarkable.
But why did you start this initiative, Girls Who Chase?
Why was this important to you?
I know you loved it,
but why was it so important to you
to introduce it to younger girls?
- Yeah, you know, storm chasing
is such a badass way to illustrate women doing science.
- Yeah.
And, you know, when I first started chasing,
I made a bunch of chase friends.
And a lot of them were men
because storm chasing is a male dominated area.
And I noticed, in fact,
that even though at times
I was the one calling the shots,
and making the decisions about where we were going,
and getting us to the right storm,
they would get a lot of the credit for it.
So they would get patted on the back.
- So weird.
- [Jen] Yeah.
Right, go figure.
- Never happens in my industry either.
(audience laughing)
It's crazy, yeah.
- Yeah, I know a lot of parallels there.
- Yeah, no none at all.
But it's exciting though
because I know you find this silly,
but for nerds like us
that, like, we always revert to movies,
you're literally Helen Hunt in Twister
to me, in my brain movie.
And I think it's incredible what you do.
And I do think it's incredible
the knowledge you can find out
through those storms and how you can save people.
You know, with all these destructive things
that happen with the environment
that really affect people.
It's cool that we learn from them.
And then we use that knowledge to help us
and prevent, you know, some catastrophes.
So thank you so much for doing this.
- Absolutely, thank you.
- It's really cool.
I'm liking Jen's post right now,
because it's awesome.
And that's not all,
our season long partner Pilot Pen Makers of Frixion,
the go to erasable pen of the Kelly Clarkson Show
want to celebrate those creating fearlessly
just like you ma'am.
So they're gonna give you a thousand dollars.
Just go have fun chasing.
- Thank you.